The Blackpad is the newest rumor about Research in Motion. The keynote speech at Blackberry’s DevCon today may very well officially declare the Blackpad. Reports have varied as to if the headline can be made today. RIM has not said for sure what today’s headline could be. Some claim the basic gadget will not be ready for today’s speech. Blackberry / RIM could not come close to the audience of an Apple Developers conference, however the announcement is nevertheless highly anticipated.
The Blackpad’s spot for RIM
RIM, the Canadian business that makes the Blackberry, has found itself in a difficult spot the last few years. The original Blackberry gadget was not for consumer use. Instead, it was targeted for enterprise and government use. Though that niche is relatively small, Blackberry and RIM did very well serving it. Consumers came to love the Blackberry machine, although it was not designed with consumers in mind. Balancing these two customer groups has proven difficult. RIM tries to maintain high-performance features and consumer friendliness. Apple products were the first major competition for Blackberry. More and more often, though, consumers are choosing Android and Apple products over Blackberries.
The facts of RIM’s Blackpad
The Blackpad is, in short, an iPad competitor. Rather than a stylus, the Blackpad will take touches. DevCon 2010 may see the Blackpad discussed. A real Blackpad to play with, though, probably will not be ready. The details of the system may well be discussed, nevertheless. The screen will most likely be 7 inches, though 9.7 is also a possibility. The Blackpad will contain a video camera. It is possible that two could be involved, for video conferencing use. The operating system of the Blackpad will not be Blackberry OS3, but a specially-developed system. RIM has not yet announced the price of the Blackpad, leaving some to wonder if it will require a fax-less payday loan.
The Blackpad in the industry
Though everyday consumers provide a large customer base for the Blackpad, RIM remains a business-based company. Amazon will be creating a music application for the Blackpad. Blackberry said they will be targeting this device to all customers. Blackpad may have one major competitive advantage. If a 3G Blackpad is released, it will not be tied to just one cellular network. In other words, no have to be tied to just one cell carrier tablet compatibility. There will be many other competitors to the Blackpad, with the Galaxy Pad by Samsung, as well as the WePad.
