Research In Motion Readies Broad PlayBook Distribution

By Joseph Palenchar On Apr 4 2011 - 4:01am

NAPERVILLE, Ill. – The Wi-Fiequipped BlackBerry PlayBook tablet from Research In Motion (RIM) will be available April 19 in Best Buy, Office- Max, and Canada’s Future Shop.

The BlackBerry PlayBook with Wi-Fi will be available in three versions with 16GB, 32GB or 64GB of storage at $499, $599 and $699, respectively.

Overall, RIM plans PlayBook availability through a total of more than 20,000 retail outlets in the U.S. and Canada. U.S. outlets will include AT&T stores, Cbeyond, Cellular South stores, Cincinnati Bell stores, Office Depot, RadioShack, Staples, Sprint stores, Verizon Wireless stores and BlackBerry from Wireless Giant.

OfficeMax said it would offer the Play- Book in all three versions for purchase on April 19 through all of its 1,000 retail locations nationwide and through its web site.

Consumers in the U.S. and Canada can already place preorders beginning today by visiting Best Buy and Future Shop stores or going to the chains’ websites.

“The new BlackBerry tablet is being lauded by critics for its ultra-portable design, enterprise friendly setup, and uncompromised Web experience,” said Ryan Vero, OfficeMax executive VP and chief merchandising officer.

The PlayBook features include 7-inch 1024x600 WSVGA capacitive LCD touchscreen, 1GHz dual-core processor, BlackBerry Tablet OS, dual 1080p HD cameras for video conferencing and video capture (3 megapixels front and 5 megapixels rear), Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n, GPS, accelerometer, six-axis motion sensor (gyroscope), digital compass, 1GB RAM, stereo speakers, stereo microphones, and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR. It weighs 0.9 pounds and is less than a half-inch thick.