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BlackBerry CEO Heins: not having 2GB of RAM doomed BlackBerry PlayBook

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By Alan Friedman

Published: Jul 11, 2013, 3:49 PM

BlackBerry CEO Heins: not having 2GB of RAM doomed BlackBerry PlayBook

Immediately after it became apparent that BlackBerry was going to develop a new OS, BlackBerry PlayBook owners were reassured that they would be receiving an update to the new OS. Even as far back as March 2012, executives were promising owners of the PlayBook that their tablet would run on BlackBerry 10. Heins himself made that promise personally, at the beginning of this year.

But based on statements from the CEO, it would appear that because the PlayBook carries less than 2GBof RAM, it would not be a suitable candidate for BlackBerry 10. Heins said that he could have released a version of BlackBerry 10 for the tablet, but his goal is for people to have a quality experience with the OS. The good news is that BlackBerry is considering handing out some sort of loyalty reward to BlackBerry PlayBook owners for not being able to fulfill its promise.

"That was a very tough decision to make. I could have done it, but you would have loads of comments on your site - 'How can Thorsten allow such a crappy product to be launched?' ... It was one of the toughest decisions I had to make because I knew I would break a commitment, but I also made a commitment to quality before that. ... I can't take the hardware back and provide them with 2 GB hardware. I can't exchange the part - there's no way to do this... I stand by the decision, as tough as it is. I apologize to the users that I couldn't get it done. What I did I did because I want them to have a quality experience with BlackBerry 10."-Thorsten Heins, CEO, BlackBerry

Ironically, Heins made some noise back in April when he said that tablets will be dead in five years. Another irony is that the QNX OS used for the BlackBerry PlayBook is the foundation of BlackBerry 10.

source: Crackberry

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Alan, an ardent smartphone enthusiast and a veteran writer at PhoneArena since 2009, has witnessed and chronicled the transformative years of mobile technology. Owning iconic phones from the original iPhone to the iPhone 15 Pro Max, he has seen smartphones evolve into a global phenomenon. Beyond smartphones, Alan has covered the emergence of tablets, smartwatches, and smart speakers.

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