BlackBerry staff put to work on next-gen BB10-powered PlayBook

BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins has confirmed that his company will release a follow-up to 2011’s ill-fated PlayBook if the profit margins are right. 

BlackBerry 10 officially launched last week. CEO Thorsten Heins lead the event demoing the new handsets and BB10, confirming RIM's name change – it's now known as BlackBerry -, and speaking with guests from networks and content providers. 

He did not mention when the current PlayBook would be getting updated to BlackBerry 10, however – something that disappointed many KYM readers.

Know Your Mobile has been told repeatably by BlackBerry spokespeople that, 'the PlayBook will be getting BlackBerry 10 at some point' -- we just need a date now. Even a vague Q2-ish figure would suffice. 

A brand new BlackBerry tablet could be on the way though, according to Reuters, who has Heins quoted as saying the following: 

‘I've asked my teams to build another one,’ said Heins, ‘but I need to make money from it. If the hardware doesn't provide the margins I need, then it makes no sense in doing it.’

Heins took over at BlackBerry 12 months ago, and since then he’s overseen some rather significant developments: a name change, the creation and launch of new mobile platform with BB10, and lots of job cuts to name but a few choice aspects of BlackBerry's recent history. 

Going forwards, Heins has reiterated again and again that he won't rule out any options – that anything is possible now BB10 is here: licensing, hardware, both at the same time, and more. 

‘What we need to decide is where do we play? It could be a software play, a licensing play, an end-to-end horizontal play, we'll figure that out,’ said Heins. ‘In five years, yes we might still be in hardware, but we may not be in hardware ... I'm not ruling anything out.’

Initial checks by analysts confirm better-than-expected sales for the Z10 across the UK. Check out our first look at the BlackBerry Z10 here to see how the world’s first BB10 handset shapes up.