Research in Motion&'s business-focused BlackBerry PlayBook tablet will retail for under $500, the company&'s co-CEO Jim Balsillie revealed in an interview with Bloomberg.
The pricing move was to be expected. RIM&'s 7-inch tablet is competing directly with the 9.7-inch $499 Apple iPad, and other tablets are aiming for a similar price range. Samsung&'s 7-inch Galaxy Tab Android tablet is going on sale at Verizon stores for $599.99 tomorrow, and it&'s available from T-Mobile and Sprint for $399.99 with a two-year contract.
RIM is aiming for a first-quarter 2011 release for the PlayBook, and by then it will have even more tablet competition. Apple&'s second-generation iPad may be revealed by that point (potentially at a lower price), and we&'re expecting to see Android tablets from the likes of LG, Motorola and Asus.
As we&'ve written previously, the PlayBook has a 7-inch display, runs a WebKit browser (the same browser framework used on the iPhone and Androida4‚¬a4„s browser, not to mention RIMa4‚¬a4„s BlackBerry 6 OS), and it supports HTML5 and Adobe Flash. Under the hood, it sports a dual-core 1Ghz processor and 1GB of RAM. The Playbook has front (3-megapixel) and rear (5MP) cameras, both of which support high-definition video. The company is aiming big with an entirely new operating system for the tablet as well as some heavy integration with Adobe&'s Flash and AIR technology.
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Companies: Apple, asus, Lg, motorola, RIM, Samsung
People: Jim Balsillie
Companies: Apple, asus, Lg, motorola, RIM, Samsung
People: Jim Balsillie
Devindra Hardawar is VentureBeat's lead mobile writer and East Coast correspondent. He studied philosophy at Amherst College, worked in IT support for several years, and has been writing about technology since 2004. He now lives in Brooklyn, New York. You can reach him at devindra@venturebeat.com (all story pitches should also be sent to tips@venturebeat.com), and on Twitter at @Devindra.
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