It’s not called the BlackPad, but PlayBook! RIM has formally announced the launch of the BlackBerry tablet which is now named the BlackBerry Playbook. The announcement was made at the annual BlackBerry Developer Conference.

The tablet will utilize an OS created by the recently acquired QNX called the BlackBerry Tablet OS which will offer full OpenGL and POSIX support alongside web standards such as HTML5.

According to RIM, Playbook will be “an incredible gaming platform for publishers and the players”. It can also handle Flash content via Flash 10.1, as well as Adobe AIR apps. The BlackBerry PlayBook is 0.4 inches (9.7 mm) thick, making it thinner than the iPad’s 0.5 inches. The device will have a high-resolution 1024 x 600 pixels widescreen display and will be lightweight at just 0.9 lbs, compared to the iPad’s 1.5 lbs.

BlackBerry Playbook Specs

* Cortex A9-based, dual-core 1GHz CPU
* 1 GB RAM
* Two cameras: a 5-megapixel camera at the back, and a 3-megapixel front-facing camera
* 1080p HD video
* QNX OS
* HDMI video output & microUSB jack
* 7-inch, 1024 x 600, capacitive multitouch display
* Only Wi-Fi, no 3G
* Bluetooth 2.1
* wireless tethering

As for the availability, RIM had just this to say – “early 2011,” and of course, there is no mention of retail price. Check out the video preview of Playbook after the break.