You know, we just love hot rumors about next-gen gadgets as much as the next gadget-holic out there, but I can't help being at least a bit careful about taking some of them for granted, because the large majority turn out to be just speculation. And that's exactly the case with the latest pieces of information regarding a possible Internet tablet from RIM (Research In Motion) that hit the Internet over the past couple of days, which, despite being exciting, are a bit far-fetched for the time being.

The source of the info is BBLeaks, which claims that an insider source revealed the fact that RIM is hard at work on an Internet tablet, which would apparently be a little smaller, but also thinner than Apple's iPad, the current standard in this field. Furthermore, the same source has come up with a name as well, namely “BlackPad” or “Cobalt,” since pretty much everyone was ready to bet on the “iSlate” as the official name of the iPad.

Furthermore, the tablet will have full BlackBerry OS compatibility and functionality, although it's not yet clear whether we're talking about the current version of the operating system or a future, improved and tweaked one.

On the other hand, it's very possible that the guys over at BBLeaks have really managed to get their hands on a bit of leaked info and they're milking it for all it's got. The idea of RIM actually developing an Internet tablet is not that far-fetched, given the fact that the company has been growing slowly, but steadily, over the past couple of years, with more and more business users from all around the world adopting their handsets.

Nevertheless, the painful examples we had last week (both the Microsoft Courier and HP Slate projects being canned) lead us to believe that RIM will go through a very serious market research process before actually moving forward with such a project.


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