RIM’s been showing off the music store and podcasts app to launch with the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet around the end of the month, but there’s still another surprise in store – a dedicated peer-to-peer video conferencing app, according to RIM VP of enterprise strategy, David Heit. The PlayBook has a front-facing HD-capable 3 megapixel camera which just screams “video calling”, but the only software we’ve heard of potentially powering video calling was Skype, and that was more of a PR mix-up than anything. The idea of RIM launching its own FaceTime-like service with heavy tie-ins to BBM seems like a natural choice, but I’m sure they’ll be eager to get as many third-party video calling apps on board too.
The BlackBerry PlayBook has a second camera on the back, clocking in at 5 megapixels, if you want to show off something in front of you for video calling. The 7-inch 1024 x 600 display will no doubt do good things for displaying callers; who knows, maybe you’ll be able to pump video calls out to your TV through the HDMI-out. I’m curious if the dual-core 1 GHz processor and 1 GB of RAM will be able to handle multiple callers, but it wouldn’t be surprising.
No proper screenshots of the app yet, but I’m sure we’ll get a demo before launch. As for when it comes out, it’s possible the Wi-Fi-only PlayBook might support video calling from the onset, but who knows – maybe they’ll hold it back for the HSPA+/WiMAX/LTE versions so carriers can make a buck off the hype.
[via CIO]