BlackBerry is taking another shot at the tablet market, as it just unveiled a new slate with extra security in mind.
The Canadian company has lost significant ground to rivals in recent years, and hasn't come up with a new tablet in a good while. BlackBerry focused more on smartphones lately, butit's now poised to make a new attempt on the tablet market.
Moving away from the failed PlayBook, BlackBerry has now launched a new slate called Secutablet, which is based on the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5 (pictured above). More specifically, the Secutablet is a modified, more secure Galaxy Tab S. The tablet is aimed at enterprise and government customers who need extra security, not at the general public. According to BlackBerry, the Secutablet is secure enough to deal with classified government documents or the most sensitive enterprise information, without posing any risks.
The tablet leverages the encryption technology of Secusmart, a security company BlackBerry acquired last year.
"Security is ingrained in every part of BlackBerry's portfolio, which includes voice and data encryption solutions," Dr. Hans-Christoph Quelle, CEO of BlackBerry-owned Secusmart GmbH, said in a new press release. "National and international government customers have entrusted their voice and data communications with the Secusmart Security Card for years. This same technology is what secures the new SecuTABLET. Working alongside IBM and Samsung, we have added the last link in the chain of the Federal Security Network. Subject to certification of the SecuTABLET, German government agencies will have a new way to access BlackBerry's most secure and complete communications network in the world."
In addition to leveraging Secusmart technology and working with Samsung to build the Secutablet on the Galaxy Tab S 10.5, BlackBerry has also teamed up with IBM for its new tablet.
The Secutablet will use secure app wrapping technology from IBM, ensuring that even if an employee downloads a malicious application it wouldn't be able to compromise secure documents stored on the device.
"The SecuTABLET closes a supply gap and opens up for government and administrations an opportunity to derive greater benefit from digitization and the mobile Internet, with system integration as a fundamental success factor," Stefan Hefter, Senior Management Consultant with IBM, further explained in the press release. "We have contributed our longstanding expertise as a system integrator for mobile solutions. The technology used to make mobile apps secure by means of so-called wrapping has already proven its worth in the United States."
The new BlackBerry Secutablet made in collaboration with Samsung and IBM will become available this summer, but it will not come cheap -- the tablet will cost a steep $2,300.
