Rim not using OS 6 for BlackPad

It seems that Rim is set to take a different approach to jumping on the iPad bandwagon.

The company’s planned tablet device, which is thought to be called the BlackPad, won’t run BlackBerry OS 6 as many assumed it would.

According to Bloomberg, the tablet will be built on code produced by QNX Software Systems, a company which Rim bought up earlier this year for a tidy $200 million.

Rim hopes to make an impact and differentiate itself from the iPad which is a device for consuming, not producing, an analyst told Bloomberg.

There are scant details on the BlackPad at the moment, though, and Rim has managed to keep it very tightly under wraps given that speculation pins the launch date down to as soon as November.

Soon enough, the market will be flooded with tablets in the wake of the iPad’s success. The first one to emerge is likely to be the Samsung Galaxy Tablet, which should be out next month (Vodafone is rumoured to be carrying it in the UK).