4G-enabled BlackBerry PlayBook launching next week

RIM has confirmed that it will release a 4G-enabled version of its PlayBook tablet in Canada next week, with launches in the US, Europe, South Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean to follow.


Introduced more than a year ago RIM’s PlayBook has struggled to compete with marker front-runners like Apple’s iPad and Amazon’s Kindle Fire.


RIM famously launched the device without a native email client or 3G-connectivity, a move that backfired dramatically. The launch version of BlackBerry Tablet OS was not as polished as it should have been either, resulting in a less than satisfying user experience.


RIM did remedy much of the above with the release of BlackBerry Tablet OS 2.0, which brought with it native email, better stability and deeper social network support. The lack of applications available for the device is still a worry, however, and no amount of connectivity is going to change that.


‘The 4G LTE BlackBerry PlayBook tablet will come with 32GB of memory and will be available from major Canadian carriers like BCE Inc's Bell, Rogers Communications Inc and Telus Corp in Canada on August 9,’ reports Reuters.


There’s no word on when we’ll be seeing the 3G/4G-enabled version of the PlayBook in the UK, or how much the device will cost once launched. UK consumers can now pick up a 16GB version of the Wi-Fi-only PlayBook for as little as £128.


RIM also confirmed that its existing PlayBook devices would be getting upgraded to BlackBerry 10, making it one of the cheapest ways to get a taste of RIM’s new platform once it launches in Q1 of 2012, providing you go the Wi-Fi-only route, and actually care about BlackBerry 10.