2011 BlackPad Tablet Using BlackBerry OS After RIM Junk Android Intentions?

After yesterday's whisperings of a RIM tablet for launch sometime in 2011, The Street is claiming that the touchscreen device is in fact the Canadian company's second approach to an iPad rival.  They quote Rodman Renshaw analyst Ashok Kumar, who believes RIM first planned to launch an Android based tablet later in 2010 but scrapped the device after "taking a second look at that product roadmap ... it has to compare favorably to the iPad."

Instead of Android, Kumar believes, RIM will use their own BlackBerry OS; that tallies with what we heard yesterday about a compatible platform to the current smartphone line-up, and frankly sounds a lot more realistic than Google's software.  As for hardware, the "BlackPad" (as the tablet is believed to be codenamed) has been tipped to use Marvell's ARMADA processor, presumably the ARMADA 618 which we saw demonstrated back in February.

Marvell ARMADA 618 demo:

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RIM are expected to prioritise similar functionality to their smartphones only with a bigger display to play with; that implies integrated 3G connectivity and an emphasis on messaging.  Quanta has been tipped as the hardware manufacturer.