Article first published as RIM Tablet Just got Uncle Sam’s Approval on Technorati.
Just when you thought RIM was biting the dust, here it comes again with a strategic advance up its sleeve. Even though RIM stock value has dropped 60% this year alone, as explained on “Falling one by one” the RIM Tablet has been called a companion and has just been certified by the US Government.
As explained on the RIM Website itself yesterday, the BlackBerry Playbook received a FIPS 140-2 certification, which stands for Federal Information Processing Standard. This means that every US Government agency or branch will use the Playbook as their official tablet. It is in fact the first tablet to receive this certification.
This will perhaps be a big surprise or even a jaw dropping piece of news for other brands. But will this really mean a threat to Apple’s iPad, the world’s leading tablet? Most webpages and publications have adapted their products to the iPad before any other mobile format. Remember Murdoch’s release of “The Daily” just for iPad on this year’s first quarter for example?
The Android tablet as well, considered to be the best alternative for the iPad as described on CNET has had countless programs and apps adapted to it. Its friendly open source programming makes it possible to even represent any kind of competition for Apple. According to BGR to be exact, as of the end of 2010 and the beginning of this year, the iPad had 75% share of market and Android carried 22% of the tablet market.
Clearly the BlackBerry Playbook holds no significant numbers against these two major brands. But perhaps the US Government arrived just in time to bring it back to life, but will it be enough?
Read more: http://technorati.com/technology/gadgets/article/rim-tablet-just-got-uncle-sams/#ixzz1SrjmLpdv