14 DAY TRIAL // Today marks an important day for Canadian mobile phone maker Research In Motion, as its very first tablet PC, the BlackBerry PlayBook, has reached shelves in the United States and in Canada.
Officially unveiled last September, the tablet PC needed over half a year to makes an appearance on the market, but can be purchased now through various retailers in the two countries in three differed flavors, 16GB, 32GB and 64GB.
The device flavor that was put for sale today packs support for Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n networks, but is not the only device version that RIM has in store for its users.
The company also announced plans to launch 3G -capable PlayBook variants, as well as 4G-enabled ones (including LTE and WiMAX flavors).
The BlackBerry PlayBook sports a 7-inch touchscreen display that can boast a 1024 x 600 resolution, a dual-core application processor, 1GB of RAM, Bluetooth, Micro HDMI port, and Micro USB port.
The new tablet PC also comes with a 5.0-megapixel photo snapper on the back, with video recording capabilities, as well as with a 3MP camera on the front, to enable video calling.
The BlackBerry PlayBook runs under RIM's new BlackBery Tablet OS, which is based on QNX.
“This tablet features wireless networking for connecting to the Internet without wires and a 7" LCD touch-screen display for easy navigation of features. The micro USB port allows for an easy connection to your computer,” Best Buy notes on its website.
The retailer lists the BlackBerry PlayBook 16GB for $499.99 here, the BlackBerry PlayBook 32GB for $599.99 here, and the BlackBerry PlayBook 64GB for $699.99 here.
The company also notes that for the BlackBerry PlayBook 64GB model, “orders taken before April 15, 2011 will be fulfilled starting on April 19, 2011. Orders placed after April 15, 2011 will be fulfilled on a first-come-first-served basis, as product is available, and no later than May 7, 2011.”