BlackBerry PlayBook to Hit Shelves on April 10th

Canadian mobile phone maker Research In Motion should make the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet PC available for purchase in stores as soon as April 10th, if some of the latest reports on the matter are to be believed.

Although the device was officially unveiled in September last year, RIM did not offer a specific release date for it as of yet.

However, the company did announce that it would launch various flavors of the PlayBook in 2011, including a LTE-capable version, as well as one with support for 3G networks, and a Wi-Fi-only variant.

Apparently, the handset vendor is nearing the final stages in the development process of the Tablet OS, the mobile platform that powers the new device.

March 31st is said to be the day when the operating system for the BlackBerry PlayBook would become Gold Master, which means that the device itself should indeed arrive on shelves around that time.

As soon as users power up the tablet PC for the first time, they would be prompted to upgrade to the newer flavor of the operating system.

None of this was officially confirmed for the time being, so we'll take it with a grain of salt, but the info reportedly comes from multiple sources, which suggests that things might indeed be on the right track here.

Boasting a 7-inch touchscreen display, the BlackBerry PlayBook is RIM's response to the Apple iPad.

The tablet PC was made official last year with an Nvidia Tegra 2 application processor inside, and with enhanced support for various capabilities, such as Internet browsing, multimedia playback, email, and more.

The PlayBook runs under RIM's Tablet OS, based on QNX, and offers a wide range of features that would remind users of the company's popular BlackBerry smartphones.

According to some analyst estimates, the tablet PC might sell over 6 million units during the first 12 months of availability, and it would appeal mainly to current BlackBerry owners.