Nearly 10 months after its debut, the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet will finally get email 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 email 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."
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 OS 2, led to widespread confusion about its capabilities, particularly for business users.
Given that RIM effectively created the wireless email market with the BlackBerry, there was considerable surprise when the PlayBook appeared last April without email 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 email 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.
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 email 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."
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 OS 2, led to widespread confusion about its capabilities, particularly for business users.
Given that RIM effectively created the wireless email market with the BlackBerry, there was considerable surprise when the PlayBook appeared last April without email 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 email 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.
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