RIM has thrown its hat into the tablet ring with the unveiling of the BlackBerry PlayBook, and its new BlackBerry Tablet OS.
The PlayBook is a seven-inch tablet powered by a 1GHz dual-core processor. RIM is billing the device as a “multitasking powerhouse,” stating that Tablet OS supports true symmetric multiprocessing.
Unlike the rival iPad, the PlayBook will support Flash 10.1 and Adobe Mobile AIR as well as HTML5.
It has a touch screen, 1GB of RAM and dual HD cameras capable of 1080p video recording. While the first version will be Wi-Fi only, RIM has promised 3G and 4G models in the future.
The PlayBook will integrate with existing BlackBerry smartphones, and will be able to connect to 3G networks via wireless tethering.
The vendor said it expects to ship the device in the US early next year, and in international markets starting from calendar Q2. The Tablet OS SDK will be released in the next few weeks.
BlackBerry Tablet OS has been built on the Neutrino architecture from subsidiary QNX Software Systems, which RIM bought last year for $200 million.
RIM had made the switch from its BlackBerry OS for the new tablet because it contains legacy source code from earlier versions which limit the potential scope of devices, sources toldBloomberg Businessweek.
Word of a the PlayBook leaked last week.
RIM is the latest in a number of companies to jump on the tablet bandwagon following the success of Apple's iPad – Dell, Avaya, Cisco, HP and Samsung have each launched or announced tablets of their own.
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