BlackBerry isn’t giving up on the PlayBook yet — tablet-focused services in the works

While its new smartphones are the stars of today’s BlackBerry 10 launch event, BlackBerry isn’t forgetting about the PlayBook tablets already on the market.

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BlackBerry chief executive Thorstein Heins confirmed that all existing PlayBooks will receive the BlackBerry 10 update, but he also noted that the tablet business is still difficult for the company. But that’s not stopping it from trying to crack into the tablet market.

“The way I look at the tablet business right now, providing profits to shareholders only in that segment is rather difficult,” Hein said. “We’ll continue with tablets, looking at specific services and volume of services to think of mobile computing on a tablet.” Heins pointed to industries like finance and health care where he wants to “provide a value proposition that’s not just hardware but also has a software and services component.”

Basically, it sounds like BlackBerry isn’t going to be focusing on delivering a new tablet anytime soon. But when we finally see new hardware, there will likely be some useful new services around them.