David Smith, executive VP of mobile computing and the head of the PlayBook, has resigned due to personal reasons, according to a BlackBerry spokesperson.
*** UPDATED BY KEVIN:
I reached out to BlackBerry for an official statement on David Smith's departure. Having spoken to David in the past, I know he's a passionate supporter of BlackBerry. Here's the official word:
"David J Smith has resigned from BlackBerry for personal reasons. He continues to come into work every day and is committed to working with BlackBerry through a proper transition."
Sometimes personal reasons are just that, personal. Don't read into this one for more than what the statement says - no funny business going on here. ***
Smith's exit from BlackBerry follows on the departures of the North American VP, and previous CEOs from Gist and Tungle. Smith has been with BlackBerry for 8 years, but there's a lot of transitioning happening at BlackBerry these days. As the last batch of quarterly financial results made explicitly clear, the company has to stay extremely lean in order to keep pushing BlackBerry 10 development and make the most out of the cash that's left in the bank.
While we aren't going to meticulously document every single middle manager that will be leaving BlackBerry in the coming months (there are going to be quite a few more, by the looks of things), Smith's exit says a lot about what to expect in terms of the PlayBook for the forseeable future: not much, if anything.
Read more
BlackBerry legacy services will reach End of Life on January 4, 2022
Although BlackBerry has extended the life span of BlackBerry OS, BlackBerry 10, and PlayBook a few times now, that time has seemingly finally run out.
A new BlackBerry tablet might kick off second phase of software licensing
BlackBerry CEO John Chen spoke with candor this morning on the earnings call about the next phase in BlackBerry's licensing strategy. In particular, he mentions one of the company's partners is very excited to build a tablet based on Android.
Should BlackBerry consider releasing a new tablet?
It never seems to fail. Any time you stick BlackBerry CEO John Chen in a room with the media someone is going to ask about a BlackBerry tablet and, no surprise, it has happened again. This time around it was CNET who asked the question whether or not BlackBerry was working on a tablet during the BlackBerry event at Mobile World Congress. For John Chen's part, the answer remained mostly...
Grab a bargain with a BlackBerry PlayBook at under 80 bucks
For many of us the BlackBerry PlayBook is a thing of the past. Sure, I still have mine, but I'll be honest and say that these days I very rarely switch it on. The PlayBook itself is still, in my eyes, a great tablet - it's just with no ongoing support from BlackBerry it is I'm afraid a dying breed. But on the off chance that you did fancy picking the PlayBook at a silly price, you...