After numerous rumors Research in Motion has made their tablet official, announcing the BlackBerry Playbook this morning at a developers’ conference in San Francisco.  The announcement was done by RIM CEO, Michael Lazaridis, who did very little other than show the device turning on and off.  Apparently the product is “a work in progress” and no pricing information is available just yet.  A release date is tentatively set for early 2011, but judging by the lack of specs and RIM’s decision to use a new OS from INQ on the Playbook, we wouldn’t hold our breath.

The important news to take away from the announcement is the BlackBerry PlayBook will be the world’s first professional tablet.  This means that it will work with the existing BlackBerry servers being used by corporations and governments around the world.  Unfortunately since the PlayBook will not use the BlackBerry OS, compatibility with your existing BlackBerry is very much in question.

The PlayBook will not come in a 3G or 4G variant, leaving WiFi or tethering via Bluetooth to your existing BlackBerry as your only connection solutions.  For those of you using At&t with a 2GB data cap this could prove very problematic.  Verizon Wireless has already confirmed it will be moving towards a tiered data plan model and Sprint is also considering the shift for their 4G services if data usage gets out of hand.

For now we know the BlackBerry Playbook is real and it will be released in 2011.  We’ll be keeping our fingers crossed until then in hopes that RIM has developed a top-notch product that will rival and exceed our wildest expectations.