September 2010

Research In Motion unveiled a tablet computer on Monday that it hopes will leapfrog Apple's iPad, using its annual developers' conference to highlight the device's potential for gaming, media publishing and corporate use.

The tablet, named BlackBerry PlayBook, has a seven-inch screen and dual facing cameras.

It has WiFi and Bluetooth but needs to link with a BlackBerry smartphone to access the cellular network.

It can mirror the phone, giving users a bigger screen to view media and edit documents, and wipes all corporate data once the link between the two devices is broken.

RIM expects to ship the device to corporate customers and developers in October. It will become commercially available early in 2011.

RIM has yet to set an exact price but says it will fall in the lower range of prices for consumer tablets already in the suddenly congested market.

Asked if later versions will connect to advanced 4G networks now under development, RIM co-Chief Executive Jim Balsillie told Reuters: "That's not a question we're answering today, but it's not a hard one to guess at."

The PlayBook weighs 400 grams (14 ounces). It will launch with a dual-core, one gigahertz processor running a QNX kernel and operating system that can incorporate BlackBerry OS 6, which RIM introduced in its Torch smartphone in August.

QNX, which RIM bought less than a year ago, uses industry standard APIs, meaning developers should have little trouble making their games, software and other applications work on the device.

"All the code that is out there, and there is a huge source base out there, is completely portable to QNX," said Dan Dodge, who co-founded and led the company until the acquisition and is leading its integration with RIM's products.

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