16GB BlackBerry PlayBook to Cost $499 When Launched in April

Canadian mobile phone maker Research In Motion is expected to have the 16GB version of its new BlackBerry PlayBook tablet PC priced at $499 when making it available for purchase for end users.

Nothing was confirmed officially for the time being, but the rumor is in line with previous reports on the high-end device, which suggested that RIM would price it at or under $500.

According to a series of leaked documents that emerged over at CrackBerry, Office Depot would have the tablet PC available for purchase starting with the 17th week of the year, at the aforementioned price tag.

Basically, this would mean that the PlayBook is set to hit shelves sometime between April 24th and 30th of this year, a few weeks after the first quarter of the year is over.

Previous rumors suggested that RIM might have the device on shelves during the first three months of the year, and that March would be the targeted launch window.

Moreover, some analysts also suggested that the device would prove very popular among end-users, and that RIM would manage to sell over one million units during the first quarter of the year alone, while reaching 6 million sold units during the first 12 months of availability.

Although the new rumor on PlayBook's availability was not confirmed until now, the guys over at CrackBerry suggest that it would make sense for RIM to launch the tablet during week 17 of 2011 (April 24-30), and to have it priced at $499.

During the 18th week of the year, RIM would hold its BlackBerry world conference in Orlando, FL, as for the cost, it would be on par with the price point at which other 16GB tablets were made available on shelves.

RIM's PlayBook packs a 7-inch touchscreen display, a Cortex A9-based, dual-core 1GHz CPU, 1GB of RAM, WiFi 802.11a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.1, a 5-megapixel photo snapper on the back, along with a -megapixel front-facing camera, HDMI port and microUSB jack, and more.