BlackBerry Playbook to sell for under $500

[Jagi]

BlackBerry Playbook to sell for under $500

Research In Motion announced they would be entering the tablet computer market for the first time to rival Apple, who currently holds 95% of the market for tablet computers. Buisnessweek said today that RIM would introduce the BlackBerry Playbook for "under $500" but didn't give an exact price.

The Playbook will undercut Apple's iPad pricing, which starts off at $499 for the standard WiFi version and 16GB of storage, going up to $829 for the 3G-enabled version with 64GB of storage. The tablet was announced near the end of September, but no official pricing was given, which left people wondering if this tablet would be expensive or not.

The BlackBerry Playbook will support Adobe Flash, unlike rival Apple, who is still adamant that HTML5 is the future of both video and audio.

RIM's version of the tablet will feature a 1GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM and support a 7" screen. The device won't support BlackBerry OS however, but will run an operating system made by QNX that supports HTML5, Flash and 1080p video support.

Full specifications:

* 7" LCD, 1024 x 600, WSVGA, capacitive touch screen with full multi-touch and gesture support
* BlackBerry Tablet OS with support for symmetric multiprocessing
* 1 GHz dual-core processor
* 1 GB RAM
* Dual HD cameras (3 MP front facing, 5 MP rear facing), supports 1080p HD video recording
* Video playback: 1080p HD Video, H.264, MPEG, DivX, WMV
* Audio playback: MP3, AAC, WMA
* HDMI video output
* Wi-Fi - 802.11 a/b/g/n
* Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
* Connectors: microHDMI, microUSB, charging contacts
* Open, flexible application platform with support for WebKit/HTML-5, Adobe Flash Player 10.1, Adobe Mobile AIR, Adobe Reader, POSIX, OpenGL, Java
* Ultra thin and portable:
* Measures 5.1"x7.6"x0.4" (130mm x 193mm x 10mm)
* Weighs less than a pound (approximately 0.9 lb or 400g)
* RIM intends to also offer 3G and 4G models in the future

 

[jackeebleu]

Are 7" tablets the netbook of the tablet generation? They'll soon become commodity items. And how can you build a robust platform, let alone product pipeline on that?

 

[doublejizzle]

I am semi interested in seeing about this one.

 

[Flawless]

499.99

 

[malaki]

good to see competition but its sad that I thought of this product years ago and these idiots running the companies need jobs to prod them to do ANYTHING.

i remember getting a sharp zaurus in like 2001 and thinking gee why isn't there a book size version of this

the best thing here is microsoft is going away

tablet os's will take over the desktop / laptop market. its just like PCs replacing minicomputers, minicomputers replacing mainframes etc.

 

[Heist]

Flash support + 1080p capable. Suck it Apple.

 

[BlackArsenic]

will buy

 

[ViCiouS]

how can it be the netbook of tablets if it has more power and memory than ipad?

to see a real demo of the playbook, google adobe air conference playbook demo

 

[jackeebleu]

You are right, a yet to be released product has more power and memory than the curent iPad, but also a smaller screen. As Jobs and Company have shown, they create a target and push industries forward. Who knows what the new iPad's specs will be? What we do know for certain though, is iPad is shipping now and reviewers have yet to even touch a playbook.

 

[Louis Koo]

nice

 

[LSN]

These companies is still just talking smdh

 

[followup]

Like it...just got a new netbook though so not sure if I'd get it so soon...they should have come out with it about 2-3 years ago because RIM had the technology...

 

[KRAYZIE]

I'll stick with my iPad until google says chrome is ready. 7'in is to small for me. Apple has the right idea when it comes to size.

 

[Jagi]

I'll stick with my iPad until google says chrome is ready. 7'in is to small for me. Apple has the right idea when it comes to size.

problem is google is awesome.. no guarentee the hardware will be.. each bad expensive hardware running android that fails is a black eye for google even if its htc, motorolla or samsungs fault.. its a double edged sword for google.

apple fails, blame apple..

google fails, blame google? hp? htc? samsung? lg? etc etc etc etc.. google should create some standards that manufacturers should adhere to that compliment their os.

apple didnt pull some features from their products to fuck people.. they pull and add what compliments their hardware.. google is lacking that..

the evo is nice the droid hatchitachi is trash.. does that mean google is nice or trash? too much room for error.. that's why the google phone was highly anticipated.. one hardware for one os. its the future.. really.. the marriage of software and hardware.. amd's fusion is along the same path..

 

[Jagi]

I'll stick with my iPad until google says chrome is ready. 7'in is to small for me. Apple has the right idea when it comes to size.

pretty much.. for all that i could just get a droid x and save money and carrying space.. not that smaller tablets arent welcomed just playing devils advocate...