RIM To Offer PlayBook On More High-Speed Standards

Research In Motion, maker of the BlackBerry smartphone, will release its PlayBook tablet computer on two more high-speed network standards in the second half of 2011, the company said.

The move to offer LTE and HSPA+ versions of its PlayBook guarantees access to the most advanced wireless data networks in the world, including all major carriers in North America. The first version of the PlayBook, with WiFi and Bluetooth but no cellular connection, is set for launch in March and U.S. carrier Sprint Nextel will sell a version for its WiMAX network in the summer.

But some analysts are growing impatient with RIM's timeline for the PlayBook, which was first announced in September and will join a booming market dominated by Apple's iPad and compete for attention with tablets from the likes of Samsung, Motorola Mobility and Hewlett-Packard. "It's like a lot of stuff with the PlayBook: let's start seeing it, let's get it to market," said BGC Partners analyst Colin Gillis. "There's been more talk than product. By the time they come out we're going to have iPad 2."

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The WiFi version of the PlayBook can connect to a user's existing BlackBerry smartphone to access its data and use its wireless connection, but that may give carriers little incentive to subsidize or advertise the PlayBook aggressively. Evolved High Speed Packet Access (HSPA+) is used by AT&T and T-Mobile in the United States and Rogers, BCE Inc and Telus in Canada. Long Term Evolution (LTE) is an all-IP standard that Verizon Wireless, among others, has started to deploy. Both standards are designed to carry increased amounts of data needed for video streaming and large file downloads at improved speeds.