Will Research In Motion's BlackBerry PlayBook Challenge the Apple iPad? (RIMM, AAPL)

After the closing bell sounded Monday, Canadian tech firm Research In Motion Ltd.

released the BlackBerry PlayBook, its answer to Apple's

iPad. The tablet has a 7-inch LCD screen, a front-facing video camera, and a 1Ghz dual-core processor. The PlayBook will also support Adobe's Flash. The PlayBook wasn't a real surprise, as The Wall Street Journal hinted a week ago that RIM would introduce a tablet. While the company didn't release the price, Silicon Alley Insider posits that BlackBerry will assign a price tag in the $400 to $500 range. Why not introduce the price now? Silicon Alley Insider suggests that this was a smart move by RIM, as it could be as many as six months before the PlayBook will ship, which means there may be more competition from other companies, along with the potential for a new iPad from Apple. Waiting allows RIM to gauge the prices from the other companies and price its offering a bit more competitively.

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