RIM's "Blackpad" Anticipated for Next Week

[Michael Essany]

Next week is likely to bring with it the grand unveiling of Research in Motion's answer to the iPad. Next week, of course, isn't an arbitrary timeframe. From September 27-30 is RIM's BlackBerry Developer Conference - DevCon - which is scheduled to take place in San Francisco, California.

According to the Wall Street Journal, RIM will see its best opportunity to unveil the tablet, even if the product isn't yet ready for mass production. Those in the know tell the WSJ that the "Blackpad" will serve up a "seven-inch touch screen and one or two built-in cameras." A new OS developed by QNX will bump the BlackBerry 6 operating system out of the picture. The device will also deliver Bluetooth, broadband, and tethering with a BlackBerry smartphone.

The RIM tablet will likely be manufactured by Quanta Computer Inc. of Taiwan, and, based on the information obtained by the publication, will run on chips from Santa Clara, California-based Marvell Technology Group Inc. Naturally, RIM - much like Apple - won't comment on rumors ahead of the BlackBerry Developer Conference. But all signs (since July) have pointed to a fall unveiling of the "Blackpad" and, potentially, a November market introduction.

Wall Street Journal

[Daerid]

I'm Apprehensive... Their OS is antiquated, and capabilities have been lacking.


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[vinaygoel2000]

Instead of an answer to the iPad or an iPhone killer, why don't companies these days make a new product that Apple can answer.

[n00neimp0rtant]

Instead of an answer to the iPad or an iPhone killer, why don't companies these days make a new product that Apple can answer.

I completely agree. Why doesn't BlackBerry spend time working on an OS that isn't so conservatively archaic that people don't even consider it a smartphone anymore? RIM is the textbook definition of thinking inside the box. After everyone else has long taken their boxes to the city dump. Perfect example: at this point in time, if your mobile browser doesn't look EXACTLY like the web is supposed to look (which, I do realize it is "improved" in BlackBerry 6), you're not a smartphone anymore.

[mikerlx]

New products fizzle better to play cat and mouse these days.

[jiggyjae]

I mean it's great for Rim as a company because many people on wall street will buy even if they have an iPad. Some people are just electronic crazy like that. But how will if play up against the iPad when the IPad is only survived by the millions of apps available?

[zeroskater61]

Instead of an answer to the iPad or an iPhone killer, why don't companies these days make a new product that Apple can answer.

Seriously... There just taking ones idea and switching a few things here and there and calling it there own!!
If they wanna take the lead In This cat and mouse game they need to come up with a new product and features that the other company hasn't come up with yet.

[ShredNasty]

It'll fail miserably. I predict a horrific outcome. Like the Nokia N-Gage. The ONLY reason RIM is still in business is because of their enterprise server support, and the dinosaurs calling shots at firms, which getting replaced by the minute. Every other day I hear of another huge corporation switching to iPhone. Unless RIM gets a new set of creative minds, and fast, they're doomed. They already hold zero ground in the consumer market....

[bevo6000]

They should come up with a phone that can walk your dog. Apple hasn't done that yet or maybe they have, I should check the app store for that.

[donkeykongking]

agree with everyone, the reason why the blackberry was such a success in the first place was because of its innovations, email on the ga data , and a full keyboard etc... it was perfect for business, now not so much

[njlmx6]

Outdated or not, rim has a huge following of people that will continue to buy blackberries etc. While I don't think they will take many sales away from the iPad I think lots of people will pick it up because of the rim name

[NessLookAlike]

Who's ready for the 600MHz, 64MB RAM, 4GB BlackPad tablet?!!!!!!!?!

[wolverinemarky]

Cool name but won't dent the iPad sales I don't think. They should up there game the whole adding a couple cams won't make a difference because the next iPad will have cams so then ur in an arms race when it comes to megapixels and that's not innovation. Innovation is what all these companies need if they truly want to compete against apple. Do something that apple will want to copy.


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[Zokunei]

Why can't anyone make a tablet that can run something aside from mobile apps? Oh wait, I know why, because it's socially acceptable for 95% of apps to make the company money.

[Zokunei]

..

[nerdyperdy]

The name sounds racist but it's cool..lol

Not too sure about the following Blackbery has but I know it's alot..lol..so it will get bought. I just hope it's not something everyone really wants, but is so expensive,noone wants to pay the cash(Galaxy Tab) to get one.

An earlier poster said if you can't see the Internet how it's intended, then tour not on a smartphone...totally agree.

Blackberry was good when the smartphone revolution was starting...but there is better.

[unison999]

I hate Blackberry, it crashes quite often. Only way to fix it is to remove battery wait few seconds before reinsert battery.
Since that is problem of the OS, I can not imagine the OS on this thing any better than their phone.

[iamthekiller]

Fools. It's not going to be called the blackpad. This is just a nickname that some stupid rim cheerleaders have come up with.

[eortizr]

Instead of an answer to the iPad or an iPhone killer, why don't companies these days make a new product that Apple can answer.

RIM already did years ago... Security and MS Exchange integration.