RIM, the maker of Blackberry smartphones, is planning the launch of a new product to claim their share of the tablet PC pie as the market for such devices grows.
In 80 days, three million Apple iPads have been sold. In order to ride this wave, the Blackpad is set to be introduced in November, two people familiar with RIM’s plans told Bloomberg on Friday.
The company’s spokesperson has not confirmed or issued any statements regarding the new tablet, but the Ontario-based firm is said to have “acquired the Internet rights to blackpad.com this month, according to the Whois database of domain names.”
Although no official plan has been made public as of yet, two anonymous insiders gave Bloomberg news’ Hugo Miller some information about the new tablet.
With dimensions similar to the iPad, combined with Wi-Fi and bluetooth wireless technology, the device will allow users to “connect to the internet through their Blackberry smartphones,” when the connection through an Internet hotspot is not an option, the two unnamed people told Miller.
Rather than competing on price, RIM aligned the tablet’s price with Apple’s iPad, in the hope to sell in large numbers, counting on their popularity with corporate users. It will be “closely integrated with the Blackberry’s e-mail system and will have similar security for messaging,” the Bloomberg report noted.
In addition, the company will be hosting an event in New York Tuesday to debut its Blackberry 9800 slider-phone, which offers a full touchscreen like Apple’s iPhone, but also a slide-out qwerty keyboard for fast e-mail and text messaging.
In its race to secure a lucrative market share in the face of Apple’s success, RIM will have to build confidence that its touchscreen technology can compete with other leaders like Apple in the tablet market.
RIM’s 6,000 available apps will have to compete with the 225,000 available for Apple devices and its integrated iTunes.
In 80 days, three million Apple iPads have been sold. In order to ride this wave, the Blackpad is set to be introduced in November, two people familiar with RIM’s plans told Bloomberg on Friday.
The company’s spokesperson has not confirmed or issued any statements regarding the new tablet, but the Ontario-based firm is said to have “acquired the Internet rights to blackpad.com this month, according to the Whois database of domain names.”
Although no official plan has been made public as of yet, two anonymous insiders gave Bloomberg news’ Hugo Miller some information about the new tablet.
With dimensions similar to the iPad, combined with Wi-Fi and bluetooth wireless technology, the device will allow users to “connect to the internet through their Blackberry smartphones,” when the connection through an Internet hotspot is not an option, the two unnamed people told Miller.
Rather than competing on price, RIM aligned the tablet’s price with Apple’s iPad, in the hope to sell in large numbers, counting on their popularity with corporate users. It will be “closely integrated with the Blackberry’s e-mail system and will have similar security for messaging,” the Bloomberg report noted.
In addition, the company will be hosting an event in New York Tuesday to debut its Blackberry 9800 slider-phone, which offers a full touchscreen like Apple’s iPhone, but also a slide-out qwerty keyboard for fast e-mail and text messaging.
In its race to secure a lucrative market share in the face of Apple’s success, RIM will have to build confidence that its touchscreen technology can compete with other leaders like Apple in the tablet market.
RIM’s 6,000 available apps will have to compete with the 225,000 available for Apple devices and its integrated iTunes.
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