Sprint brings Blackberry Playbook to 4G stratosphere

While Research in Motion’s upcoming tablet isn’t gaining a whole lot of buzz, the news at CES that Sprint will release a 4G version of it in several months is starting to turn some heads.

Like most people, we’ve looked at all the Blackberry Playbook stuff with somewhat of a yawn. Blackberry already disappointed us with the launch of the last mobile operating system, and with people dropping their Crackberries like a bad habit, it’s hard to look at something like this as a serious game changer.

However, for the first time in a while Research in Motion has made us think they might actually be on top of the game as they have already joined forces with Sprint to confirm a 4G version of the device for some time this summer.

“RIM believes a significant portion of the tablet market will want a higher performing, multitasking, professional-grade tablet and that is why we chose to design the BlackBerry PlayBook for premium performance with a powerful dual-core processor and multitasking OS. Together with Sprint, we are now building on that performance advantage with 4G and providing an unparalleled mobile experience for users,” said RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis.

It’s good news for Sprint, too. The company just started offering the Galaxy Tab, but only with 3G service. There is no Sprint 4G tablet, even though it has far and away more 4G phones than any other carrier.

“We are confident the BlackBerry 4G Playbook from Sprint will be one of the most anticipated tablets in 2011,” said Sprint divisional president Steve Elfman. [[BlackBerry]]