BlackBerry Playbook Price Announced: Posted by Rida Kamran on 11:25 AM

The BlackBerry Playbook is another rival to the Apple iPad , which is due to launch in February.

In an interview with a Korean site RIM CEO Jim Balsielle said the device will be "very competitively priced". The statement has been interpreted that the device will cost around $500 (£312) in the US. Thats a very good price when you consider the iPad 16GB WiFi only iPad costs the same amount.

The BlackBerry PlayBook does have a smaller screen than the iPad as it has a 7 inch touch-screen display, while the iPad has a 9.7 inch offering. Another downside of the BlackBerry Playbook on launch is it's not yet available in a version that supports 3G.

However, the Playbook makes up for it in other ways. It features a fantastic 1 Ghz dual-core processor that should provide much more power than the iPad's processor. It also features a front facing 3 mega-pixel camera and a rear-facing 5 mega-pixel which can record HD video. The Apple iPad meanwhile doesn't even have a camera.