Another sign emerged this week that BlackBerry was not quite ready to give up on hardware despite recent struggles that have decimated the dominating position it once held in the smartphone space. Speaking to Pocket-lint during Mobile World Congress, BlackBerry’s Vice President of Global Product Management Francois Mahieu said that the company was open to an eventual return to the tablet market. The operative keyword here is ‘eventual’ as there are no current plans to offer such a device any time soon. Here’s what Mahieu said:
“Would BlackBerry consider one day re-entering the tablet market? Yes. Will BlackBerry do it in the coming months? No. When we launched PlayBook, beyond the fact that everybody knows that PlayBook was no a huge success, everybody loved it. I wouldn’t be surprised if we have a meeting one day and I show you a tablet. We have equity in that space, but we’re not ready. We need more time.”
BlackBerry entered the tablet market back in April 2011 with the BlackBerry PlayBook. Despite the tablet market being less crowded than it is today, it failed to catch on with consumers and was one more contributing factor to BlackBerry’s fall from grace.
Mahieu’s comments suggest that BlackBerry is still keeping an eye on the tablet space but it’s no more than that. An eventual return to this market will likely hinge on whether BlackBerry remains in the hardware business and whether it can improve its position in this space. BlackBerry knows full well that another high-profile failure like the BlackBerry PlayBook could well be the last nail in its coffin.
Source : Pocket-lint