In the already crowded market of tablet PC’s, BlackBerry has decided to unleash its own version of this rapidly growing nice-to-have item. Yesterday at Research in Motion’s BlackBerry Developer Conference, the CEO Mike Lazaridis announced that the company will soon be releasing its own tablet PC called the PlayBook. Soon after the announcement, BlackBerry PlayBook become the number one trending topic on Twitter and sparked off thousands of “I want’s” across the globe. The number one reason for this is due to the tablet being able to multi-task, unlike Apple’s iPad.
Let’s take a look at some direct comparisons between the two tablets:
| iPad | PlayBook | |
| Weight | 0.73kg (Wi-Fi + 3G Model) | 0.40kg |
| Display | 9.7 inch | 7.6 inch |
| Resolution | 1024×768 | 1024×600 |
| Processor | 1GHz Apple A4 custom-design | 1GHz dual-core processor (1GB RAM) |
| Capacity | 16GB, 32GB or 64GB flash drive | 16GB |
| Battery Life | 9 hours of surfing the web using 3G data network | Unkown |
| Wi-Fi / 3G | Yes / Yes | Yes / Yes via Smartphone |
| GPS | Assisted GPS (Wi-Fi + 3G model) | No |
| Camera | No – optional connection kit available | Two – front and rear (5MP and 3MP) |
| Adobe Flash Enabled | No | Yes |
As you will notice, there are some major differences between the two with both having their pro’s and con’s. What disappointed me with the BlackBerry PlayBook is the fact that it currently does not support GPS and thereby will not support location-based services.
The release date of this exciting new device is set to be the first half of 2011 in the States and most probably only late 2011 for the eager South African market.
Another exciting possibility is that devices such as these could be the first devices to start making use of augmented reality. Time will only tell.
