Blackberry manufacturer Research in Motion (RIM) will be announcing an upcoming tablet device next week at a developer's conference in San Francisco, said people familiar with the company's plans, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. According to PC World, industry expects Jack Gould and Gartner Research's Carolina Milanesi both outlined that the tech firm should back away from the consumer market and instead focus on enterprises, adding that security and productivity should be of greater concern than consumption and entertainment.

"If you're a smartphone vendor today the natural way to continue to growing your business would be to introduce a tablet," said Tech Analyst Tim Bajarin from Creative Strategies, USA Today reported. "In that context I believe it's quite necessary for RIM to deliver (one) as a competitor to Apple, and for that matter Microsoft."

Dubbed "BlackPad", the device will be released before the end of the year. It will have a seven-inch touch screen, one or two built in cameras, Bluetooth as well as broadband connections and will have to connect to networks solely through a BlackBerry smartphone, the WSJ detailed. The "BlackPad" won't be available through mobile network carriers and it is still not know through what providers or retailers it will be sold.

However, USA Today speculated that the manufacturer might have difficulties because "it's a market that RIM has no exposure or experience in," according to Sameet Kanade, an analyst from Canadian group Northern Securities. Gartner Research estimated that by 2014, devices using BlackBerry's operating system (OS) would make up 11.7 percent of the global market, compared to 17.5 in 2010.

In April 2010, RIM bought QNX Software Systems, which produces an open-platform OS for information and entertainment purposes for cars. People familiar with the tablet venture disclosed that this OS will replace BlackBerry's on smartphones, TechTree wrote. The "BlackPad" is rumoured to be manufactured by Taiwan-based Quanta Computer and to contain chips from California-based Marvell Technology Group. Reuters noted that the price of the tablet may be around US$500, so as to compete with Apple's iPad.

RIM shares have experienced some difficulties in 2010 because investors showed distress towards the firm's plunging relevance with regard to its main market and its apparent failure to branch out into other areas, The Times of The Internet divulged. Launching a tablet may have boosted stock prices in 2006 or 2007, Kanade said, but that may not be the case today.