Of course the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet will be heading to Sprint with support for its 4G WiMAX network, but what about Verizon? Well, it looks like Verizon will be getting it as well. A page was discovered that previously allowed users to join an early-access type of program for the PlayBook on Verizon.

Looks like the site is owned by a marketing agency that works for RIM and Verizon, so it looks credible. There’s no official confirmation that the PlayBook will be arriving on Verizon though. I guess we will see what happens.

Things are looking up for the BlackBerry PlayBook from RIM. We know that it will have a comparable (or even better) battery life than the iPad. And now there is talk of a 6 million sales figure for the year ahead, according to RBC Capital Markets GM Mike Abramsky.

This figure comes from the data of an independent survey of 1,100 consumers that found out that 6% of respondents were likely to purchase the BlackBerry PlayBook as soon as it arrives. To put that in perspective, that is almost double the interest shown ahead of the iPad’s launch, so when you extrapolate that you get 6 million. Can RIM actually get those sales?

An unofficial count from Shawn Dubrovac has revealed the sheer numbers of tablets that have leapt onto the tablet market following the early success of the iPad. The list shows that at least 100 tablets and crossover e-readers have shipped, including not just major names like the BlackBerry PlayBook and Motorola Xoom but also newcomers like Enspert’s Identity Tab line and the Notion Ink Adam. The list includes 24 generic tablets at Freescale’s booth as well.

And that is not even a complete list. It doesn’t include some close relatives, like Enspert’s S200 VoIP Home Hub, and devices that have been confirmed officially but weren’t formally unveiled at the show.

HTC’s entrance into the tablet market might be the HTC Flyer, which should ship this March in the US with Android 2.3 Gingerbread as the operating system. The HTC Flyer will have its OS updated to Android 3.0 Honeycomb as soon as it becomes available.

It will be sold in the US via an unknown carrier. Probably not AT&T and Verizon since they are preparing to roll out the Motorola Xoom, and T-Mobile has announced the LG G-Slate. Sprint has the WiMax BlackBerry PlayBook. The tablet wars just keep amping up.

Apple claimed 87.4 percent of the tablet market before the Galaxy Tab hit the scene, according to an IDC study of tablet share. Apple had a near-monopoly of the tablet market last summer. Analysts also expected 17 million tablets to have shipped by the end of the year, almost all of which would still have been iPads.

Of course Android would have cut into Apple’s share in the fall with 1.5 million Galaxy Tabs estimated sold and will likely cut into it even deeper in 2011 with the Motorola Xoom for one. RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook could play a part as well.

During a business presentation in Boston on Thursday RIM wanted to reassure consumers about the battery life of the BlackBerry PlayBook, hoping to ease worries about longevity. Senior product lead Ryan Bidan said that the audience didn’t have to worry about how long the battery would last. The goal is still officially to get eight hours, or about a “full day” of use.

The battery is 5,300mAH with a capacity of about a third larger than that of the battery on the Galaxy Tab. To reach that capacity, RIM has sealed in the pack to get as much internal space as possible. No removable battery here. Does this statement alleviate your concerns about the Playbook’s battery life?

The BlackBerry PlayBook has us all drooling ever since we first heard of it, but we had been hearing concerns about its battery, and maybe that there would even be a product delay. Well RIM wants to ease your mind with a healthy dose of damage control.

According to a statement made to Erictric, there’s nothing to the PlayBook’s battery issues and initial product test findings were based on pre-beta units. RIM says that the PlayBook is still good to launch by the end of March. This is great news, since this tablet is very promising and we are all looking forward to it.

This video might just be a little biased since it was produced by Research In Motion (RIM), but at least it lets you see what the BlackBerry PlayBook is capable of when it squares off against the iPad. The video shows how the web browsing experience is, with comparison tests being run on a PlayBook and iPad.

It demonstrates three factors: the speed of the PlayBook Browser, its ability to handle Adobe Flash content, and the performance of open web standards like HTML 5. We’ll let you decide who the winner is.

RIM’s Co-Chief Executive Officer Jim Balsillie has revealed a few more details about the upcoming BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. According to CrackBerry, the device will have a 5,300mAh, non-removable battery, which will help it deliver more life than competing products. The similarly-sized Galaxy Tab packs only a 4,000mAh battery and a claimed seven-plus hour battery life when watching movies.

The PlayBook should last longer, obviously and maybe it will even match or surpass Apple’s 10-hour rating for its larger iPad. RIM’s smartphones are already very efficient and known for their long operation on a single charge. We hope some of this efficiency rubs off on the PlayBook as well.

In addition to announcing their new Amazon app for the new BlackBerry PlayBook, Amazon has also announced a new way to read its electronic books, Amazon Kindle for the Web.

Amazon Kindle for the Web lets you read samples of books online in your web browser, without having to download or install anything extra. You can also share samples of books with your friends through a variety of social networks as well. Amazon Kindle for the Web has been released in beta.

After announcing the Kindle app for the BlackBerry PlayBook there was also the rumor of an upcoming Amazon Android store. And now we hear word that Amazon may be gearing up to release some Android-powered hardware.

We don’t have any specific details, but if Amazon is bringing an Android app store, it does lend some credibility to the possibility of an Android-powered tablet from the company. I guess we just have to wait and see.

We’ve been waiting for a good while and today at Research In Motion’s annual BlackBerry Developer Conference, CEO Mike Lazaridis announced the PlayBook. The tablet will use an OS created by the recently acquired QNX, which is called the BlackBerry Tablet OS. It offers full OpenGL and POSIX support along with web standards like HTML5. The company’s founder, Dan Dodge said that “QNX is going to enable things that you have never seen before,” and added that the PlayBook would be “an incredible gaming platform for publishers and the players.”

The PlayBook’s can handle Flash content via Flash 10.1, as well as Adobe AIR apps. It will feature a 7-inch, 1024 x 600, capacitive multitouch display, a Cortex A9-based, dual-core 1GHz CPU, 1GB of RAM, and a 3 megapixel front-facing camera along with a 5 megapixel rear lens. The PlayBook will be capable of 1080p HD video, and comes with an HDMI port as well as a microUSB jack, 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi, and Bluetooth 2.1.