The BlackBerry PlayBook is now available for preorder, competing with Apple's iPad (AP).

Research In Motion announced this morning that the PlayBook, BlackBerry’s new seven-inch touchscreen tablet, is now available for preorder through Best Buy.  The PlayBook will officially launch on April 19.

The tablet starts at $499, the same price as Apple’s iPad, the current tablet-market leader.

The PlayBook, which weighs less than one pound and is less than one half-inch thick, provides a more pocket-friendly sized tablet than the 9.7-inch iPad.

The PlayBook allows BlackBerry users to have the same file-sharing benefits iPhone users have with iPads.

“I think it’s a great idea because there are so many BlackBerry phone users who want to be able to sync their phone with a device like an iPad and they prefer to do it with a device that runs with the same technology,” sophomore Political Science major Elise Steinberg said.

The tablet has three models with Wi-Fi connectivity: the 16-gigabyte of storage for $499, the 32-gigabyte for $599, and the 64-gigabyte for $699.  The price distribution is the same as the iPad, intensifying the brands’ competition.

“The iPad is clearly becoming an integral part in today’s technology so the fact that there is competition for it is positive,” freshman Communications major Ben Greene said.

The PlayBook features two HD cameras for photos and video with a 3-megapixel camera on the front and 5-megapixel camera on the back.  The iPad has two cameras, but both are less than 1 megapixel in resolution.

BlackBerry’s new tablet will be sold at AT&T, Best Buy, Cbeyond, Cellular South, Cincinnati Bell, Office Depot, RadioShack, ShopBlackBerry.com, Staples, Sprint, Verizon Wireless, and BlackBerry, according to RIM.