PlayBook to launch April 19

Research in Motion says the new BlackBerry PlayBook tablet will be available April 19 in more than 20,000 retail outlets in the U.S. and Canada.

The BlackBerry PlayBook with Wi-Fi will be available in three models, featuring 16, 32 and 64 gigabytes of storage capacity.

The units will range in price from $499 to $699 and be available at Best Buy and Future Shop stores in Canada beginning on April 19.

However, the Waterloo-Ont.-based company says customers can place orders beginning today in stores or by ordering on-line after 8 a.m. EDT.

While Research In Motion is expected to report strong quarterly results on Thursday, the PlayBook is seen as a key to its future success.

The first generation of the PlayBook will rely on Wi-Fi short-range networks to connect to the Internet, initially without contracts with wireless carriers. It can be tethered to a BlackBerry to access email.

Shares in RIM got a slight bump on the news, trading up a little over half a per cent to $61.27 per share on the TSX.

The Playbook is expected to appeal to business users, but RIM is hoping the device also will cater to mainstream customers and eat into Apple's dominance of the tablet space with its popular iPad. The second version of the iPad is set to launch in Canada at the end of this week.

RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky said he expects the PlayBook to make a strong debut with RIM shipping 500,000 of the devices in its first quarter this spring.

"Given stiff competition from iPad 2, Android, PlayBook will need to stake and hold its own ground in the rapidly expanding tablet market and we think PlayBook will have a strong debut," Abramsky said in a research note.

He expects the device will bring RIM roughly $3 billion in revenue during its 2012 fiscal year.