San Francisco – Research
In Motion entered the tablet market with the professional-grade BlackBerry
PlayBook that uses the company’s new BlackBerry Tablet OS.
The device, said to be enterprise-ready, lacks
embedded cellular but incorporates Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n to access the Internet.
It also pairs with a BlackBerry smartphone via a secure Bluetooth connection to
access the Internet as well as display smartphone content. Sometime in the
future, the company said it intends
to offer 3G and 4G models.
During the company’s developers’ conference
here, RIM said it expects the
PlayBook to be available in retail outlets and other channels in the U.S. in early 2011. Rollouts in other countries will
begin in the second quarter.
The
0.9-pound multitasking device packs a 1GHz dual-core processor and 7-inch 1,024 by 600 WSVGA
capacitive touch screen with full multi-touch and
gesture support in a 5.1 by 7.6 by 0.4-inch chassis. Other features include 1GB RAM, dual HD camera/camcorders (front-facing 3-megapixel camera and 5-megapixel rear facing camera) for video conferencing, 1080p HD video
recording, HDMI output,
and support for HTML-5, Adobe
Flash Player 10.1 and Adobe Mobile AIR.
The PlayBook is
compatible out-of-the-box with BlackBerry Enterprise
Server. Other features
will be announced in the future.
