BlackBerry PlayBook "Best Platform For The Application" Says Lazaridis; No QNX Phones Until Dual-Core Mobile CPUs

RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis has been showing off the BlackBerry PlayBook again, this time at D: Dive Into Mobile, and he's been talking about the differences between the slate and the company's smartphone intentions. Describing RIM's stance as "presenting the best platform for the application", Lazaridis suggested that where Google and Apple had tried to take a smartphone OS onto a tablet, RIM will instead be starting out with a more powerful tablet platform and waiting for the hardware to match. That means, Lazaridis confirmed, that the PlayBook's QNX platform won't arrive on smartphones until there are dual-core baseband CPUs around to support it properly.

The PlayBook, Lazaridis insists, is focused on enterprise and security consumers, with mainstream appeal because designing products to "a higher bar" has appeal to that segment as well. He also suggested that Flash was a necessary inclusion, despite rival devices like the iPad not supporting it.

Meanwhile submissions are now being accepted for BlackBerry PlayBook apps, though the tablet itself isn't due to arrive until Q1 2011.