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RIM Announces BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet

Posted by Soulskill on from the getting-into-the-game dept.

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.

11 of 184 comments (clear)

  1. Must really hurt to be MS these days by h4rr4r · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Looks like all the handhelds are getting grown up OSes. I bet this really pisses off ballmer.

    1. Re:Must really hurt to be MS these days by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Probably, but I think this is really strategic move on RIM's part, at least for the 1st iteration of the tablet. (remember, the original iPhone was webapps only)

      To write a cross-platform Mobile app, developers already have to learn iOS, Android etc. .... what would they think if RIM had introduced a new Blackberry SDK (that's incompatible with the J2ME-based SDK for BB phones)?

      The fact is, these SDKs take time to develop and to get right. It's clever for RIM to leverage the widespread expertise in Flash. You get an immediate captive audience of Flash developers. Given RIM's lackluster marketing department and the declining of interest in the BB platform, I don't think RIM could have pulled off introducing a new proprietary SDK for its tablet.

      The Flash platform is admittedly a pain sometimes, but in terms of capabilities, you can write pretty complicated apps for it (with the right APIs exposed). Flash is so much more than those irritating little ad-thingies that people block on their browsers.

      I seriously think The Playbook is a product to watch. Its real performance remains to be seen, but as far as design decisions go, I'm thinking it's headed in the right direction. (unlike the pedestrian, status quo decisions behind the Torch)

  2. Foleo? by otis+wildflower · · Score: 1, Insightful

    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!!!!!

  3. They keep designing for yesterday.... by LibertineR · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Why? We dont need this. We need a Storm 3 that WORKS! Why is RIM ignoring the market that made them successful? Let Apple have the consumers, let Droid have the geeks. Business needs a phone that just works, dammit. Oooh, a tablet. I can read my email with larger fonts? WTF?!?!?

    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.

    1. Re:They keep designing for yesterday.... by ConfusedVorlon · · Score: 2, Insightful

      a lot of people and businesses will like the idea that they don't have to pay for an additional data connection.

      seems smart to me. You have a phone with a data contract. Why would you want to shell out another $15ish/month for another device to connect to the web when you are away from home/office wifi.

      --
      VLC Remote for iPhone and Android
  4. "Play"book by Teese · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Targeted at business users but called a playbook, eh? Seems like an odd name for that.

    --
    "I'm a Genius!"*


    *Not an actual Genius
    1. Re:"Play"book by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Not really. It panders to business speak ... "oh, we'll take a page from their playbook" - eg: referring to strategy, not a gaming platform.

      I know a bunch of alpha salespeople / marketers that are gonna love this thing, even if it is crap.

    2. Re:"Play"book by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Not really. It panders to business speak ... "oh, we'll take a page from their playbook" - eg: referring to strategy, not a gaming platform.

      I know a bunch of alpha salespeople / marketers that are gonna love this thing, even if it is crap.

      RIM should create a phone called the "New Paradigm". I wish I could say I'm aiming for a 'funny' here but I used to work at a place where 'Buzzword Bingo' was a way us engineering-peons really passed the time during meetings.

      --

      "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)

  5. Re:hmm... 7 inches by Kozar_The_Malignant · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.
  6. Re:Ya RIM confuses me by icegreentea · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Dude. They're still pumping out Bold and Curve revisions that are nothing but spec bumps + the trackpad. All this other crap? It's on the side.

    I know a looot of people who work at RIM. They all know that they have to keep the enterprise market locked down. But that's mostly to do with the BES. Hardware wise, they've already long surpassed what "enterprise" needs. To keep growing, they NEED to grab some part of the consumer market. All that RIM growth the last couple years? That's just been them leveraging the hell out of BBM and selling them to college students. That's not going to last at this rate if their hardware doesn't keep up.

  7. Re:LOLWHUT?! by Jurily · · Score: 3, Insightful

    QNX's support for massive SMP (more than 8-16 CPUs) is bad, its scheduler is not quite good enough.

    How will they ever compete in the handheld market?