From GE:

GE Donates $25,000 in Scholarships to UConn School of Engineering; University Provides Progress Update on GE-funded $7.5 Million R&D Program

March 30, 2015

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PLAINVILLE, Conn. — March 30, 2015 — As winner of GE’s (NYSE: GE) prestigious Edison Award, GE Engineer and UConn Alumna Linda Jacobs is donating her $25,000 prize to create an endowed scholarship at UConn’s School of Engineering.

GE will present the donation on March 30 during the university’s second annual “GE Night” on the Storrs campus. Scholarships in the amount of approximately $1,000 will be awarded annually to a mechanical engineering student in perpetuity. Also, during GE Night, 10 graduate students will present progress on their projects as part of a five-year $7.5 million research and development program that GE’s Industrial Solutions business is funding on core electrical-protection technologies at UConn.

Jacobs was one of 14 GE engineers around the world to earn the Edison Award, which are recognized throughout the company, for her significant contributions in advanced industrial circuit breaker technologies as well as her leadership in mentoring early career engineers selected to participate in GE’s Edison Engineering Program. The Edison Award and Edison Engineering Program are named after Thomas Edison, a GE founder and one of history’s most prolific innovators.

“It’s extremely rewarding for me to work with fellow engineers designing products that improve the safety and reliability of electrical power distribution,” Jacobs said. “Having worked with top engineers from around the world, I can honestly say that the education I received at UConn was second to none. The UConn School of Engineering gave me the strong technical foundation necessary to make the contributions that the Edison Award recognizes. I hope this new engineering scholarship will encourage and reward future students who have also chosen to enter the mechanical engineering field.”

In her 30-year career at GE, Jacobs has earned eight GE Management Awards in both technology and human resources. She also holds 11 international patents. As senior consulting engineer for the global molded-case circuit breaker and air circuit breaker lines for the last 14 years, Jacobs has led many successful new product introductions and enhancements while continuing to guide a global team of more than 100 engineers. Both UConn and engineering play big roles in Jacobs’ family. Her husband, Peter Salster, worked as a GE technician in the electrical power test lab in Plainville, retiring in 2010. Her son Ryan currently attends UConn and her son Matthew is a former UConn student.

GE’s $7.5 Million Investment in UConn

Jacobs also is a key advisor for the first three research projects under way as part of GE’s five-year research partnership with UConn. Currently, GE and UConn are researching copper oxides, conductive ceramics and advanced arc pressure modeling.

“UConn has been a top school for recruiting engineering talent at GE,” said Paul Singer, senior executive of engineering, GE’s Industrial Solutions business and UConn alumnus. “We are seeing great results with our research partnership and continue to hire a strong pool of engineering talent from UConn. Together, we are bringing great minds together to develop advanced solutions in electrical distribution.”

The GE-funded partnership includes a $1.5 million endowment for a GE professorship in the School of Engineering, a $2.7 million grant for graduate and undergraduate sponsorships and $3.3 million for GE-directed research in materials, manufacturing and advanced circuit breaker technologies.

“The relationship with GE is having a significant impact on collaboration between the university and industry, and it has educated numerous students. I am thankful to Linda who, as one of our graduates, has come full circle,” said Dr. Kazem Kazerounian, dean of the UConn School of Engineering.

About GE’s Industrial Solutions Business

Industrial Solutions empowers smarter business operations by connecting equipment, software and services to protect, control and optimize assets within electrical infrastructures. The business provides customers, across various industries, with end-to-end product and service solutions that help ensure the reliability and protection of their electrical infrastructure. Industrial Solutions’ product and service solutions add to GE’s broader portfolio of leading technology solutions for the delivery, management, conversion and optimization of electrical power for customers across multiple energy-intensive industries.  

About GE

GE (NYSE: GE) imagines things others don’t, builds things others can’t and delivers outcomes that make the world work better. GE brings together the physical and digital worlds in ways no other company can. In its labs and factories and on the ground with customers, GE is inventing the next industrial era to move, power, build and cure the world. www.ge.com

Missouri State University Wins AT&T Campus Marketing Challenge | AT&T

Missouri State University Wins AT&T Campus Marketing Challenge | AT&T

New IBM Research Lab to Open In Kenya

IBM Research - Africa will be Company’s Twelfth Global Lab

For more from IBM, click the link below:

http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/38568.wss

Accenture Ranked as Top IT Services Vendor in Life Science Industry By Independent Research Firm

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Accenture Ranked as Top IT Services Vendor in Life Science Industry By Independent Research Firm; Second Year in a Row

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March 29, 2012

Accenture Ranked as Top IT Services Vendor in Life Science Industry

By Independent Research Firm; Second Year in a Row

NEW YORK; Mar. 29, 2012 – Accenture (NYSE: ACN) has been ranked as the number one life science information technology (IT) services vendor in a survey conducted by IDC Health Insights. This is the second year in a row that Accenture has received this ranking.

