BlackBerry PlayBook Features Found Wanting by Analysts

Excerpt from January 17 New York Times article with the above title:


BlackBerry PlayBook Features Found Wanting by Analysts 

By IAN AUSTEN and BRIAN X. CHEN

OTTAWA — Nearly 10 months after its debut, the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet will finally get e-mail and other important missing features in February. But after examining a preview of the software upgrade last week, several analysts said the device’s maker, Research in Motion, continues to struggle with significant technical issues, which could hinder its effort to reverse its declining fortunes.

And they said the upgrade was unlikely to significantly improve sales of the tablet computer to businesses, a target market. RIM’s continued inability to make the PlayBook work directly with its global network means that corporations looking for high-security BlackBerry e-mail on their tablets will first need costly software upgrades to their computer systems. For consumers, it means that the popular BlackBerry Messenger instant-messaging system is still missing from the tablet.

Neither development, some analysts say, is a positive sign for the BlackBerry 10 operating system, a variation of the PlayBook’s software for the coming phones that RIM hopes will restore the BlackBerry’s popularity in North America.

“There are obviously some technical problems integrating this that they weren’t able to solve,” said Mike Abramsky, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets. “They’re being very disorganized and uncommunicative about it.”

Mr. Abramsky and other analysts who attended demonstrations of the software upgrade at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week complained that RIM’s reluctance to provide specifics about the new software, known as PlayBook O.S. 2, led to widespread confusion about its capabilities, particularly for business users.

Given that RIM effectively created the wireless e-mail market with the BlackBerry, there was considerable surprise when the PlayBook appeared last April without e-mail software or software for synching entries from users’ electronic calendars and address books.

RIM has never publicly explained the reason for that omission. But many industry and financial analysts have said the features were absent because the company could not make the device work with its unique global data network. That network connects directly to cellphone companies’ networks. It is a major reason business and government BlackBerry phones have such high e-mail security that it has been a source of contention in nations where law enforcement and security services would like to monitor BlackBerry users’ messages.

For consumers, the RIM network bypasses carriers’ normal text-messaging systems, making BlackBerry Messenger messages less expensive and faster.

But RIM’s network was designed so that only one hand-held device can be used with any particular user’s account, creating problems for people with both a BlackBerry phone and a PlayBook.

From what RIM previewed in Las Vegas last week, it appears that most PlayBooks will rely entirely on Microsoft Exchange Active Sync, the same technology found on phones or tablets that people use on the other common mobile operating systems — Apple’s iOS, Android from Google and Microsoft’s Windows Phone.

RIM has not disclosed what specific roles its network will play in that arrangement. But Tenille Kennedy, a spokeswoman for the company, which is based in Ontario, said PlayBooks with the new software “will significantly leverage RIM’s global BlackBerry infrastructure.”

Nor has the company offered a full explanation about the continued absence of BlackBerry Messenger. In an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation last week, Alec Saunders, vice president for developer relations at RIM, offered only this explanation: “Building software takes time.”

In an e-mail, Ms. Kennedy said corporate and government users who want highly encrypted BlackBerry service must update to the latest version of RIM’s BlackBerry Enterprise Server software. They also must use BlackBerry Mobile Fusion, which will not be sold until late February. When it was announced last year, the Fusion software was described as allowing corporations to manage iPhones and Android phones through their BlackBerry servers.

But several analysts said most corporations were not likely to upgrade to accommodate the PlayBook because in addition to cost, there is a potential for errors causing widespread disruption.

“This is not something many enterprises will do proactively unless they already have an active PlayBook deployment program,” said Jan Dawson, an analyst with Ovum who also saw the software demonstrated last week.

Bill Kreher, an analyst with Edward Jones, said the announcement last week was more of a signal that RIM had been struggling to make the new phones work.

“We fear the company is having big difficulty porting native e-mail to the BlackBerry 10 O.S.,” Mr. Kreher said. “RIM has had a poor track record in recent history in delivering their products.”

But Jeff Orr of ABI Research described the new software as “phase one” and said he expected improved e-mail systems to be released eventually. He acknowledged, however, that the development of the new phones did not seem smooth from the outside.

“Until that vision plays out, it’s going to appear fragmented and chaotic,” he said.

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