Research In Motion announced they would be entering the tablet computer market for the first time to rival Apple, who currently holds 95% of the market for tablet computers. Buisnessweek said today that RIM would introduce the BlackBerry Playbook for "under $500" but didn't give an exact price.
The Playbook will undercut Apple's iPad pricing, which starts off at $499 for the standard WiFi version and 16GB of storage, going up to $829 for the 3G-enabled version with 64GB of storage. The tablet was announced near the end of September, but no official pricing was given, which left people wondering if this tablet would be expensive or not.
The BlackBerry Playbook will support Adobe Flash, unlike rival Apple, who is still adamant that HTML5 is the future of both video and audio.
RIM's version of the tablet will feature a 1GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM and support a 7" screen. The device won't support BlackBerry OS however, but will run an operating system made by QNX that supports HTML5, Flash and 1080p video support.
Full specifications:
- 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
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