BlackBerry PlayBook

Research In Motion Ltd, makers of blackberry smartphone has introduced a new tablet pc to compete with Apple Inc’s iPad and to add a new revenue generator as BlackBerry sales slows in the US. Previously it was rumored to be named as Blackpad but finally its named as BlackBerry PlayBook.

RIM is racing to get its tablet into stores as Hewlett-Packard Co, Samsung Electronics Co and Motorola Inc build similar devices in a bid to emulate the success of the iPad in filling the gap between smartphones and laptops. Apple sold 3 million iPads in the first 80 days after the device’s April debut, eclipsing sales of its iPod music player.

The PlayBook will have a 17.8-centimeter screen, making it half the size of the iPad, and weighs about 0.4 kilograms to the iPad’s 0.7 kilograms. Unlike the iPad, it will have two cameras, front 3 Megapixel and back 5 Megapixel. The PlayBook will be able to act as a second, larger screen for a BlackBerry phone, through a secure short-range wireless link. Outside of Wi-Fi range, it will be able to pick up cellular service to access the web by linking to a BlackBerry.

“RIM set out to engineer the best professional-grade tablet in the industry with cutting-edge hardware features and one of the world’s most robust and flexible operating systems,” said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO at Research In Motion. “The BlackBerry PlayBook solidly hits the mark with industry leading power, true multitasking, uncompromised web browsing and high performance multimedia.”

Key features and specifications of BlackBerry PlayBook:


7″ LCD, 1024 x 600, WSVGA, capacitive touch screen with full multi-touch and gesture support
BlackBerry Tablet OS with support for symmetric multiprocessing
1 GHz dual-core processor
1 GB RAM
Dual HD cameras (3 MP front facing, 5 MP rear facing), supports 1080p HD
video recording
Video playback: 1080p HD Video, H.264, MPEG, DivX, WMV
Audio playback: MP3, AAC, WMA
HDMI video output
Wi-Fi – 802.11 a/b/g/n
Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
Connectors: microHDMI, microUSB, charging contacts
Open, flexible application platform with support for WebKit/HTML-5,
Adobe Flash Player 10.1, Adobe Mobile AIR, Adobe Reader, POSIX, OpenGL, Java
Ultra thin and portable:
Measures 5.1″x7.6″x0.4″ (130mm x 193mm x 10mm)
Weighs less than a pound (approximately 0.9 lb or 400g)
RIM intends to also offer 3G and 4G models in the future.

For more visit “www.blackberry.com/playbook”

Availability of BlackBerry PlayBook:
The BlackBerry PlayBook is expected to be available in retail outlets and other channels in the United States in early 2011 with rollouts in other international markets beginning in the second quarter.