A new BlackBerry tablet is not on the cards according to the company’s CEO Thorsten Heins as the BlackBerry head suggested tablets will die out within the next five years.
With a number of reports suggesting the BlackBerry Z10 manufacturer would follow up the aging and lost BlackBerry PlayBook with a new tablet launch at next month’s BlackBerry Live conference, Heins has hit back stating that “tablets are not a good business model.”
Predicting that the tablet boom will soon burst leaving larger screen devices to partner smartphones in user’s core tech arsenal, Heins has suggested that the success currently being felt by Apple and Samsung with the iPad mini and Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 respectively will be short lived.
“In five years I don’t think there’ll be a reason to have a tablet anymore,” Heins said speaking with the Telegraph. “Maybe a big screen in your workspace, but not a tablet as such. Tablets themselves are not a good business model.”
While having failed to gain consumer interest with the 2011 launched BlackBerry PlayBook, Heins’ comments could be seen as little more than bitterness towards tablet leads. Alternatively, however, declining iPad profits have been suggested to be an early indicator to slumping interest in the tablet scene.
Focussing on the increasing consumer interest in the blossoming smartphone market, Heins has highlighted BlackBerry’s future handset aspirations.
“In five years, I see BlackBerry to be the absolute leader in mobile computing - that’s what we’re aiming for,” he said, “I want to gain as much market share as I can, but not by being a copycat.”
Despite rebuffing claims a second-generation BlackBerry tablet will make it to the realms of reality at the Orlando based BlackBerry Live expo which runs between May 13 and 17, it is expected that the recently launched BB10 operating system will be made compatible with the original PlayBook.
