RIM Tablet to be announced next week

Sources familiar to RIM's plans, claim the BlackBerry maker could show the world its tablet as early as next week, at a developers' conference in San Francisco.

The internal name for the tablet is BlackPad; it will have a 7-inch touch screen, one or two cameras, Bluetooth and broadband connections, and it's scheduled for a launch in the fourth quarter of the year. Interestingly enough, WSJ's sources claim the device will only be able to connect to mobile networks through a BlackBerry.

As far as the OS goes - and this is the most interesting bit - the same sources claim RIM will use a new platform built by QNX, an OS maker RIM bought earlier this year, instead of BlackBerry OS. Furthermore, BlackBerry is supposed to eventually move the BlackBerry to this new platform, too.

That's quite a bit of info from the Wall Street Journal, and although RIM did not confirm or deny any of it, it paints an interesting picture for the BlackBerry maker. RIM has slowly been losing ground to iPhone and Android phones in the last year, and - if real - these moves show a determination to turn things around. If RIM's tablet really brings a taste of the new platform that all BlackBerries will share, it won't be just a competitor to iPad, it will be a major test of RIM's ability to keep up with the current trends on the market.

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