I got the BlackBerry PlayBook announcement up as fast as we could, so fast I missed out that it's only shipping in 2011. That means it's not really competition for the current iPad at all, but competition for iPad 2, which Apple will likely announce in January 2011 and ship in March/April. And that's a while different story.
While the PlayBook's announced specs look really impressive, especially next to the shipped 6-months ago original iPad, come 2011 and dual cameras with FaceTime, faster Apple A(?) processors likely based on Cortex A9, and other hardware improvements will no doubt deck out iPad 2. Likewise, in March 2011 Apple will almost certainly show off iOS 5, with who knows what new features (though whether or not iPad 2 ships with it, or has to wait until November 2011 to get it, is likewise a mystery).
So it's great to have more competition in the tablet space, and RIM looks like they have a really interesting device in the PlayBook, but 2011 and we'll probably also see a webOS tablet and Android tablets running Gingerbread if not Honeycomb, and that's when things get really interesting for iPad, and really great for consumers.
Check out CrackBerry.com's hands-on for more.
