“The tablet, which some RIM insiders are calling the BlackPad, is scheduled for release in the fourth quarter of this year, these people said. It will feature a seven-inch touch screen and one or two built-in cameras, they said,” Dvorak and Tsai report. “It will have Bluetooth and broadband connections but will only be able to connect to cellular networks through a BlackBerry smartphone, these people said. Since the tablet won’t be sold with a cellular service, it’s not clear which carriers or retailers will carry the device.”
MacDailyNews Take: Uh, the ones with the most dust-collecting inventory shelving?
Dvorak and Tsai report, “In a significant development, RIM’s tablet will eschew the recently revamped BlackBerry 6 operating system in favor of a completely new platform built by QNX Software Systems, these people said. RIM bought QNX, a maker of operating systems used in everything from cars to nuclear reactors, earlier this year, in what industry watchers say is a bid to replace software criticized as slow and buggy. RIM eventually plans to transition its BlackBerry smartphones to the QNX operating system as well, people familiar with RIM’s strategy said.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: This will be great for all of those who want to gain access to RIM’s vibrant ecosystem… Oh, wait, RIM doesn’t have a vibrant ecosystem.
If RIM said it was launching a desktop PC, would anyone take them seriously? A notebook?
The lines are getting blurry. Apple is the only one with demonstrated capabilities in this new, wider, playing field.
BRING IT!!!!!
</Joe Swanson>
I don’t really understand why all these so-called competitors are bringing out 7 inch pads. I guess they want to be able to say with a straight face that they’re not copying Apple! LOL!
The BlackPad will have a bigger wider hard drive, will run at faster speeds, and will work well with other’s I/O ports.
An operating system for a consumer device built by people who build operating systems for nuclear reactors.
This has success written all over it.
So this device will only be able to connect to the internet through a Blackberry when it is away from available WiFi?
Talk about a walled garden! Yikes!
Unveiling any so-called “iPad (or IPod) Killer” is like going to a rock concert and finding out the “Very Special Surprise Guest” is Yoko Ono.
Hopefully the new OS code will be stripped of anything the might accidentally cause a nuclear meltdown. Corporate RIM meltdown would be different but probably inevitable.
cars and nuclear reactors? Perhaps rimlicker aims to combine the best of both worlds and have a plutonium powered edsel.
Sounds a bit like Palm’s stillborn Folio project.
As for the 7-inch screens, it’s possible that 10″ screens are prohibitively expensive at the modest quantities these also-rans are ordering.
I hope the BlackPad has a full keyboard like a Blackberry.
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“used in everything from cars . . .”
. . .because cars are renown for their intuitive, simplistic, and well though out UIs . . .
I gotta get my hands on some of that canuck doob . . . eh.
Hoser.
Sweet!!!!!
I can now play Angry Birds AND cause havoc with local nuclear facilities!
Thanks RIM!
Beat THAT Apple! :p
Hey don’t knock the QNX yet. If they know how to build an OS for Homer it must be dead simple (or explains why we’re doomed).
Wait ’till this gets announced officially. About an hour afterward, we’ll see a fawning article featuring or written by “expert” mobile industry analyst Jack Gold (who I suspect is on the RIM payroll) who will declare that the iPad is dead and that the BlackPad is the greatest event in modern history. My hunch is that this is a desperate Hail Mary by RIM, but in their usual style, the company will go into circle-the-wagons mode and trot out 3rd rate analysts for hire like Gold to blather platitudes on what I suspect will be a walking-dead product.
Prepare for the BS spin-a-thon, folks.
@cptnkirk
I think that KenC hit on the key reason for the 7″ tablets – cost. In order to appear to be “cost competitive” with Apple while not currently enjoying the economies of scale of millions of units per month, some short cuts have to be taken. I also suspect that Apple has tied up the majority of the high quality 9.7″ touch displays on the market.
I can think of one more reason – differentiation. iPad competitors will attempt to promote their 7″ products as more portable and useful. They will also tout cameras and USB ports and everything else that they can stuff into their devices to make them seem more attractive. Apple, of course, will follow up with iPad 2 and iPad 3 and so on, each of which integrates new functions in a better way.
@ Cubert
At least I understood your funny. Everyone else was too high brow to think low enough like me <grin>
PHRED Dvorak? Sweet jeebus, did someone actually breed with John?
@ Scratch-proof Invisible Shield
I got your product on my iPhone 4, after opting for Ghost Armor on my iPad. Invisible Shield should be called Yellow Cast Sheild, because before I got it, my devices were pretty close to the same. Now my iPhone has a definite (if subtle) warm glow.
Not a giant issue, but I won’t recommend it to others.
@ cptnkirk
They are all 7-inch (or 5-inch) tablets because their OS (whether it’s Android or this new one from RIM) is PDA-class, targeted for smart phones. Even 7-inch is probably pushing on their limitations.
Also, any 10-inch tablet would look ridiculous next to iPad. The competition has to do some work (in both hardware and software) before they can manage a product at the 10-inch size that is not embarrassing, now that consumer expectations for a “tablet computer” have been reset by Apple.
But at least RIM is still trying to do the OS “in-house,” instead of relying on Google or Microsoft for something as critical as their product’s OS. I’ll give them some respect for that…
ChrissyOne
May I suggest spending more time out of the basement and putting clothes on?
God loves you!
My knees are shaking!
The entire screen moves down to produce that click. Yeah its the new Storm Drain 2.0. The entire surface has to be pushed down and click to work.
First, they’ll try to sell them BOGO. When that fails they’ll make them all free, but people still won’t want them. Then they’ll just bribe people to take them. And when everything else fails they’ll just ramp up production to pad the number of products “shipped” at their next earnings announcement.
Oh the horror!!! Say it ain’t so! Always trying to play catchup.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” /> It’s okay, when BB and the Android devices start coming out next year, we will be on version 2 of the iPad.