Blackberry Tablet Blackpad coming on September 27 ?

According to the grapevine, BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM) would be launching the iPad competitor named Blackpad on 27th September, 2010, during its Developer Conference to be held in San Francisco.

QNX Software Systems, the subsidiary company of RIM which acquired it in April this year for $200 million, is working on the OS of Blackpad where as Quanta Computer Inc. of Taiwan will be manufacturing the device, and Marvell powering it. There are also reports which suggests that RIM may consider to switch all its phones to QNX's operating system. The tablet will feature a 7 inch touch screen and one or two built-in cameras.

RIM has refused to comment, the Wall Street Journal said the device was likely to include wi-fi but not 3G, so will not be subsidized by phone firms. To get online where there is no wi-fi hotspot, it will connect via a mobile phone. The release for it is predicted for the fourth quarter of 2010.

It is also reported that the BlackBerry tablet will be priced at around $499, and will only support Wi-Fi and BlackBerry tethering.