[timmartin]

PlayBook Updates
RIM plans to issue a PlayBook software upgrade in September that adds a dedicated e-mail program and BlackBerry Messenger instant-messaging applications, one of the people said. A PlayBook upgrade for the Android player may come later on in the year, two of the people said.

In June, RIM co-Chief Executive Officer Mike Lazaridis told analysts PlayBook e-mail and BBM will be introduced �soon� with the PlayBook Android player to come �later in the summer.�

RIM said it shipped 500,000 PlayBooks last quarter after starting sales on April 19, trailing the 9.3 million iPads Apple sold in the three months through June 25. Sprint Nextel Corp. (S) said on Aug. 12 it had canceled plans to sell a faster 4G version of the PlayBook planned for this fall. No other U.S. phone companies have announced plans to carry the 4G PlayBook.

RIM is grappling with a smartphone sales slowdown in the U.S. even as sales outside North America still grow. The company, which reports earnings Sept. 15, has said quarterly sales may drop for the first time in nine years.

To contact the reporters on this story: Hugo Miller in Toronto at [email protected]; Olga Kharif in Portland at [email protected]