BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins comment about tablets becoming obsolete in five years were widely reported, and even criticized. Today the company made a number of announcements at the BlackBerry Live conference, which included a new BlackBerry smartphone, the release of OS 10.1, announcement of BBM coming to iOS and Android etc. It was expected that BlackBerry will share its tablet plans, but it didn’t, so for now there’s no BlackBerry 10 tablet. However, the CEO did talk about tablets and confirmed that the company is putting in R&D money and resources, therefore not ruling out the possibility of a BB tablet in the future.
In an interview with CNET, Thorsten said that he believes the technology industry has got stuck on the “tablet” moniker, and that the company wants to create something that’s “easier to use.” His take on tablets is different from the ones available in the market today, adding that the company is looking in to ways to transform the tablet experience. An idea is to make tablets that aren’t exclusive to one particular operating system, rather they would just be devices that have a large screen and powerful hardware. To clarify it once and for all, Thorsten confirmed that BlackBerry is “interested in the future of tablets, whatever that is.”
BlackBerry’s PlayBook tablet didn’t perform well in the market, and the company certainly doesn’t seem to be in a rush to get one out the door. They’ve previously confirmed that multiple OS 10 devices will be released this year, including a new flagship, perhaps towards the end of this year, we might see what exactly their plans are with regards to mobile devices with larger screens.
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