The ranking was contained in a February 2012 report titled, “Perspective: IDC Health Insights' Top Preferred Life Science Technology Vendors for 2012” which documents results from IDC Health Insights’ Leading Indicators in Life Science IT Spending Survey.”¹ The IDC Health Insights survey indicates that respondents expect to contract Accenture during the next 12 months for IT services. Click here for a link to the report.

Anne O’Riordan, global managing director of Accenture’s Life Sciences practice, said, “For the second consecutive year, Accenture is honored to receive this recognition by IDC Health Insights. This designation further highlights Accenture’s ability to provide the life sciences industry with the best IT services solutions to gain better business insight, deliver better business outcomes and create greater value.”

The IDC Health Insights report is a biannual IT budget-tracking survey of several hundred life science companies. The survey, which polled 115 industry leaders on planned IT budgetary spend, technology priorities and vendor preference, asked participants to identify which vendors servicing the life science market they expect to spend money with on software, hardware, and IT services over the next 12 months.

[1] IDC Health Insights: “Perspective: IDC Health Insights' Top Preferred Life Science Technology Vendors for 2012,” Document # HI233255, February 2012, Eric Newmark.

About Accenture

Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with more than 246,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries.  Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world’s most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments.  The company generated net revenues of US$25.5 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2011.  Its home page is accenture.com.

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Infosys Bets Big on Innovation, Strengthens Product R&D Center

Infosys Bets Big on Innovation, Strengthens its Product Research & Development Center

1000-Strong Team to Drive Cutting-edge Engineering Innovation for Infosys Product & Platform offerings

Bangalore, India - March 15, 2012: Infosys today announced that it will grow its Product Research and Development Center in India to accelerate design and development of its offerings, through cutting-edge engineering innovation. The present team of 500 world-class engineers is expected to grow to 1,000 over the next two years.

The Center has a mandate to:

• Develop Products and Platforms to cater to next generation market needs driven by global mega trends, including digital consumers, emerging economies, new commerce and healthcare
• Create intellectual properties around Infosys Products and Platforms, leveraging technologies in the areas of cloud computing, mobility, analytics, and social media
• Pioneer unique approaches to accelerate innovation, enhance product architectures and shorten release cycles

The center has developed industry focused and cross industry offerings such as:

Supply Chain Performance Management Suite, an advanced analytical product suite that provides a single enterprise wide view of the Supply and Demand Chain performance to deliver deeper business insights that enhance collaborative decision-making and shorten cash-to-cash cycle. The product with self-service attributes, comes equipped with industry and function-specific dashboards (e.g. procurement, logistics, inventory) and pre-built business content in the form of Key Performance Indicators, metrics and data models.

Distributor Connect, a highly scalable distributor integration platform for retail and consumer goods businesses that connects multiple business partners and allows them to exchange, cleanse and harmonize raw data using advanced business logic and algorithms. Optimized on a parallel virtualized high-end cloud computing system, the integrated platform enables improved demand forecast, ensures on -time delivery and stock replenishment while reducing non-productive inventory.

Omni-Channel Personalization Engine, a product that enables businesses to enhance shopping experience for digital consumers by creating a close to in-store experience while they browse and shop online. The product utilizes the latest advances in machine learning algorithms, big data analytics and distributed file systems to process massive amounts of data around demographics, social opinion, peer purchase history and co-shopping. This intelligence helps businesses analyze, co-relate and better understand consumer behavior in a digital world and influence suggestive selling to drive business growth.

Subu Goparaju, Senior Vice President & Head of Infosys Labs and Product R&D, Infosys, said "Innovations in Social Media, Cloud, Mobility and Big Data are opening new doors for businesses globally. Led by engineering innovation, the Center is creating products and platforms that harness these opportunities and deliver long term competitive advantages to our clients."

Sanjay Purohit, Senior Vice President & Global Head of Products, Platforms and Solutions, said "Infosys' Products and Platforms are geared to drive innovation-led growth for our clients. Our investment in the Center brings together our deep industry knowledge and technical leadership to facilitate our clients’ journey to accelerate innovation and build their enterprises of tomorrow."

