Black Pad: Blackberry's version of the Apple iPad

Apple iPad Tablet

Research in Motion (RIM) will most likely introduced its own version of Apple's iPad at their Developers Conference in San Francisco, California as early as next week.  A Wall Street Journal report states that RIM will also unveil a new software to what is unofficially called the "Black Pad".

This comes after the official introduction of Samsung's Galaxy Tab which is hailed by many analysts as the iPad's top competitor in the tablet computer market. Interestingly, the Black Pad will also reported  sport a 7-inch touch screen; with one or two built-in cameras - same as the Galaxy Tab.

If reports are true, Apple is fighting back with the earlier release of the next version of the iPad which is incorporated with Apple's video conferencing standard - Face Time - as well as built-in cameras. There are also new rumors floating around that the next iPad will also have a 7-inch touch screen.

With predictions that Google Andoid OS will rise in prominence thereby pushing back RIM's Blackberry OS back down the line, news on the up and coming (scheduled this November) released of the Black Pad is a breath of fresh air on the sagging spirit of the Blackberry brand.

The future of Blackberry has been hanging in the balance with analyst predicting an Apple iOS vs Google Android OS battle-for-control on the smartphone market. Nokia has also recently made noise when it named Stephen Elop (a former Microsoft executive) as its CEO; which also coincided with Nokia's push in the smartphone market. Even Facebook is allegedly building on a smartphone platform to compliment its trend setting social networking site. 

The Blackberry Black Pad will reportedly run on a new platform built by QNX Software Systems in place of the Blackberry 6.0 OS. RIM also plans to transition Blackberry smartphones with the QNX OS. However, initial reports indicate that the Black Pad only allows broadband connection to cellular networks through a Blackberry smartphone.