According to those in the know, RIM may use the occasion of its BlackBerry Developer Conference – or DevCon – next week to unveil its long awaited answer to the iPad, a BlackBerry-style tablet believed to be dubbed the “Blackpad.”
RIM’s annual conference is scheduled to span September 27-30 in San Francisco, California.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the “Blackpad” sports a “seven-inch touch screen and one or two built-in cameras.” The BlackBerry 6 operating system is reportedly taking a back seat to a new OS developed by QNX.
The “Blackpad” will also deliver Bluetooth, broadband, and tethering with a BlackBerry smartphone. But because the tablet won’t be sold with a cellular service, “it’s not clear which carriers or retailers will sell the device.”
If rumors prove accurate, the RIM tablet is expected to be manufactured by Quanta Computer Inc. of Taiwan, and, based on the information obtained by the publication, “will run on chips from Santa Clara, California-based Marvell Technology Group Inc.”
For now, RIM will not comment on rumors ahead of the BlackBerry Developer Conference. But all signs now point to a late September unveiling with an early November market introduction.
