Toronto, March 3 (IANS) With Apple unveiling its leaner, sleeker and faster iPad2 Wednesday, there is now speculation that Canada's BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) will launch its PlayBook tablet April 10.

Quoting its sources, Boy Scout Report in an exclusive on its web site said Wednesday that the BlackBerry tablet will hit retail stores April 10.

"We have been told by multiple sources that RIM's very first tablet will be launching on April 10th in retail locations. Additionally, we're told the OS (operating system) goes GM (gold master) on March 31st and that when you boot up the device right out of the box, you'll be prompted to upgrade to a newer version of the OS. We'll have another hands-on coming up shortly...,'' the web site said.

At 7-inch size and featuring front and back cameras, the 1-GHz dual-core PlayBook will run on BlackBerry maker's new powerful QNX operating system which RIM specifically bought for the tablet.

RIM has already announced to offer the PlayBook in four models - Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi+WiMax, high-speed LTE and HSPA+.

Since the BlackBerry smart phone's over 55 million users worldwide swear by its encryption technology for securing privacy, analysts say the Canadian wireless giant could hit a gold mine if it is able to seize the corporate segment of the tablet market.

To target these business and corporate subscribers, RIM has integrated the PlayBook with its smart phone through BlackBerry Bridge.

What augurs well for RIM is a survey last week which said that about 50 percent of corporate are ready to adopt the tablet whose market is set to balloon to more than 100 million by next year.

Unlike Apple, BlackBerry's already vast network of carriers worldwide would also give a very big advantage to the PlayBook to make its mark in the Apple-dominated tablet market.

In the fast crowding tablet market, Motorola Mobility has already launched the Xoom. Hewlett-Packard is set to follow with its TouchPad and Samsung with the three new versions of its Galaxy Tab which was launched last year.

There was no reaction Wednesday from Waterloo-based BlackBerry maker to Apple's new iPad which at 10-inch - like the first version- is still bigger than the PlayBook.

At 601 gramme, down from 680 gramme from the first version, the new iPad is still heavier than the PlayBook which will weigh 425 gramme, with thickness of just 10 mm.

Apart from addition of front and back cameras for video-conferencing, the new iPad also has twice the speed of its predecessor. It comes in two colours - black or white borders - and will be able to connect to your HDTV through an HDMI adapter.