Research In Motion (RIM) and US carrier Sprint have announced plans to launch a new BlackBerry PlayBook tablet offering connectivity to Sprint’s 4G network. The device is due to go on sale in the summer.
The BlackBerry 4G PlayBook will be the first to include wide area wireless connectivity, featuring Sprint 4G to give customers download speeds up to 10 times faster than 3G, based on a comparison of Sprint 3G (600 kbps-1.4 Mbps) and 4G (3-6 Mbps) average download speeds. Sprint 4G is currently available in 71 markets across the US, including Atlanta, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles and New York City.
In addition to wi-fi support, the 4G PlayBook features a 1GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM and the new BlackBerry Tablet OS, plus support for Adobe Flash Player 10.1, Adobe® Mobile AIR and HTML5. 
“RIM believes a significant portion of the tablet market will want a higher performing, multitasking, professional-grade tablet, and that is why we chose to design the BlackBerry PlayBook for premium performance, with a powerful dual-core processor and multitasking OS,” says RIM president and co-CEO, said Mike Lazaridis. “Together with Sprint, we are now building on that performance advantage with 4G, and providing an unparalleled mobile experience for users.”
