Fixed Mobile Convergence

Apple (News - Alert) introduces a tablet device called iPad to great acclaim and even greater sales. Research in Motion, maker of the hugely popular BlackBerry (News - Alert) device, then grabs ownership of the domain name BlackPad.com. Whatever could this mean?

Looks like RIM is just the latest company to take a shot at the tablet game.

This comes after Microsoft (News - Alert) earlier this month announced tablet aspirations; HP recently signaled its own plans to carve out a tablet strategy based on Palm’s mobile WebOS platform; Dell (News - Alert) discussed its Streak tablet; and MIT (News - Alert) Media Lab and One Laptop Per Child project founder Nicholas Negroponte announced plans to develop a $75 tablet computer. That’s in addition to the tablets available from a broad assortment of lesser-known companies such as Asustek and Wacom.

Rumors have been circulating about a BlackBerry tablet ever since Apple’s debut of the iPad. According to recent reports about the RIM product indicate the tablet is likely to have a 7-inch display, embedded 3G, dual cameras and a 1GHz processor.

And while RIM’s new ownership of BlackPad.com would seem to indicate that will be the name of BlackBerry’s answer to the iPad, another term Microsoft – which is clearly trying to distance itself from Apple while moving to get a piece of the table pie – is pushing for this class of devices is a slate.

"Microsoft and its existing PC partners, including Asus, Dell, Samsung, Toshiba and Sony, will all be fielding Windows 7 slates in the coming months… These slates will be available at a variety of price points and in a variety of form factors." Steve Ballmer said at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in Washington, D.C., earlier this month.