RIM jumps into tablet game
- 28 September, 2010 07:41
- Comments 1
Look out, Apple. BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM) is now in the tablet business.
And unlike Apple's highly popular iPad tablet, RIM's BlackBerry PlayBook fully embraces Adobe's Flash as well as Java.
[ RIM this morning touted Web-based application development for its BlackBerry. | Keep up on the day's tech news headlines with InfoWorld's Today's Headlines: Wrap Up newsletter. ]
After a week of rumors, RIM's PlayBook and Tablet OS were formally unveiled at the BlackBerry Developer Conference (DevCon 2010) Monday afternoon in San Francisco.
Due to ship early next year in the United States, PlayBook is 9.7 millimeters thick with a seven-inch, widescreen display. "The first time you hold it, it just feels right, and you want to take it home," said Mike Lazaridis, president and co-CEO of RIM.
"CIOs can rest assure the BlackBerry PlayBook is absolutely enterprise-ready," featuring integration with the BlackBerry smartphone, said Lazaridis. Users will not need new software, new security, or new IT administration or another data plan, he stressed. The device supports Web browsing, stereo sound, and a media player.
BlackBerry users can pair the BlackBerry and PlayBook using a secure Bluetooth connection.
"BlackBerry PlayBook will support 1080p HD video," Lazaridis said. Non-proprietary HDMI and USB are supported as well.
The device features hardware-accelerated video and, in addition to backing Flash Player 10.1, supports HTML5, Adobe AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime), and Java. Developers can bring existing BlackBerry 6 Java applications to the PlayBook.
Apple, by contrast, has positioned HTML5 as a replacement for Adobe Flash on its own iPad and iPhone device, contending Flash is now unnecessary. Apple, which could not be immediately reached for comment about PlayBook, has rejected Java on its own devices as well.
PlayBook features a 1GHz dual core processor taking advantage of symmetric multiprocessing. One GB of RAM is included along with Wi-Fi 802.11 and Bluetooth support. Front- and rear-facing cameras are featured as well.
The POSIX-compliant BlackBerry Tablet OS is built on the QNX Neutrino microkernel architecture, which has been leveraged previously in systems such as planes, trains, cars and medical equipment.
RIM said it will begin working with developers and select corporate customers next month to work on development and early testing.
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Comments
Deon
1
If this RIM tablet does in fact make it to market "early 2011″ as they claim, it will be competing with iPad 2.0, and not the current iPad.
This is significant.
Also, why are all the would be “iPad killers” arriving to the show late only offering 7″ slabs to compete with iPad’s almost 10″? A 10″ display is closer to a letter size business document than a 7″ one. Isn’t RIM synonymous with business?
The answer to that question is very revealing about the true competitive landscape, not the one promulgated in press releases.
Real competition is beneficial for most everyone. Unfortunately, from what I've seen so far from RIM, Dell, Samsung, etc. it's just more "me too". Here's hoping they all get their real game faces on by "early 2011".
Cheers!
Deon Robinson
Author of ‘So You Got An iPad. Now What?’