BlackPad will lack the BlackBerry’s top features

Research in Motion will soon release the BlackPad, its own iPad-style slate, according to Bloomberg News. The reason for this should be obvious: iPad is selling well and making tons of money for Apple, so why shouldn’t RIM get a piece of the action?

Well, maybe RIM should consider what exactly its customers like about its products in the first place (at least those who remain loyal). One big reason that people use the BlackBerry is for its messaging services; BlackBerry mail is sent not over the public Internet or standard SMS gateway, but via RIM’s encrypted servers, a big draw for security-minded companies. The BlackPad will be able to send messages in this manner, which seems to be its main differentiator from the iPad.

On the other hand, BlackBerry users haven’t been won over by RIM’s touchscreen technology; InfoWorld’s Galen Gruman called the screen on the touchscreen BlackBerry Storm “unusable.” To remedy the situation, the newly released Torch, the company’s smartphone of the future, features a slideout keyboard in addition to touchscreen input.

That keyboard is one of the factors that keeps the CrackBerry faithful coming back, with users extolling RIM’s ability to build keyboards that are tiny but still eminently usable. It’s a safe assumption that the BlackPad won’t have a giant slideout keyboard; thus, while the iPad is pretty much a bigger version of the iPhone — which has a very well-designed touchscreen — the BlackPad will be a touchscreen slate from a company that isn’t good with touchscreens.

In addition, many BlackBerry sales are corporate driven. Thus, how many companies will buy BlackPads for employees who already have BlackBerrys? For starters, in the absence of Wi-Fi, you’ll need to tether a BlackBerry to the BlackPad to connect to the Internet, Bloomberg’s sources say.

Further, as noted, it’s unlikely that the typing on the BlackPad will be as easy as on the BlackBerry, which means it will seem like an orphan gadget in the workplace. Largely, the iPad has been a media consumption device so far, and if employers are footing the bills for gadgets, they want those gadgets to be used for work.

And that’s why there’s more to the clickety-clack of a BlackBerry keyboard than just a preference for input methods. That noise tells your boss that you’re working on a project and producing results in a way that the silent swishing of Web page scrolling on a slate doesn’t.

This story, “BlackPad will lack the BlackBerry’s top features,” was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Get the first word on important tech news with the InfoWorld Tech Watch blog.