RIM unveils its tablet PC, the BlackBerry PlayBook

The anticipation is finally over. The curtains are up. The much in talks Research in Motion (RIM)'s tablet, called the BlackBerry PlayBook, was unveiled at the Developers' Conference. The 'enterprise ready' tablet has a seven inch screen.

Weighing less than a pound, the PlayBook will support Adobe Flash Player 10.1 (a feature lacked by the iPad) and is expected to go on sale early 2011. Nothing has been mentioned about the tablet's pricing.

Although the screen size of the PlayBook is smaller compared to its able competitor, Apple's iPad (9.7 inch screen size) but it scores over the latter in the camera section. The PlayBook has two cameras including a 3MP front facing one for videoconferencing.

The PlayBook features computer monitors and TV outlets for it to display material. The tablet will use a new OS, called the BlackBerry Tablet OS, developed by QNX Software Systems. QNX was acquired by RIM early this year from Harman International.

The device will run on a 1GHz dual-core processor, with 1GB of RAM as well as HDMI and USB ports. The PlayBook can be synced-up with other RIM handsets through Bluetooth. The device will be Wi-Fi enabled and will be followed by 3G and 4G tablets in future.

Michael Lazaridis, Co-Chief Executive, RIM said about the PlayBook that the new tablet contained several features requested by corporate information technology departments. He branded the PlayBook as "the world's first professional tablet".

Lazaridis emphasized on the fact that the PlayBook was fully compatible with the special servers that corporations and governments now used to control and monitor employees' BlackBerry devices.

While Apple has always been ahead of RIM in terms of number of applications, the announcement of the PlayBook was followed by Amazon announcing introduction of Kindle e-book application for the PlayBook.

Charles S. Golvin, Principal Analyst, Forrester Research said about the PlayBook, "It's a very real product. But obviously it's very much a work in progress."
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