Blackberry is throwing its hat back into the tablet ring with a new product it hopes will attract buying dollars from the security conscious. The Secutablet will be a Blackberry product produced through its Secusmart subsidiary, but will run on Samsung's Galaxy 10.5 tablet with an IBM security protection layer.
Blackberry thinks it's Secutablet has a shot in the tablet market
Blackberry is hoping to play off of its reputation to draw in government and business buyers who need high levels of security for their mobile devices, and that may be exactly what they need to find a place in the tablet market. "Security is ingrained in every part of Blackberry's portfolio, which includes voice and data encryption solutions," said Secusmart CEO Dr. Hans-Christoph Quelle, according to BBC.
Instead of trying to catch the eye of the general tablet market, as it failed to do with the PlayBook, Blackberry is trying to sidestep iPad competition and go straight to its historic customer base and push Secutablet on business and government buyers.
Sectablet's expected price alls in line with that assumption, too, at US$2,380. That comes in well above Apple's most expensive iPad Air 2 at $829.
Blackberry has submitted Secutablet for certification in Germany where Secusmart is, and once that process has been completed the device will be available for purchase. Secutablet is expected to run Google's Android OS instead of Blackberry's own platform, but will be compatible with Blackberry 10.
Once Secutablet is available, don't expect to see it in your local Best Buy or Fry's. Instead, it will more likely get pushed through corporate and government channels where it'll have a higher likelihood of success. Just don't expect that success to come close to matching Apple's iPad.