Research In Motion revealed a new tablet device and associated operating system at its developer conference yesterday. The BlackBerry PlayBook tablet will arrive in the USA early next year (and in other markets from Q2 2011), while the BlackBerry Tablet OS software development kit is planned for release in the next few weeks.

Mark Bridge writes:

RIM and Sony Ericsson each reveal a new product within 24 hours. One has a 7-inch screen and a big announcement at the company's developer conference. The other, with a 1.3-inch micro-display, has a lower-key launch. Yet it's the similarities that have attracted my attention.

Research In Motion has published its second quarter results for the three months ended 28th August 28 2010. It says revenue grew 31% year-on-year to $4.62 billion, its subscriber account base grew by approximately 56% to over 50 million (although it had hoped for more) and BlackBerry smartphone shipments grew more than 45% over the same quarter last year to 12.1 million.

The latest forecast from Informa Telecoms & Media suggests that Android will overtake Symbian as the world's most popular smartphone operating system in around four years – with sales of new Android devices outnumbering Symbian smartphones in 2012.

The mobile phone market in Western Europe grew just 1.5% year-on-year to 43.3 million units in the second quarter of 2010, with smartphone growth offsetting a fall in the sale of traditional handsets. International Data Corporation's Mobile Phone Tracker says smartphone shipments were up 60% on Q2 2009 to 14.6 million units, while traditional phone sales fell 14% to 28.7 million units. That means 34% of all devices shipped were smartphones, up from 28% in the previous quarter.