Merck Partners with Scientists & Biotech Entrepreneurs

Merck Partners with Academic Scientists and Biotechnology Entrepreneurs to Create the California Institute for Biomedical Research (Calibr)

Calibr Presents a New Paradigm for Academic-Industry Cooperation

Whitehouse Station, NJ, and San Diego, March 15, 2012 - Merck, known outside the United States and Canada as MSD, today announced a collaboration to create the California Institute for Biomedical Research (Calibr), an independent, not-for-profit organization (501c3) established to accelerate the translation of basic biomedical research into innovative, new medicines to treat disease. Calibr will be led by Peter G. Schultz, Ph.D., a world-renowned chemist and biotechnology entrepreneur. The Institute will offer academic scientists, around the world, a streamlined, efficient and flexible path for translating their biomedical research into novel medicines. "Calibr represents a new paradigm for early-stage translational research," said Dr. Schultz, director of Calibr and Scripps Professor of Chemistry at The Scripps Research Institute. "By leveraging the drug discovery expertise and resources of Calibr, academic researchers will have the opportunity to maximize the potential therapeutic value of their research." Calibr investigators will work collaboratively with academic scientists to advance new discoveries to preclinical proof of concept at which stage commercial partnerships will be sought for further development. Merck will provide funding to Calibr of up to $90 million over a period of seven years. Merck has an option to obtain an exclusive commercial license to any proteins or small molecule therapeutic candidates derived from work conducted by Calibr. For any projects not licensed by Merck, Calibr will be free to seek alternative sources of funding for further development. In addition, the Institute plans to access funds from government and non-government sources. Revenues derived from licenses will be shared between Calibr and the collaborating institutions. Project proposals from the scientific community will be chosen on the basis of novelty, biomedical impact and technical feasibility and reviewed by a scientific advisory board headed by Christopher T. Walsh, Ph.D., Hamilton Kuhn Professor, Department of Biological Chemistry and Pharmacology, Harvard University. In addition, an independent board of directors headed by John D. Diekman, Ph.D., founder and managing partner of 5AM Ventures will oversee the activities of the Institute. "Effective translation of basic biomedical research is essential to advancing the next generation of novel therapies," said Peter S. Kim, Ph.D., president, Merck Research Laboratories and member of Calibr scientific advisory board. "Calibr will provide an important venue where basic research and drug discovery scientists may leverage each others' strengths in the fight against disease." Calibr will be located in San Diego, Calif., in close proximity to The Scripps Research Institute, Salk Institute, University of California, San Diego and Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute. Calibr will be equipped with the latest high through-put screening and imaging, medicinal and protein chemistry and preclinical sciences capabilities.

Teenager Unlocks Potential Pathways for Breast Cancer Treatments, Wins Intel Science Talent Search

Teenager Unlocks Potential Pathways for Breast Cancer Treatments, Wins Intel Science Talent Search

News Release from Lenovo - STEM Funding

Lenovo Funding to Globalize The Center for STEM Education for Girls

Partnership with The Harpeth Hall School to advance girls education in science, technology, engineering and math

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC – March 08, 2012: Lenovo (HKSE: 992) (ADR: LNVGY) today announced that it is expanding its relationship with The Harpeth Hall School for girls in Nashville, Tennessee through a contribution that will elevate The Center for STEM Education for Girls to an international scale. This partnership will provide the needed resources to collect and disseminate research in best practices in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) classrooms at the secondary level, to attract international researchers and educators to an annual STEM conference, and to provide scholarship funds for both educators and students to participate in the Center’s STEM Think Tank and Conference and Summer Institute.

Lenovo’s $50,000 commitment is the latest of the company’s efforts to increase participation in STEM studies and to encourage students to aspire to careers in related fields.

A September 2011 U.S. Department of Congress report, “Women in STEM: A Gender Gap to Innovation,” revealed that: “although women fill close to half of all jobs in the U.S. economy, they hold less than 25 percent of STEM jobs,” that “women hold a disproportionately low share of STEM undergraduate degrees, particularly in engineering,” and that “women with a STEM degree are less likely than their male counterparts to work in a STEM occupation.” 

With this situation in mind, building upon the strength of Harpeth Hall’s existing STEM program for girls, the global program will champion the educational needs of girls as a group currently underrepresented in core STEM majors in college and in STEM careers.

The Harpeth Hall School has long been a leader in girls’ education, with a record of success as one of the nation’s top STEM education programs at the middle and high school level. Lenovo’s contributions will expand the program and create a global clearinghouse of best practices and discussions on curricula such as lesson plans and rubrics. 

