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RIM Announces BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet
siliconbits writes "Today, at the BlackBerry Developers Conference in San Francisco, company President and co-CEO Mike Lazaridis kicked off the event with the widely-anticipated news that RIM is developing a tablet PC of its own. Called the BlackBerry Playbook, the device is a 'Flash-loving,' 'device-paring,' 'enterprise ready' tablet, says RIM, with a 7-inch screen. It is 9.7 millimeters thick and features a 1024x600 widescreen display. It also supports 1080p through HDMI and has a USB port."
The tablet will run on a dual-core, 1GHz CPU and have 1GB RAM. Its browser will be WebKit-based, and the device will be running a brand new operating system developed by QNX software. The tablet won't have 3G access of its own when it launches, but will be able to tether to existing BlackBerry devices via Bluetooth.
and we have a WINNER!
Looks like all the handhelds are getting grown up OSes. I bet this really pisses off ballmer.
A 'companion' device to a phone? How well did that work out for Palm again, I forget..
Not to mention an 'brand new' OS?
My prediction: RUNAWAY SUCCESS!!!!!
Why is it so hard for someone to just finally release an ipad competitor that at least tries to match the specs? 7 inches is barely above smartphone level.
They're using WebKit (the leading mobile browser) since it's LGPL. They're also using QNX, which, while not exactly open source, was shared source. Key word: was. RIM (as in rim job) closed it up after buying QNX.
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
Hey RIM, pssst! There is nothing wrong with having the boring, but secure, reliable but quick, phone that just works. NOTHING.
You are being distracted into oblivion by people who WONT BUY YOUR TABLET ANYWAY.
I wonder if these things will replace the iPad at meetings and such. It seems like a good idea, but having to tether could be a pain.
GENERATION 25: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation. Social exper
A few things I'd like to have answered
1. What's the battery life on this bad boy.
2. Why no cell network connection out the gate.
3. Some sort of estimate on price.
I'm glad they're doing a redesigned OS for this. The tablet market should get real interesting in the next few years.
"Educate the mind but never at the expense of the soul."~Blessed Basil Moreau
Targeted at business users but called a playbook, eh? Seems like an odd name for that.
"I'm a Genius!"*
*Not an actual Genius
I like that they are using QNX. Of course, this device will be just as awful as most blackberries.
They're hoping you're willing to overlook the smaller screen in return for front/back facing cameras and a higher resolution screen. Which, if rumours are to be believed, means they will be overshadowed when the iPad Mk II comes out.
Magic doesn't work in my presence. My power of disbelief is too strong.
RIM is touting this as enterprise ready, but a lot of the features seems more geared towards a toy gadget (being able to play all sorts of video and audio formats, 1080p output, etc) and less as a business tool. I don't know of many companies that will willingly hand their employees (after already giving them a Blackberry phone) an add-on device that seems like it's geared to kill productivity.
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Should have named it Blackbook.
People would actually have to be using Apple's worthless iPads in meeting for them to be 'replaced'...
The only idiots with iPads are the Hipster Douchebag Starbucks crowd.
One thing I seem to have missed is the price.
How much is this thing? $500?
It's just like that Android tablet by Samsung - why is there no announcement on price? Even subsidized prices if you must. Rumored pricing has it expensive, though.
And now this thing comes out with a ton of nice specs, but no pricing.
Heck, at least Jobs announced the iPad's price when he did the iPad keynote.
A tablet with QNX sounds like a cool idea. From what I remember QNX is extremely fast and responsive.
I am not sure it will sell however.
In any case give me shell access and I'll buy one.
Triple core ARM setup with HD video playback
Symmetrical rectangular ABS plastic frame with shatterproof glass
- docking port/HDMI on the bottom
- USB3 on left and right
- evenly spaced screw beds around the sides for accessory bodies/attachments
- VESA plate for the back
PixelQi display (indoor/outdoor/e-ink)
Stylus or touch input
Front and rear 3 to 5MP cameras
- allow slack for the rear camera connection so the lens can be integrated into a larger body
Built in stereo mic
Built in stereo speakers
Mini PCI slot instead of built in 3G
GPS with compass
Accelerometers
Keep things squared off and let the consumer decide if they want to buy cheap silicone to round it off. That makes it easier for vendors to design bodies to add laser scanners or extended batteries or label printers or whatever.
