RIM is really shooting for some market share these days, especially now that the competition has really ramped up with Apple's iPhone in the business sphere and Google's Android OS stocked on all sorts of handsets. The Wall Street Journal reports that the company is now preparing a tablet that is supposedly their answer to an already very competitive market--where Apple reigns as King.
The tablet, referred to as a "BlackPad", is scheduled for release in the fourth quarter of this year and will be manufactured by Quanta Computer Inc. of Taiwan, with chips from Silicon Valley-based Marvell Technology Group. It will, allegedly, feature a seven-inch display, and come stocked with two built-in cameras, Bluetooth, and broadband connections, though it will only be able to connect through cellular networks on a Blackberry smartphone.
If any of this is true, that means that RIM already has one up on Apple's tablet in terms of price efficiency, as users wouldn't have to purchase a separate data plan for the RIM tablet device as they have to do for the iPad. But with the handset manufacturer's market share falling off a bit, who will use these tablets in conjunction with their own Blackberries?
The other road block is that there are tons of other mobile manufacturers entering the tablet market to consider. RIM's "BlackPad" may be a worthy opponent for Apple and Google and could satisfy those that are desiring more from their business-centric Blackberries, but then again, that may not be enough to keep the company floating in a top spot like its major competitors.
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