In connection with International Women’s Day, this contribution, focused on creating educational opportunities for girls, builds on Lenovo’s partnerships with institutions including St. Mary's School (Memphis, TN), Meredith College (Raleigh, NC), and Dubai Women’s College (Dubai, UAE).

Jian (Gina) Qiao, senior vice president of human resources for Lenovo, noted, “STEM education for women and girls is a passion of ours at Lenovo and is critical not only to the success of our business, but to the technology industry as a whole. There’s nothing better than opening the eyes of students to a world of opportunity and teaching the next generation the skills to succeed— and we believe this partnership will help girls and women to do just that.” She continued, “In 2007, we launched WILL (Women in Lenovo Leadership) in connection with International Women’s Day. Five years later, we’re proud to continue this legacy and partner with The Harpeth Hall School on The Center for STEM Education for Girls.”

The globalization of The Center for STEM Education for Girls will culminate at The Think Tank & Conference, hosted on the campus of the Harpeth Hall School July 18-20, 2012. Under the theme “Changing the Paradigm: Lessons Up & Down the Pipeline – K12 to university to corporate,” the conference will cover topics including best practices in curriculum and teaching for girls; girls in coed schools; getting started in STEM; what message we need to send girls on STEM; and how schools can engage in community outreach to give girls hands-on experiences and access to STEM careers.

Dr. Stacy Klein-Gardner, Director of the Center for STEM Education for Girls, added, “We know that solutions to modern problems and the ongoing success of our nation are dependent upon the discoveries of well-trained scientists, engineers, computer programmers, and mathematicians; the inclusion of women in designing those solutions is essential to reaching the best outcomes. Through the Center for STEM Education for Girls at the Harpeth Hall School, we hope to have a transformative impact on the educational opportunities for girls by helping to increase participation by girls in science, technology, engineering, and math studies in high school and college and to encourage them to aspire to STEM careers. We are fortunate that corporate global partners, such as Lenovo, share our commitment to creating positive STEM environments for young women to succeed. "

To ensure the Center for STEM Education for Girls is successful, Lenovo is leveraging its already strong global partnerships in the STEM learning arena, including with the Brookings Institution Post-Primary Education Collaborative, United Nations Global Partnership for Education, the Global Compact on Learning, the National Academy Foundation, and a recent SpaceLab initiative in conjunction with YouTube.

New Release from DOE: ARPA-E

ARPA-E Issues Open Call for Transformational Energy Technologies

March 2, 2012 - 2:31pm

Washington, D.C. – Today, the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) issued a $150 million funding opportunity open to all transformational energy technologies to support the Obama Administration’s all-of-the-above approach to solving our nation’s most pressing energy challenges. This Open Funding Opportunity Announcement is a call to our country’s brightest scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs to propose early-stage research projects that would not otherwise be able to attract private investment, but could lead to breakthrough energy technologies. This is the second open funding opportunity released under ARPA-E.  The first was in 2009.

“Today we are calling on our nation’s best and brightest to catalyze energy breakthroughs in all areas imaginable through this Open Funding Opportunity Announcement, which illustrates the true purpose of ARPA-E,” said Director Majumdar.  “Innovation is our nation’s sweet spot, and it is critically important that we look at every possible energy solution in order to ensure America’s future prosperity and security.”

This Open Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) joins ARPA-E’s other recently issued FOA – Methane Opportunities for Vehicular Energy (MOVE) – which will make $30 million available to find ways to harness our abundant supplies of domestic natural gas for vehicles and was announced by President Obama last week at the University of Miami.

More details on all of ARPA-E’s Funding Opportunities and Requests For Information are available HERE. Individual awards under the Open FOA will range between $250,000 and $10 million.

President Obama launched the Energy Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) in 2009 to seek out transformational, breakthrough technologies that are too risky for private sector investment but have the potential to translate science into quantum leaps in energy technology, form the foundation for entirely new industries, and in the future have large commercial impact.

Including its most recent round of selections, ARPA-E has funded a total of more than 180 projects, for $521.7 million in awards across 12 program areas. Demonstrating the success ARPA-E has already seen, the Agency announced last year that eleven of its projects that received $40 million from ARPA-E for innovative research, were able to use this funding to demonstrate results, which allowed these teams to secure more than $200 million in outside private capital investment.

