Research in Motion may introduce a tablet computer next week, according to a report in Wall Street Journal. Rumours have persisted over the past few months about the emergence of a BlackBerry tablet that would aim to compete with Apple’s iPad.

The Journal provides some details of what the supposed tablet might look like sourced from unnamed “RIM insiders”. According to the report the device will have a 7-inch touchscreen and one or two built-in cameras but will not connect directly to cellular networks. Instead users will have to connect through their BlackBerry devices instead. However the tablet will come with a “broadband connection”, presumably WiFi. The iPad competitor comes in two models: one with cellular and WiFi, the other with just WiFi.

The tablet will run new recently developed software instead of the new BlackBerry 6 operating system.

Everyone is looking for an announcement of more information at the upcoming Blackberry DevCon meeting with devices shipping in the fourth quarter.

Apple sold more than 3 million iPads in the first three months it was on the market, other hardware makers have been left racing trying to catch up.

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