Buzz word driven evolution. Two years ago were netbooks, last year were ebook readers and this year we have tablets. Everyone needs to get its costumed or proprietary gadget on the market, just to mark a position. I don't see market for all this stuff. Who need a cell phone (or 2), netbook, ebook reader and tablet at the same time? I predict gadjet saturation.
Math is beautiful... e^(pi*i)+1=0
That actually looks pretty good. It's got all the must have features any new tablet will have to provide, and if direct access to the Blackberry servers, not having 3G for huge offices could be usefull for some corporations. Might as well use their in-building wireless with all it's controls.
I don't see this as an iPad competitor, but Android, as long as it comes out REALLY early in 2011 and has decent battery life and reasonable price. Doesn't need to be cheaper considering they're after the business market, just reasonable. Considering they ARE aiming for their existing market, not having an itunes like media/apps center could be seen as an advantage "Your execs desperate for a tablet but you don't want them playing Angry Birds all day? use this! With a set of policies able to be locked down, your drones will be doing what YOU want them to do".
Waiting for an amusing sig.
I do think their recent acquisition of QNX combined with their copying the looks of WebOS are strategically wise, but so was the hype on the original "Storm" but their hardware implementation was a faceplant (Storm 2 is much better).
I wish them luck... if the Android tablets continue to be cripped by the contract required for Market access issue, they may make some headway... will be a bonus for them if Microsoft continues to stumble on the mobile front (WP7 looks promising, but MS is late to the game).
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... who think that QNX is "brand new"???
I was snickering at that "brand new OS" myself, for all of what it took me to read next four words, and I thought "Wow, that's cool! Smart move!"
Anyone else remember those 3.5" QNX demo floppies, with kernel, GUI and functional browser on top?
Paul B.
I -love- my Curve 8330. Old hardware though it may be, it works great. Their scrolly based interface is easy to use and the phone was designed to get shit done. It is a business phone. It's call quality and signal quality are great, it is solid, it is everything I want in a phone. No it isn't shiny or hip, but I didn't buy it for that. I, or rather my employer, bought it as a business communications device, something it is fantastic at.
They seem to have problem understanding that is the market, that is why people like them. Let Apple have the hipster market who's in to shiny gadgets. I agree there's lots of money in it but you are too late, and don't have the cool factor Apple does. Also, like all fashion markets, it is notoriously fickle and you could find it has run off to the next trend in a hurry. The business market is solid though.
Is that so they can get Flash to run at acceptable speeds?
Sick to death of announcements about tablets that I can not buy. As usual, no news about price, or release date.
Until I can buy one, these types of announcements are just annoyances.
You may have missed all the rumors about the next gen iPad being a 7 inch model. Apparently there is demand for that form size.
Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
In my mind this isn't really a RIM tablet. This is a QNX tablet made by the team who made the QNX operating system.
That RIM now owns QNX doesn't really change much in the short term. This is going to be awesome!
Seriously, every tablet seems to have this design quirk. Either increase the screen size, or shrink the case down to whatever panel you are using.
Avaya's announced the Flare, Cisco has something else I can't remember the name of, and RIM has this. Once the technology is strong enough, and orgs don't need to put core2duos on every desk, you've got a complete platform that docks at home or work and pulls all your business apps together. Give it 5 years to take off.
The resolution is a little sad though, and if Apple does release one, I hope it's at least the same as their current model. The 600 pixel vertical resolution is what really kills the low-end netbooks for usability. I relegated mine to use as a video player (on a big monitor) and found one with higher resolution. A good interface can help, but not completely eliminate the limitation.
