BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet Price Expected to be $300 - $350 After Subsidies

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The BlackBerry PlayBook tablet was made official at the Developer Conference 2010 in San Francisco just two days ago, and while RIM showed us most of the details regarding the tablet they still failed to announce pricing details for this BlackBerry device.

The PlayBook is by far one of the best tablets we’ve seen lately, and a great iPad rival, and I’m referring to specs and features here. In fact the PlayBook has some extra specifications when compared to the iPad which means that, just like with the Galaxy Tab that comes with extra features, we can expect it to cost just a little more than the iPad.

John Jackson, an analyst at CCS Insight, told Bloomberg that the PlayBook is expected to cost around $300-$350 and that’s surely a great price especially when compared to what the cheapest iPad Wi-Fi costs, which is $499. But such a price will only be available when the PlayBook tablet is bundled with some sort of mobile contract from one of RIM’s carrier partners. The analyst doesn’t say that but I guess it’s only logical to assume that off contract the device will be just a little more expensive than the iPad.

The same goes for the Samsung Galaxy Tab, a tablet whose pricing details are also missing in action. The Tab is expected to cost $300 when purchased with a new data contract, but unlike the PlayBook the Tab will come with 3G support. That means bundling the tablet with a data plan is actually possible. How would we be able to pair the PlayBook with a data plan since the first-gen RIM tablet doesn’t come with 3G support?

We’re still a long way to go until the PlayBook is ready to hit stores so we’ll have plenty of time to talk about the official pricing details once RIM makes them official. How much would you pay for a 7-inch tablet that has the specs and features of the PlayBook?