Ottawa, Sept. 28: Research In Motion, the Canadian maker of the BlackBerry smartphone, introduced its first tablet computer on Monday at a developers’ conference in San Francisco. But in a return to its roots, the company said that the new device, the BlackBerry PlayBook, would be aimed mainly at business users.
After popularising wireless e-mail, RIM has ceded much of its leadership in the smartphone market to Apple and phones based on Google’s Android operating system.
The introduction of a tablet computer will not end criticism from some analysts that RIM is now playing catch-up with Apple. But in a bid to distinguish the PlayBook from Apple’s iPad, Mr Michael Lazaridis, RIM’s co-chief executive, said that the new tablet contained several features requested by corporate information technology departments.
In an address to conference attendees, Mr Lazaridis called the PlayBook “the world’s first professional tablet” and repeatedly emphasized that it was fully compatible with the special servers that corporations and governments now used to control and monitor employees’ BlackBerry devices.
While the company offered some specifics about the new device, it left many questions unanswered, most notably the tablet’s price. The company was also vague about its release date, indicating only that it would be available early next year. Among the PlayBook’s novel features are outlets that allow it to display material on computer monitors or television sets, but Mr Lazaridis made no effort to use them during his presentation.