Canada’s Research In Motion has chosen its home
country to launch a PlayBook tablet with built-in support for cellular
networks, a crucial feature missing from its poor-selling initial
models.
The BlackBerry maker said on it would launch the new
tablets in Canada next week and roll them out in coming months in the
United States, Europe, South Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean,
according to Reuters.
The PlayBook tablet, introduced more than a year ago,
is strategically important for RIM as it is the first product to use
the QNX operating system that RIM is adapting for a new generation of
BlackBerry phones designed to compete with sexier devices already on the
market.
But the PlayBook was widely criticized at launch for
lacking basic features such as email, and it has failed to wow consumers
despite sharp discounts and a major software upgrade.
RIM has so far only sold Wi-Fi capable PlayBook
devices and this has played a role in making the device less attractive
to potential buyers, as users would need access to a Wi-Fi network or to
tether the device to the BlackBerry to use the Internet
.
The new device will run on the latest 4G LTE networks
that offer high-speed data downloads capabilities. Long Term Evolution
technology is being widely deployed by carriers both in North America
and overseas, as smartphone adoption has increased and boosted demand
for wireless data downloads.
The 4G LTE BlackBerry PlayBook tablet will come with
32 gigabytes of memory and will be available from major Canadian
carriers like BCE Inc’s Bell, Rogers Communications Inc and Telus
Corporation in Canada on August 9.
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