Mobile tecno

Just days after the launch of the BlackBerry Z10, the struggling smartphone maker has revealed it’s working on a second BlackBerry PlayBook tablet to take on the iPad, Google Nexus 7 and other runaway slate successes. But will it be too little too late?

Speaking to news agency Reuters, BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins revealed that he has ordered a second tablet to be made. “I’m not getting out of the tablet business, I’ve asked my teams to build another one,” he said.

There’s a but though. “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,” he said. And that may be a struggle: the first BlackBerry PlayBook was poorly received on its launch in 2011, and while retailers are already claiming the new Z10 phone is a success, it’s far too early to tell.

Original BlackBerry PlayBook owners shouldn’t feel too hard done by with the news though: the company has also said it’ll be bringing its BlackBerry 10 software to the slate at some point, so there’s a nice app and feature-filled update to look forward to.

What do you make of the news? Is a BlackBerry PlayBook dead in the water? Spout off with your thoughts in the comments below.