The email application is one of several additions to the second version of the PlayBook's operating system, which became available as a no-cost download early Tuesday morning. There was considerable surprise last April that the PlayBook, the company's answer to the Apple iPad, initially could send or receive emails only by being connected to a BlackBerry phone.
The much-delayed upgrade that corrects that omission also allows the PlayBook to run some apps developed for devices that use Google's Android operating system. And it includes some novel features for automatically integrating information and messages from social media sites, including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, with its email, calendar and contact apps.
With the software upgrade, owners of BlackBerry phones will also be able to use the familiar keyboard on their handsets as a physical keyboard for the PlayBook through a wireless connection.
While several analysts welcomed the arrival of the new operating system, they were also skeptical that it would make RIM a significant force in the tablet computer market or inspire consumers to wait for a new, and also delayed, line of phones that will use similar software.
"It probably puts a couple of fingers in the dike," said Mike Abramsky, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets, a unit of the Royal Bank of Canada. "While many of the updates are nice, albeit late, there isn't much to differentiate it from Android and iPad tablets."
Tero Kuittinen, a senior analyst at MGI Research, said that the changes would not be sufficient for the PlayBook to compete successfully with the third generation of the iPad, which is expected in March, or devices like Amazon's Kindle Fire.
"Nothing matters anymore; it's over," he said. "It's going to be fairly impossible for RIM to do anything."
While the new software plugs the biggest gaps in the PlayBook, it nevertheless failed to bring all of the features found on BlackBerry phones to the PlayBook. Most notably, the upgrade lacks BlackBerry Messenger, RIM's instant messaging service.
Several RIM executives, including Thorsten Heins, the new chief executive, have repeatedly said that BlackBerry Messenger was one of the most popular and important features on its phones. The company has been vague about the reasons for its continued absence on the PlayBook.
