BlackBerry delays PlayBook OS update

BlackBerry manufacturer RIM has decided to delay the release of an update to its PlayBook OS until further notice.

In a blog post, senior VP of the PlayBook tablets, David Smith said:

As much as we’d love to have it in your hands today, we’ve made the difficult decision to wait to launch BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 until we are confident we have met the expectations of our developers, enterprise customers and end-users. For the enterprise, we’re addressing many barriers to tablet adoption, including device manageability and enterprise application deployment.

RIM stock dropped five percent on the NASDAQ stock exchange in the wake of the announcement.

The release of the OS also represented a chance for BlackBerry winning back the confidence of users who lost faith in its products during the recent Blackberry BIS debacle.

In a move which is likely to disappoint a number of customers, RIM says that it will not be including any BBM functionality into the OS upgrade. This was one of the most hyped features of the new release.

Updates which are expected to appear on the OS 2.0 upgrade include integration with the touchstone email, contacts and calendars. The upgrade will also make synching Blackberry mobile to PlayBook smoother.

At the Blackberry Devcon, RIM managed to provide its developers with PlayBook’s which were running the latest OS. The purpose of this was to provide feedback and discover the kinks in the system.

Since its release in April, the PlayBook has failed to find a following comparable to that of the iPad. Sales have been dire with RIM even lowering its expectations in order to meet sales targets.

With Apple boasting that many Fortune-500 companies have been giving its employees free iPads, Blackberry will have to fight an uphill battle until it becomes as relevant as the current king of tablets.