RIM to launch BlackPad and new OS ‘next week’

BlackBerry looks set to join the tablet computer fray next week. Research in Motion is expected to launch its hotly anticipated 'BlackPad' into a market already dominated by Apple’s iPad.

The Wall Street Journal quotes "people familiar with RIM's plans" as saying that the new tablet will be launched in the fourth quarter of this year. A developer’s conference next week in San Francisco is thought a likely date, falling as it does at the beginning of the next quarter.

The device is being called a BlackPad because RIM recently registered the domain name www.blackpad.com.

The WSJ’s sources go on to describe a seven-inch touchscreen (compared to the iPad’s 9.7 inch) and "one or two cameras" – although the value of the latter titbit is questionable, since it would be frankly shocking if the tablet had either no camera or three. Two cameras would seem the more likely option for the business-focused RIM, since it would allow video conferencing.

What  is interesting is the suggestion that the BlackPad will not be 3G-enabled at launch. Internet access will be available via wireless, but if you want to go online while mobile, you’ll need to connect via your BlackBerry phone – a detail that seems likely to limit the new device’s appeal. The BlackPad is, however, Bluetooth-enabled.

Another fascinating development - if true - is the possibility that the BlackPad will not be using RIM’s BlackBerry 6 operating system. Instead it will run on an OS provided by QNX Software Systems, a company recently acquired by RIM.

QNX makes bespoke operating systems and software for nuclear reactors, air traffic control and surgical equipment, a pedigree that should mean it has no difficulties in improving upon the BlackBerry 6 OS, which has been dismissed by many as bug-ridden.

RIM’s iconic BlackBerry smartphone, a favourite among businessmen for most of the past decade, has been losing ground to rival smartphones running Google’s Android OS and Apple’s iOS over the past year, although it is still more popular than either.

The Canadian company will hope a combination of its new QNX OS and a well-received BlackPad will be enough to turn its decline around.  ·