MONTREAL - Research In Motion is delaying the launch of an upgraded operating system for its struggling PlayBook computer tablet until February 2012.
The Waterloo, Ont.-based company, best known for creating the BlackBerry smartphone, says the new version of the operating system isn't up to its standards at this point.
"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 fully met the expectations of our developers, enterprise customers and end-users," RIM's senior vice president David Smith said in a post on the company's blog.
RIM had announced earlier this fall the updated operating system would be available in October with features that included the ability for BlackBerry users to automatically access their email, contacts and calendar on the PlayBook, a function it doesn't currently have.
The updated operating system also won't have the popular texting service BlackBerry Messenger when it's introduced in February, Smith said on the Inside BlackBerry Blog.
"We are committed to developing a seamless BBM solution that fully delivers on the powerful, push-based messaging capabilities recognized today by BlackBerry users around the world and we're still working on it."
In the meantime, BlackBerry smartphone users will be able to continue to use BlackBerry Bridge app to access BlackBerry Messenger Service on the tablet, he said.
The PlayBook, launched last April, is competing with Apple's popular iPad tablet as well as other tablets with Google's Android operating system.
Analysts have estimated that RIM (TSX:RIM) has sold fewer than one million PlayBooks in its first six months.
RIM has also announced a new operating system called BBX to serve both its a new generation of smartphones and tablets that are expected next year.
