Research In Motion announced the BlackBerry-themed PlayBook, its 7-inch entrant into the tablet PC market, during a 27 September presentation at its annual DevCon conference.
In keeping with BlackBerry’s traditional focus on business users, RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis reportedly termed the PlayBook the world’s “first enterprise-ready tablet” and said it would “amplify” his company’s smartphones.
The PlayBook’s browser will reportedly support Adobe Flash and HTML5, multitasking, and high-definition video, and will be able to sync information with a BlackBerry. A pair of embedded cameras – 3 megapixels in front, 5 megapixels in back – allow for video conferencing. A narration-free video from RIM highlights the PlayBook’s supposed multitasking ability, along with its ability to run applications. The 7-inch multitouch capacitive screen displays images at 1024 by 600 resolution.
Much about the tablet seems to confirm earlier rumours about the device. A 21 September Wall Street Journal article, itself paraphrasing unnamed “people familiar with RIM’s plans”, indicated that the tablet would feature “a completely new platform built by QNX Software Systems” as its operating system, and include integrated cameras along with a 7-inch touch screen. However, that article’s sources referred to the tablet as the BlackPad, a name that turned out to be incorrect.
As rumours floated throughout the web, RIM remained tight-lipped about its tablet plans. When contacted by eWEEK about the possibility of a tablet-themed event the week of 27 September, a company spokesperson said, “The only RIM event next week is the Developer Conference that runs Monday through Thursday. There will be keynotes from one of the co-CEOs and other C-level execs, and RIM tends to drop news at these types of events.”
Even with the tablet’s existence unconfirmed, however, various third-party vendors wanted to appear to be on board with the device. In a widely circulated 21 September email, a spokesperson for virtualisation company Citrix Systems claimed the company would support “the upcoming BlackBerry Black Pad”.
The PlayBook faces substantial competition in the growing tablet PC market. Samsung and its carrier partners are preparing to release the 7-inch Galaxy Tab, which runs Android 2.2 and has a 1GHz processor. Dell is already marketing its 5-inch Streak, which also runs Android, and has plans for a 7-inch tablet. And Hewlett-Packard is reportedly preparing tablets that run both its recently acquired Palm webOS and Windows 7. All these companies, of course, are chasing after the success of Apple’s iPad, which has achieved blockbuster sales since its April release.
So far, RIM has remained quiet about a potential price and release date for the PlayBook.
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Tim Daniels – TMT sector strategist, Olivetree Securities comments:
"The Playbook doesn’t have wireless capability and it can only access the internet via WiFi or via Bluetooth with a Blackberry attached. Although it plans to offer 3G and 4G models going forwards, it doesn’t change the fact that RIM will continue to lose market share as it moves into the consumer market and dilutes its margins. The phones just aren’t as good as the competition. There are no details yet on when it will be available, from whom and how much.”