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RIM introduces the BlackBerry “PlayBook” tablet
At RIM’s BlackBerry Developer conference in San Fransisco co-CEO Mike Lazaridis took the stage and revealed some interesting statistics:
- Over 115million BlackBerry devices sold to date (over 12 million just this past quarter)
- #1 smartphone in North America
- 35 million users for their BlackBerry App World: 1.5 million apps getting downloaded per day
- Over 300,000 registered developers across the world
- Over 28 Million active BBM (BlackBerry Messenger) users worldwide
- increasing BBM stats show 1 million added per month (2,000 new BBM users per day)
- Developers will now be able to distribute their app via BBM
More importantly RIM has introduced their new tablet called “PlayBook”. Here are the specs:
- “The world’s 1st professional tablet”
- Ultra thin, 9.7mm
- 7-inch LCD display (1024 x 600)
- HTML 5, Full Flash 10.1, full web experience,
- Front and rear cameras (3 megapixel front facing, 5 megapixel rear facing)
- Supports 1080p video
- WiFi
- Bluetooth
- HDMI connector
- Out of the box support for BES
- 1GHz Dual Core Symmetrical Multiprocessor with 1GB RAM
More pics and a video after the break and you can watch the live webcast is here at BlackBerry
Discussion
35 comments for “RIM introduces the BlackBerry “PlayBook” tablet”
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Wait… 1080p?
Is that really TWO 1080p recording cameras?
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Wicked specs, but it’s usually the apps that are the most important thing. I really hope they’re doing an OS refresh to attract developers.
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I had very little expectations for this, but everything from the new OS to the amazing specs is absolutely brilliant.
Good job, RIM. I hope they get the follow through right
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Wow… Great specs… Could be an ipad killer if the UI is good!
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that is some impressive hardware, guess they learned from the torch
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Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
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Too small?
It’s a TABLET, not a table.
No one makes fun of Nintendo when their specs are a generation behind because their costs are low. Rim does the same….cept they sell high..Hmm…Justified! lol
“Wicked specs, but it’s usually the apps that are the most important thing. I really hope they’re doing an OS refresh to attract developers.”
Ugh. Apps are the most important thing…When you don’t have the full Internet. Apple doesn’t give you the full net and never will, creating the need for apps, but in a world were wireless Internet is becoming more and more common and devices are strong enough to give you the net, there is ZERO ZERO need for apps.
Why download a twitter app when you have full and easy access to the website?
Do you download apps for your desktop or laptop? No, with the exception of very large programs like photoshop, games or office. You just go to the web for general stuff..
GOD I’m so sick of the “app” craze. It’s the thing of the past now that phones/tablets are strong enough to support the full web.
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Why doesn’t the Torch have 1 GHZ processor? If RIM could make a phone like the EPIC with these specs, I would come back hom
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I like how they’re taking shots at Apple without using the word “Apple”
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Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
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BES, BBM exchange integration and probably a focus on organizational applications.
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“So what makes this an “enterprise” tablet?”…
BES = Enterprise Servers
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AT first glance this looks quite impressive.
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it kicks ipads but already with flash support
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Price? Price? Price? I seriously hope it doesn’t come in at $700+.
Looks decent and like Terry stated, with full internet capability, a person wouldn’t need too many apps (except maybe games). If the price is right, this thing will rock!
Any idea if it’s still expected to miss the Holiday shopping season?
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Q2 of 2011 is what I read. I can’t remember what site so I can’t direct you to it.
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It looks awesome. As a blackberry owner and the owner of an iPad I think this has great potential. However, I personally am not a fan of blackberry apps.
This could change things, especially with flash.
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Ok…any word on the phone capabilities of this device? I would so drop my Desire to get this. Its beautiful and the specs look great on it.
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Will bbm be available for it? If i can use bbm on it then i would consider it.
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yes, bbm is available on it, it cn be perfectly synced with a bb phone… which i think is amazing!!!
#hookedONdCrackberry
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thats pretty sweet, i was going to get a ipad after christmas, i might as well wait for this thing as long as the price is right (or wait to see what apple does with the ipad 2nd gen)
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this is practically a netbook without the keyboard (well… a bit smaller O_O)
but yah, i would assume computer giants will soon too push out some tablets similar to the ones that the phone companies are making
and they would be better because it now works 80% similar to a portable computer!
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I saw on the news that the pricing will be very close to the iPad
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If they can match iPad pricing, I’d be happy. I think that’s reasonable.
it looks great so far, but pricing and release time are going to be very very important
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look at the 0:24 second mark in the video. It shows “All” to be Browser, Music, Video, Photos, Calendar, Camera, Mail, BBM… no phone.
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Who wants to make calls from a Tablet anyways? It’s the opposite of what it’s intended for. but, if you’re hard up, Gmail chat’s “call phone” option. It’s a Tablet PC. Not a phone.
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No phone. Good.
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“1GHz dual-core Cortex A9 processor”
This for SURE is NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 processor! No other Cortex A9 based processors are ready for the market yet. We already have some idea how this platform performs thanks to numbers obtained from Quadrant and Toshiba AC100:
http://smartphonebenchmarks.com
Granted, Quadrant may only be utilizing one of the two cores since it may not be dual-core friendly.
For those who are not aware of Tegra 2, here’s a good article:
http://smartphonebenchmarks.com/forum/index.php?/topic/85-nvidia-tegra-2-tegra-250-dual-core-processor-smartphones-are-they-going-to-be-fast/
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I like it. There’s a lot of included features that the iPad, possibly the biggest competitor, doesn’t have. This could be a winner!
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Not a lot of people seem to have caught that it’ll only connect to the internet through Wi-Fi or with “3G access via existing BlackBerry smartphone service plan”, i.e. tethering.
Also no shots whatsoever of an on-screen keyboard smells like a keyboard/dock combo accessory.
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Shipping in 2011, no live demo at keynote, no media hands-on, demo units encased in plexiglass & no price. All Lazaridis did was hold a (non-working?) prototype & show some OS & UI videos.I don’t even believe a working one with the real OS even exists. Also I HATE how RIM always tries to hide who makes the CPU. If it’s a dual-core Cortex A9 it’s probably a Nvidia Tegra 2. Why not mention that? By the time this ACTUALLY ships there will be a lot more competition. Competition with better specs and proven OS’s (iPad 2, Android Tablets running Android 3.0 etc). The PlayBook is Vaporware until RIM actually lets someone from the media use a working unit.
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@Sunfaller – it show’s the on screen keyboard… watch again
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And yet an other new mobile OS. I wonder how they will convince developers to go for this one, especially if there is only one product.
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@rkarsk -
I didn’t say there was no on-screen keyboard, of course… I meant that they didn’t make a big show of it possibly due to the smaller screen size.
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Nice, I want to see the full specs and Application details.
It sure does looks sharp.
I would hope it has a built in GPS with downloadable map support (as when I need a GPS map I am no where near a cell tower).
As I am not always connected to the internet download apps/games would be really nice, but not really needed.
I see no mention of Memory card support… I really want a model with 128 GB of storage. 256 GB of storage would be ideal.
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