BlackBerry has announced a new tablet with a very familiar appearance and branding.
The SecuTablet isn’t the follow-up to the infamously bad BlackBerry Playbook that you might be suspecting. Indeed, it isn’t really a BlackBerry device at all, and it doesn’t run on a BlackBerry OS.
Rather, the SecuTablet is a modified Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 with additional security features.
The SecuTablet comes about as result of BlackBerry’s purchase of security company Secusmart last year, as a well as through a partnership with IBM. As you might have guessed, this new tablet is not intended for your average coffee shop web surfer.
BlackBerry has told The WSJ that the SecuTablet will have a $2,380 (£1,609) price tag, hinting at the SecuTablet’s high-end business user audience. For that sky-high price tag you get government-standard voice and data encryption using a built-in Secusmart Security Card.
IBM’s assistance means that SecuTablet users will be able to employ these secure measures whilst running personal apps alongside, with no threat to security.
Read More: Why would Samsung want to buy BlackBerry?
This release also continues BlackBerry’s recent close partnership with Samsung, which saw rumours of the Korean company buying out the struggling Canadian firm earlier in the year.
Samsung has been left on the outside of the enterprise market, with BlackBerry and Apple dominating this lucrative section of the market. The SecuTablet is clearly another way it hopes to sneak in through the back door.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
