Probably the most debilitating feature that prevents the BlackBerry Playbook from being a hit is the lack of the native e-mail application. And it’s not going to get any better very soon. The Research In Motion team recently announced that the email application will not be available until February. If RIM had managed to stick to its deadlines, the e-mail app would have been designed and implemented by now.
The email app was scheduled have been introduced in the second version of the Playbook OS, which has now been delayed indefinitely. Also, it has been announced that the Blackberry messenger will not be a part of this update. Till date, RIM has not announced a tentative deadline for the completion of the native BBM app.
According to David Smith, the senior vice president of RIM, the company is doing its best to make sure the perfect product reaches the customer’s hands as soon as possible. However, they would not launch the new changes unless they were confident that all the needs of the customers would be met. Also, they have deferred the inclusion of the BBM app to a later version of the PlayBook, as it would not be ready in time for the February launch.
According to Mr. Smith, the BBM software needs to be able to deliver results to all the Blackberry users, making it a very sophisticated application. For the time being, BlackBerry users can use a BlackBerry bridge app to transfer any required data from the smartphone to the Playbook without creating any redundancy.
Using the BlackBerry Bridge, one can seamlessly transfer emails, contacts and calendars from the smartphone to the tablet. Developers are also testing a beta version of the PlayBook OS, trying to include as many Android apps on the Playbook as possible. However, these beta testers lack the customary video store, contacts and email services.
Needless to say, it has been a rather tough month overall for RIM. The recent multi-day outage of the BBM services rendered BlackBerry devices for up to 4 days. This has created much doubt in the eyes of potential customers. The company is also yet to fix a release date for the BBX, the next gen OS that they plan to introduce soon. They are also facing certain heat with regard to the trademark lawsuit over the name BBX. This could prove harmful for the company’s reputation unless they can find a quick solution.