But that's the problem; they are rumors. The source of the rumors are analysts whose livelihood depends on people listening to what they have to say regardless if they are true or not. These same analysts have been saying every year there will be a Verizon iPhone since the original iPhone launched. Some of them still insist there will be coming 2011 even though AT&T and Apple have an exclusivity deal until 2012. Until someone announces the deal has been canceled, don't believe them.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
I thought they were going to call it the RIMshot!
A kickass OS. I recall their legendary floppy disk that autodetected an ethernet or modem connection and launched a web browser. They were also the OS on the I-Opener (still have mine).
Lazaridis said it wont require new data plans, new security or anything new.
I wonder, since they're not changing their security, if they'll stick with a 64Meg application memory limit
BlackBerries hanging on for RIM job completion!
"Stratigraphically the origin of agriculture and thermonuclear destruction will appear essentially simultaneous" -- Lee
This is a little 'tin foil hat' but I've thought that companies could plant those rumors to then release such a device to get press as "beating Apple to the punch" as it were. Frankly I don't see Apple doing a form factor between the iPad and iPhone, what would be the point ? The iPad was already criticized for being an overgrown iPod Touch, the in-between tablet really would be.
If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.
Please point out the previous QNX consumer hardware that indicates the experience needed to make an "awesome" tablet?
Because I am not getting the connection between industrial RTOS experience and producing a consumer tablet.
A new interesting competitor significantly different from the endless stream of linux-based mobile devices (unless qnx, like windriver now uses linux).
Interesting to see how it competes. i hope they keep the high reliability they are famous for.
The OS is built on the QNX Neutrino architecture
Interacting with the thing is going to be just about impossible. All we need now is for the marketing guys to describe it as a "quantum leap" and their utter failure to understand the physics terms they are using will be complete...particularly ironic given that the owner of RIM financed the creation of the Perimeter Institute for theoretical physics in Canada!
If you take the current iPad resolution and apply the iPhone 3GS pixels per inch you get about 7.9 inches diagonally. Maintaining the current resolution and using something at least as readable as the old iPhone screen might be a practical way to scale down an iPad a bit.
You'd have to factor in the cost of a blackberry too.
Not if you already are, or plan to become, a blackberry user.
7 inches should be enough for anybody.
Their they're doing there hair.
Really. QNX is many, many years BEHIND Linux right now.
Yeah, they have a microkernel with hard-realtime support and good maximum latency (which Linux can't match just yet).
However, if you look closely - it's not so great. Unix subsytem, filesystem and network stack all run inside one big process. So if it crashes it's almost as bad as kernel crash in Linux.
QNX's support for massive SMP (more than 8-16 CPUs) is bad, its scheduler is not quite good enough.
Various elements of QNX stack are hindered by microkernel approach as well. For example, you can forget about things like receive packet steering ( http://lwn.net/Articles/362339/ ).
QNX's support for 'transparent distributed processing' is just a joke. It's not usable in practice at all, because of overhead of message passing (which is usually assumed by applications to be extremely cheap).
I don't get the 600 pixel limit either.
More puzzling is that the iPad isn't widescreen - as a media consumption device i'd expect 720p content to display without scaling.
But if you've got 14 inches you could always fold it in half so it's twice as thick...hold on, what were we talking about again?
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
They're like assholes - everyone claims to have one. The problem is that unless the tablet can read your mind and pinch-hit for your bed-partner, they have to survive in a market that Apple has already defined and captured a substantial lead. Just having a few superior specs ain't gonna be enough - it's going to take really deep marketing pockets in order to overcome the iPad mindshare. Also, half of the tablet announcements we've seen here are pure trial balloons, seeing how the general public might react if they actual built what they say they will build. Until you can buy one, they are all vaporware.
The device already apparently supports HD via HDCP.
Would it *really* have been so hard for them to have made the LCD panel 1920x1080?
Why do so many manufacturers avoid putting full-HD-res screens on their supposedly HD-compatible stuff?
A few companies make 7" tablets already, but it seems like a strange size. 5" ones are small enough to slip comfortably into a pocket. 7" is not, but it doesn't give you much of an advantage over 5" in terms of usability.
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