Blackberry has always been the leader at the business market and occupied the same place Microsoft had in offices 10-15 years ago. Several years ago when RIM was on the rise and not pressed by the closest competitors such as Apple and rising crowd of Android phones, every business person considered that a Blackberry is a must-have gadget. But now the situation is a bit different. The company managed to retain its market share and sales figures due to shrinking margins but is closely followed by Apple iPhone.

Despite the current difficulties the company is determined to prove its position as a sales leader and is revamping a range of its policies. Some time ago it even announced that it was going to deliver a tablet at the end of 2010. The announcement followed a range of the similar declarations caused by the immense iPad success. Though many specialists find it extremely unbelievable that RIM will be able to deliver to the market a quality tablet product, the company is determined to meet the set objective. Though RIM's representatives mentioned that the coming tablet will not rival the iPad in functionality and will be more of a companion device for those already having a Blackberry smartphone. Taking into consideration RIM has been targeting business audience for years, its new product might focus on it too, which would be quite a logical and reasonable decision.

Some time ago Cisco announced about its own plans to submit a tablet to the market, targeting business audience and the first pictures of the device were presented to the public to make Cisco's intentions seem even more plausible. So, Cisco is not only going to compete with RIM's future product but has a leg up on the device due to the company's collaboration reputation in the enterprise market.

Now it seems to be RIM's turn to respond. Its gadget should be well and easily integrated in companies' existing IT infrastructure and do it better and more easily than Cisco's Cius. As for the price range, Cisco's representatives are sure it will be less than 1,000$ which is quite a bunch of money. In the price battle RIM can make use of its favorite strategy increasing sales and keeping the market share because of a very low profit margin. In addition, Cisco's Cius runs Android OS and is compatible with all the apps already submitted to the Android App World, which are more than 50 000 titles, while Blackberry development can not boast of the same success. The Blackberry OS is the most obsolete mobile OS currently in operation. Besides, the company does not have a refined policy towards its developers as Apple enjoys. Maybe most of these problems will be resolved during the company's revamping which is under way. So, a new tablet may become a real chance for RIM to prove its leadership position as a flagman of enterprise and business solutions and technologies market.

It is yet unclear what will become of the competition, as neither company has provided real gadgets for public evaluation, but many analysts bet that Cius will become the first but not the last nail into Blackberry's tablet coffin.

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