RIM Readies Souped-Up Blackberry, Tablet: Report
RIM is preparing a smartphone with a slide-out keyboard that will run on an updated version of its Blackberry operating system, The Wall Street Journal reported late Monday, citing “people familiar with the device.”
Like an iPhone, the RIM smartphone will feature a touch screen that will allow users to swipe through screens and expand and contract images with fingertip control, The Wall Street Journal reported.
RIM is also working on a tablet device that would be a companion to the Rim Blackberry phone and connect to cellular networks and would launch at year’s end.
RIM’s actions come as Apple, with its iPhone and iPad, and Google, with its Android operating system running a variety of smartphone devices, capture an increasingly larger share of the market.
In the first quarter of 2010, among smartphone operating systems, RIM’s OS share dropped slightly, while Apple and Google gained, according to research firm Gartner.
Nokia's Symbian lead the sector with a 44.3 percent market share of smartphones sold, although that was down from its 48.8 percent market share in the first quarter of 2009. RIM's OS market share was also down, to 19.4 percent from last year's 20.6 percent. Apple, at the number three spot with the iPhone OS, had a 15.4 percent market share, up from 10.5 percent last year. And Android -- the biggest gainer on the list -- held the number four spot with a 9.6 percent share, up from 1.6 percent a year ago.
Microsoft Windows Mobile, which declined to 6.8 percent share from 10.2 percent last year, was the number five spot, and Linux and a collective category for "other OSes" rounded out the list.
For RIM’s tablet, a report in early May said RIM partners believed the company could bring a RIM tablet to market that would give the iPad a run for its money.
The Blackberry Leaks blog reported that RIM is developing a device that's "smaller and thinner than the iPad" and features full Blackberry OS compatibility and functionality. The device, code-named "BlackPad," won't be available until next year and could be unveiled at RIM's WES 2011 event, according to the report, which quotes a single unnamed source.
Chad Berndtson and Kevin McLaughlin contributed to this article.