RIM’s new tablet: Blackberry Playbook

RIM has just announce their new tablet. The Blackberry Playbook.

http://crackberry.com/blackberry-playbook-announced

Specs listed on Crackberry.com:

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)

Additional features and specifications of the BlackBerry PlayBook will be shared on or before the date this product is launched in retail outlets

Every manufacturer and their mother are getting into the tablet foray. It looks like the iPad won’t be  alone any longer. Samsung and their Galaxy Tab will also be hitting state side soon as well.  So far the Blackberry Playbook has already exceeded my expectations, which wasn’t all that much to begin with as RIM is known to be very conservative with their Blackberry phones. That’s why I’m surprised by their hardware specs, and I’m very interested in their new QNX OS.  RIM will need this device to be impressive (and magical) if it wants to bite a chuck out of the iPad’s market share. Yay, for competition!