The BlackBerry Playbook: Still Alive and Kicking

Another evening in Las Vegas at the Consumer Electronics Show—the biggest electronics trade fair in the world—has seen Research in Motion (RIM), maker of BlackBerry smartphones, scramble to catch up with the other tablet makers.

RIM announced its new BlackBerry PlayBook software update after nine months of anticipation, which includes a built-in email platform and calendar that are missing from the original version of the tablet released last year.

At the moment, Playbook has seen most of its shipping going to corporate clients, who will wait for the update. But how will this tablet perform in a consumer market that is increasingly dominated by streamlined tablet ecosystems? Apple’s iStore for the iPad, Amazon’s media content for the Kindle series and Barnes & Noble Nook media are all great, successful examples of what consumers are looking for in the post-PC world.