Is this the beginning or the end of Research In Motion's play in the tablet PC market?
The original BlackBerry PlayBook was widely panned for debuting without a native email client and for an app store that most analysts consider to pale in comparison with that of Apple and Google's Android. But here comes the second-generation device, packed with support for 4G LTE-compatibility.
The new [PlayBook] offers a broad range of premium features, including a stunning 7-inch display, front- and rear-facing HD video cameras, HDMI out and stereo speakers, and it also offers premium performance on high-speed cellular networks, helping customers to be more productive than ever and to make the most of their time on the go," said David J. Smith, EVP, mobile computing, at Research In Motion.
The new tablet comes with 32GB of storage and debuts in Canada first. Bell, Rogers and TELUS will all begin offering it on Aug. 9. No date has been given for wireless carriers in the U.S. or other parts of the world.
RIM says the new PlayBook is enterprise-ready. The company says it can be easily managed with BlackBerry Mobile Fusion and includes BlackBerry Balance technology, which allows a user to use a BlackBerry PlayBook for both work and personal purposes by keeping business information highly secure and separate from personal information.
The device features the latest BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2 software, offering what RIM says is an exceptional, high-fidelity, fast Web experience that supports more HTML5 functionality than any other native tablet browser on the market.
