With PlayBook, RIM jumps into tablet game

The BlackBerry PlayBook, which RIM says is enterprise-ready, takes aim at Apple's iPad with full support of Flash as well as Java

With PlayBook, RIM jumps into tablet game IDG News Service Blackberry Nick Barber: Research in Motion introduced the Blackberry Playbook on Monday aiming the tablet directly at the company’s core audience at the Enterprise users. Mike Lazaridis (President and Co-COO, Research in Motion): Recently CIOs have been asking us to amplify Blackberry. They’ve been asking us to make it work with larger screens. They wanted to be able to see full documents presentations, spreadsheets. [Applause] Introducing the world’s first professional tablet the Blackberry Playbook. Nick: The first playbook uses WiFi and – 3G and 4G versions later. The device can be paired with the user’s existing Blackberry via Bluetooth providing access to all of the emailing content on the phone. Mike: You’ve already got a Blackberry, you already have an account, you’re already paying for it, it’s already connected in the Blackberry enterprise service. It’s already being controlled and managed from IT. You already know how to use it. All the data has already been sent to your Blackberry why send it again. Nick: But the playbook also adds strong multimedia and web browsing capabilities. It has a 7 inch screen, front and rear high definition cameras for both video capture and video conferencing and an HDMI output for showing presentations on a big screen display. It also supports both Adobe Flash 10.1 and Adobe air as well as HTML5 and Java. The tablet features a 1 gigahertz Dual Core Processor and 1 gigabyte of RAM. It’s 9.7 mm thick and weighs about 400 grams. The operating system is based on the QNX Nutrino Microkernel architecture which is used in cars, medical equipment and some internet routers. With business and government CIO’s in mind Lazaridis has emphasized security and continuity but Playbook will work with the Blackberry enterprise server out of the box. Mike: You won’t need any new software. You won’t need new security. You don’t need new IT administration. No new data plan. Nick: We may expect the playbook to go on sale through retail stores and other channels in the U.S early next year and in other markets beginning in the second quarter. With reporting by Steven Lawson in San Francisco, I’m Nick Barber IDG News Service.