Research In Motion

If reports from Wall Street Journal are to be believed,Research in Motion (RIM)  could showcase the world its tablet as early as next week, at a developers’ conference in San Francisco.

According to earlier rumors the Tablet PC is to be christened BlackPad, the rumors got more credibility when RIM registered blackpad.com. The touch screen tablet will measure 9.7 inches, akin to the iPad, and the price will be  in line with Apple’s tablet, the cheapest model starting at $499. It may not have  its own 3G cellular connection, but will rely on Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to access the Web. It could be that the Blackpad will be a type of companion device for BlackBerry, using Bluetooth to share a BlackBerry’s 3G connection to get on the Web.

“The introduction of a tablet and new operating system come at a critical time for RIM, whose BlackBerry phones are facing increasingly tough competition from Apple Inc.’s iPhone as well as handsets that run on Google Inc.’s Android operating system. Research firm Gartner Inc. estimated BlackBerry’s share of world-wide smartphone sales fell one percentage point to 18% in the second quarter of this year versus the previous year—even as the share of Android and Apple devices rose.” says the report.