ARPA-E’s third annual Energy Innovation Summit featured 107 speakers, including: President Bill Clinton; Microsoft Founder and Chairman, Bill Gates; Xerox CEO, Ursula Burns; FedEx CEO, Fred Smith; BDT Capital Chairman, Lee Scott; Deputy Secretary of Defense, Ashton Carter; MIT President, Susan Hockfield; U.S. Energy Secretary, Steven Chu; and ARPA-E Director, Arun Majumdar.  The Summit attracted 2,440 attendees from 49 states and 26 countries and featured a Technology Showcase displaying over 240 breakthrough energy developments from ARPA-E’s awardees, finalists and other teams.

Energy Innovation Summit

Business, Government and Tech Leaders Give the Full Perspective

February 24, 2012 

 Secretary of Energy Steven Chu speaking at the 2011 ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit. | Energy Department file photo.

Ben Dotson

Special Assistant for Digital Reform, Office of Public Affairs

• Check out the full conference program for more on the 2012 ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit.

When the third annual ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit convenes in Washington, DC, next week, key innovators from across the country and around the world will meet to share ideas for solving our greatest energy challenges.

While recent ARPA-E award winners and finalists will be on display at the Technology Showcase, the keynote speakers will offer a personal perspective on innovation in the energy sector.

One of the highlights of the conference will be a "fireside chat" between Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft Corporation, and Secretary of Energy Steven Chu. Under Gates' leadership, Microsoft has led the computer industry with investments in research and development each year. Check Energy.gov after the Summit for a video of the conversation that you can watch, share, and offer your perspective on.

Former President Bill Clinton will deliver remarks on Wednesday. As the 42nd President of the United States, President Clinton oversaw the longest period of peacetime economic expansion in U.S. history and the creation of more than 22 million jobs. 

We'll also hear from Dr. Arun Majumdar, Director of ARPA-E, and Dr. Susan Hockfield, President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and co-chair of the President's Advanced Manufacturing Partnership.

From the private sector, we will be joined by Ursula M. Burns, Chairman and CEO of the Xerox Corporation; Frederick W. Smith, Chairman, President and CEO of the FedEx Corporation; and Lee Scott, chairman of BDT Capital and former CEO of Walmart. Each of these individuals has been an innovative leader in their field and will offer their own perspectives on what it takes for innovators and entrepreneurs to succeed in the clean energy economy.

The Summit will also highlight the winning startup companies that competed in DOE’s “America’s Next Top Energy Innovator Challenge," which leverages cutting-edge technologies from the Energy Department’s national laboratories to support new startup companies across the country. The Secretary will present the winners with awards on Monday during the luncheon, and you can learn more about their innovations at their booth in the Technology Showcase.

You can find more information on the ARPA-E Energy Innovation Summit and the full program for the three-day conference here. 

News Release from the U.S. Dept. of Energy

Small Businesses Nationwide Begin Work on Cutting-Edge Innovative Research Projects

February 21, 2012 - 12:18pm

Washington, D.C. – Energy Secretary Steven Chu today announced that with support from the Department of Energy, 142 small businesses around the nation are starting work this week on 180 innovative research projects ranging from designing better wind turbines to developing a chemical-free approach to killing bacteria in power plant cooling water and from developing instruments to improve nanomaterials to making new coatings to improve the efficiency of gas turbines.  These grants to small businesses - totaling $26.4 million – are developing new energy technologies that will help to grow America’s economy, create new jobs around the country and improve American competitiveness around the world.  The Energy Department’s Small Business Innovation Research program is part of the Obama Administration’s broader support for job-creating small businesses and startup companies nationwide.

“These small businesses are working to develop new technologies to bring to the marketplace, creating new jobs and potentially new industries here in America,” said Secretary Chu.  “As part of the Obama Administration’s Startup America Initiative, these innovative small businesses are helping the Department improve America’s energy security, grow our economy, and ensure U.S. companies can compete in the global economy.”   .

The companies will use their awards -- in amounts up to $150,000 -- over the next nine months to explore the feasibility of their innovative concepts.  They will then be eligible to compete for awards up to $1 million under a two-year, Phase II of research and development.

DOE selected the 180 projects from among nearly 1,000 Phase I proposals submitted under its Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs.
This year’s Phase I awards to date were made in 36 technical topic areas for research supporting the Department’s diverse energy, scientific and environmental missions.  Under the STTR program, 23 of the companies are partnering with a university or DOE national laboratory to do the research.  In addition, DOE is planning on at least one more Phase I competition with another round of awards later in the year.

The full list of Phase I award winners and their projects is available HERE.

DOE’s Office of Science manages the departments’ SBIR and STTR programs.  More information about the two programs is available HERE.

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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