Blackberry PlayBook Is as Good as Dead

Poor BlackBerry PlayBook. I’m not sure it ever had a chance. From the botched launch to the distracting corporate struggles and shuffles to its ultimate demise, BlackBerry’s 7-inch tablet has been a vexed product.

Today, BlackBerry (the company formerly known as RIM) essentially put a nail in the PlayBook coffin by announcing that it would not be converted to the new Blackberry 10 OS. That mobile OS is clearly the future of the company. QNX, though, bought and now developed by BlackBerry, is the past.

In a Q1 2014 earnings press release, BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins outlined the company’s near-term strategy: “Throughout the remainder of fiscal 2014, the company will invest in BlackBerry 10 smartphone launches, and the roll out of BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10, to continue to establish the new BlackBerry 10 platform in the marketplace.”