Research In Motion is supposedly preparing to make 2.5 million BlackBerry tablets, or BlackPads, for the fourth quarter of this year, according to a financial analyst.
This figure comes from Susquehanna Research analyst Jeffrey Fidacaro and it does seem a little high to me because the Apple iPad sold 3.27 million units in its first quarter. I don’t know if that phenomenon will be replicable, particularly by RIM.
We may see the BlackBerry tablet as early as Monday at the company’s developer conference and it appears that the device will be aimed at the existing customer base. I would imagine the BlackPad will be seen as an add-on to the RIM smartphone, as opposed to its own independent computing device.
We’ve heard that the BlackBerry tablet will have a 7-inch capacitive touchscreen, WiFi, Bluetooth and multiple cameras. Look for the device to rely on a RIM smartphone for 3G connectivity and I would also think that it won’t come with a GPS chip.
So what is the point of a BlackBerry tablet? I would imagine that the company is trying to target the enterprise market with this new device. Despite some companies eying the iPhone and Android, RIM is still the king of the enterprise market and a tablet could be well-received in certain industries.
We still don’t know what operating system will power the BlackBerry tablet but it appears that it won’t run the latest platform which powers the Torch. We’ve heard rumblings that the new RIM device will be powered by QNX software, which could be a good or bad thing.
QNX is known for making platforms for embedded systems, which means its software works well and will be consistent. It’s unclear how intuitive or developer friendly this will be, though.
We’ll have multiple boots on the ground at the conference, so keep it locked here for the latest on the BlackPad.
[Via eWeek]