There is a rumor that RIM is working on a tablet category device; but it would be a BlackBerry companion device. This device would not be able to work standalone and it will need a BlackBerry device that will connect it either via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.
Now the question, do we really need such a companion device? Is there a market for this device which could only work with BlackBerry tethered? A group of market researchers say, it is a misstep just like Palm when they had come up with Foleo which got killed before its shipment.
This device offers 8.9” display screen. But, BlackBerry users have no use for such a large screen. When they want to type a longer e-mail or surf, they usually pull out their laptop. Will this tablet be perfect enough for touch typing on the screen?
There can be a good reason. As BlackBerry is considered as an enterprise device, enterprise customers may not want to buy lots of new BlackBerry phones and they can put the companion tablets into the hands of all their employees connecting to the BlackBerry via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. Maybe, for that reason, BlackBerry is developing this add-on device that enterprises can buy to leverage their investment behind BlackBerry.
Some people are commenting that few users may buy it just because of the Apple’s iPad hype. RIM might assume that only iPhone users are crying about lack of tethering on iPad. So they wanted to cater to this market gap. But can it be the competent market for coming BlackBerry companion tablet?
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