RIM's iPad rival 'arrives next week' Blackberry maker Research in Motion "could" unveil its iPad challenger next week at its developer conference in San Francisco, according to a report citing "people familiar with RIM's plans." The Wall Street Journal reports that the long rumored RIM tablet – referred to by some within the company as the "BlackPad" – will reach …
An iPad requires a SIM with a separate data plan to use 3G (based on what the Apple Store says) which costs extra every month, starting at £7.50pcm cheapest option - another £90 per year. My Blackberry plan comes with unlimited data, so I could use 3G on one of these for no extra cost beyond purchase price. It would make sense to have an option to insert a SIM into the BlackPad (I prefer PadBerry, myself...) in the same way as an iPad for non BlackBerry users. It could be a way to try to consolidate a 'range' of devices in the same way that Apple have, as people who like this are more likely to buy a BlackBerry handset as well.
(Though, TBH I doubt I'll buy one, as I have enough portable devices with my BlackBerry and PMP, and don't personally need a device of this nature.)
but if it can get Internet via bluetooth connection, I might be interested. I do have a blackberry but am sorely tempted to dump it in favour of an android phone.
I am also not convinced that the decision to use another OS is good. They're late to the party....
But I am sure it'll suit some people who found their storm to be deficient. As it clearly was.
I can't help but think that a 7" screen is a bit betwixt and between. Far too large for a smartphone (I think these 4.5" smartphones are Trigger Happy oversized), and too small for a tablet.
7" is spot on for a simple eBook reader -- it's about the same size as a paperback; but for a tablet that's designed to read full web pages (and so that you can see the full width of the web page at once), and A4 sized PDFs, magazine style documents etc. Not to mention using them for knocking up simple docs and spreadsheets...
I can understand why the majority of the current Android tablets are 7" -- Android is not designed for tablets (according to no less than Google); so will scale badly to 9-10" (see, for example, the 2x scaling of iPhone apps -- okay, not so bad with Android as the UI widgets at least re-arrange themselves, but still not a great experience).
So, I will be interested to see BlackBerry's UI. Has it been designed with the tablet in mind, or is it a scaled smartphone UI? If the former, here's hoping Blackberry come out with a decent sized tablet in due course.
QNX eh?
While I've never actually entertained buying a pad like device before, I shall watch this space in with great interest.
Pull it off right and you might get a purchase here where Steve did not. I would suggest the following:
1. Be nice to devs. Be really nice because you have to.
2. Keep the device open.
3. Or let there be the option of opening it up to people who want to mess about inside.
4. If build quality, battery life and UI are as good as that of an iPad, this could get very interesting.
5. Bonus points if no one commits suicide during its manufacture.
IIRC, QNX also has a Qt-based GUI thingy, which means you can do GUI apps with relative ease. Good choice for RIM; not sure about switching their OS for a QNX-based one, but then again, given the trouble with BB OS's memory management on devices < 256Mb, it is probably needed. I gotta see this device...
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