Summary
29 September 2010
The company that makes BlackBerry mobile phones has announced plans for a new, touchscreen, tablet-style computer to rival the Apple iPad.
The PlayBook goes on sale next year.
Reporter:
Mark Gregory
Research in Motion's president Mike Lazaridis with the new PlayBook.
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Report
BlackBerry's equivalent to the iPad has a smaller screen and is lighter than Apple's device. That's meant to make it appealing to business people on the move, the kind of people who already buy BlackBerry phones.
Nearly six million iPads were sold in the first six months, so it's easy to see why Research in Motion, the Canadian firm behind the BlackBerry, wants a bite of Apple's market. One key selling point for RIM's product is, unlike the iPad, it runs Flash video, the most popular software for showing moving images online.
Apple devices don't run Flash, thanks to a well-publicised feud between the company and Adobe, the firm behind the video technology.
Analysts say the BlackBerry tablet device is better placed than many rivals to mount an effective challenge to Apple. But it's seen as more likely to find a niche in the market than to be an outright iPad-killer.
Mark Gregory, Â鶹Éç News, London
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Vocabulary
- equivalent
something with the same value, significance or qualities
- appealing
attractive or interesting
- on the move
travelling from one place to another
- selling point
attractive quality of a product that will make people want to buy it
- software
programs that tell a computer what to do
- feud
long-running, angry argument
- tablet device
portable computer, often without a keyboard, where you enter information directly by touching the screen
- rivals
competitors
- a niche in the market
a small but profitable area of commercial activity, focusing on particular types of buyers
- outright
complete or obvious
