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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.

7 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.

  2. 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.

  3. "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)

  4. 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.
  5. 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?