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After the success of the Blackberry handset, Research in Motion Ltd. has now started to focus on manufacturing tablets as well. Few days back, Research in Motion Ltd. revealed their tablet pc for the first time. This gadget is been named as the "Playbook". This new gadget will be launched in early 2011 and it will have an international rollout later in the year. RIM has now started to challenge Apple Inc.'s iPad by focusing on their tablets which will be of lighter weight and small in size.

Apple Inc.'s "iPad" was introduced in the month of March and has become the leading seller of tablets in the market. Dell has also launched its very own tablet pc called "Streak" in the month of August. Samsung Electronics co. will be launching its tablet pc "Galaxy tab" next month. Cisco Systems Inc. will be also be launching its tablet pc called "Cius" in the early 2011. So RIM will have lot of competition in this field when Playbook is launched.

Now coming to features of the Playbook, this gadget has got a 7-inch display screen which is half the size of iPad and the weighs almost same as that of iPad. This tablet has got 2 cameras in it, one in the front and other one in the back. This gadget can be used as the second screen for the Blackberry phone with the help of short range wireless link hence an larger display screen for the Blackberry phone is achieved. This gadget will also work as a stand-alone gadget. RIM's main focus is to give complete web experience to the users which can give the ability to display flash & interactive material on the web.

As of now, RIM did not tell about the exact pricing of the Playbook. But it has said that this tablet will be costing in the same range as that of iPad, which starts at $499.

On Monday, industry-tracker Nielsen Company released its figures regarding smartphones in US market. According to the reports, stats show that smartphones running on Google's Android Operating System are gaining ground in US market. Smartphones which are running on the Android OS surged to 13% of the market. These smartphones has shown the most significant expansion in the market share among the current subscribers.

But on the other hand, Apple's iPhone has been the headline grabber over the last few years in the market. There has been a drop from 27% to 15% in the handsets which runs on Windows Mobile software in the US smartphone market during the same 1 year period. Blackberry smartphones are the most popular handsets in the US market which acquires 35% of the market. Next ones are the iPhones with 28% of the market.

The smartphones which has the capability of data connections like web browsing and e-mail etc., made up 25% of the US smartphone market. Nielsen Company predicted that this would surpass the number of feature phones by the end of 2011.