Research in Motion, the company behind the BlackBerry solution, might have ditched their recently-released BlackBerry Playbook tablet in favour of working on a new phone.
The tablet, which is yet to hit the South African market, is available with a 7-inch screen, but RIM might have decided not to release a 10-inch BlackBerry PlayBook, in order to focus on a superphone.
“A rumor alleges that all work has stopped and that most of the remaining PlayBook focus is on LTE-based 4G PlayBooks, which should ship in October. The N4BB insider didn’t know for certain when the phone would ship, but RIM’s CEOs have usually put it in early 2012,” Electronista wrote.
According to various sources, the new phone might still use the same single-core, 1.2GHz processor as the Bold 9900, as the battery from the Playbook is a bit heavy on consumption.
The biggest attention would be placed on the screen, and it’s rumoured to be 4.3 inches across, placing it in the 900+ range.
“The lack of a 10-inch tablet could be a risk for RIM. Even as a seven-inch tablet gives it a distinct feature, the size means developers can’t port apps from the iPad or Android 3 without having to reduce the size and possibly strip out features,” Electronista concluded.
By Charlie Fripp – Consumer tech editor
