BlackBerry Tablet and New OS Coming Next Week

Submitted by lalit on September 21, 2010 - 8:37pm.

WSJ is reporting that RIM plans to join the tablet race with a 7-inch tablet that will be introduced at BlackBerry developer conference in San Francisco, along with a new OS for the tablet. WSJ’s Phred Dvorak wrote:

The tablet, which some inside RIM are calling the BlackPad, is scheduled for release in the fourth quarter of this year, these people said. It will feature a seven-inch touch screen and one or two built-in cameras, they said.
It will have Bluetooth and broadband connections but will only be able to connect to cellular networks through a BlackBerry smartphone, these people said. Since the tablet won't be sold with a cellular service, it's not clear which carriers or retailers will sell the device.
In a significant development, RIM's tablet will eschew the recently revamped BlackBerry 6 operating system in favor of a completely new platform built by QNX Software Systems, these people said.
RIM bought QNX, a maker of operating systems used in everything from cars to nuclear reactors, earlier this year, in what industry watchers said was a bid to replace software criticized as slow and buggy.

Repots that RIM is developing a tablet to compete with iPad have been going around for past few months, but it is the first time a launch date has been added to the rumors. RIM’s developer conference starts next week in San Francisco and the company will definitely show some new products, which may include BlackBerry Storm 3 and the rumored ‘BlackPad’ tablet.