BlackBerry Playbook Tablet to hit market on April10th

Following the Apple's release of ipad 2, Canadian BlackBerry maker RIM (Research in Motion) has announced the launch date for its playbook tablet as 10th April. This might affect the ipad 2 and Motorola Xoom  sales according to the experts. An exclusive Report dated 2nd March on its website quoted that the BlackBerry tablet will hit the retail stores on April 10th.

 

‘We have been told by multiple sources that RIM’s very first tablet will be launching on April 10th in retail locations. Additionally, we’re told the OS (operating system) goes GM (gold master) on March 31st and that when you boot up the device right out of the box, you’ll be prompted to upgrade to a newer version of the OS. We’ll have another hands-on coming up shortly…,” the web site said.

Unlike Motorola, which will apparently sell its new Xoom tablet for a whopping $800 starting in a couple of weeks, Research in Motion is taking a saner approach to pricing its forthcoming PlayBook tablet.

CrackBerry.com received a leaked internal document from Office Depot that shows that the PlayBook will be priced at $499.99 for the 16GB model, which puts it in line with the cost of the equivalent Apple iPad. The document also lists an on-sale date of late March/early April, which will precede the rollout of the HP TouchPad by a few months.

While RIM’s pricing is certainly more reasonable than Motorola’s, it still shows an unwillingness to undercut the price of the iPad. There are dirt-cheap tablets running Android from no-name vendors, but no major manufacturer is even trying to price its product at $399 to see if it bring a competitive advantage. (Granted, the Dell Streak can be had for $199.99, but only with a two-year mobile contract with T-Mobile.) It suggests that margins on these devices may be slim for other companies, with Apple able to keep costs down through its supply chain and profits high. Or that one company dropping its price will set off a pricing war that will leave no winners among the iPad competitors. What do you think?

Blackberry PlayBook will be shipped with a 7 inch capacitive touch screen or 1024 x 600 resolution. RIM showed a preview of the OS interface – at the BlackBerry Developer meet. Thanks to the hardware, it is responsive and fast on switching from different home screens and widgets. Similar to other BlackBerry devices, Blackberry PlayBook will include the latest security technologies to assist the business customers and enterprises. It provides efficient and secure paring with BlackBerry smartphones through Bluetooth. Thus Blackberry Playbook users can access BBM, email, calendar and other sensitive corporate data in their smartphone without worries.  Blackberry PlayBook also targets the normal customers looking for multi-media and entertainment facilities. It includes two cameras, 5MP at the back side and 3MP camera at the front for video calls.  The 7 inch wide screen in BlackBerry Playbook supports 1080p HD videos and playing games with high graphics content. There is a Micro-HDMI port to connect the device to an external HD device. The  WebKit based browser in BlackBerry PlayBook that comes with full support for HTML 5, JavaScript, Adobe Flash, Adobe Air and other technologies.  Overall the BlackBerry PlayBook seems the best upcoming tablet for scheduled for the next  year release. Last but not the least, the disappointment here is the absence of a 3G model. However, reports confirm that RIM already started working on BlackBerry PlayBook 3G and BlackBerry PlayBook 4G models, and they will be available in the next year itself.

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