Indonesians eager to get their hands on Blackberry’s first tablet, the PlayBook, won’t have to wait any longer. Canadian manufacturer Research in Motion officially announced that potential buyers could start ordering the 7-inch device on Thursday night.

The 425-gram device will be available in about 150 authorized dealers across Indonesia by next week.

“With a growing number of stores across Indonesia featuring the BlackBerry PlayBook, we welcome customers to try it out for themselves,” Gregory Wade, Regional Managing Director at Research In Motion, said in a press statement released on Thursday night.

Wade claimed the device would be “ideal for both business and personal use.”

The PlayBook will be the latest addition to the Android-based tablet market. Most of the tablets on the market support Adobe Flash and have camera functions, with the exception of Apple’s iPad, which continues to dominate the tablet market despite it’s inability to support Flash sites.

During the CommunicAsia ICT expo in Singapore on June 24, Wade said BlackBerry currently leads the smartphone market in Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand.

Although the Canadian company experienced a slowdown in its financial performance during the last quarter, Wade is still upbeat about its presence in the Asian market. “We are in a great spot. When I think about the [Asian] markets, I have a big smile on my face,” Wade told AFP at the expo.

According to technology research company Gartner, RIM ranked fourth in the smartphone market globally in the first quarter of 2011, behind Google’s Android, Nokia’s Symbian and Apple’s iOS.

The Blackberry PlayBook will come in three Wi-Fi models, featuring 16 GB, 32 GB or 64 GB of memory storage, with prices ranging between Rp 4,999,000 and Rp 6,999,000.

Source: The Jakarta Globe

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