RIM introduces the BlackBerry Playbook

RIM President and co-CEO Mike Lazaridis holds up the company's new tablet, the "PlayBook." (Credit: James Martin)

Research in Motion today unveiled its first tablet offering called the "PlayBook."

The device is due early next year in the U.S., with international availability coming in the second quarter of 2011. RIM has not yet announced a price.

The 7-inch, 9.7mm-thick tablet, which was debuted by RIM's President and co-CEO Mike Lazaridis at the company's DevCon event in San Francisco, features an HTML5-capable browser, both front- and rear-facing HD cameras, and HDMI and USB ports.

On the inside, the PlayBook runs off of a 1GHz dual-core chip and has 1GB of built-in RAM. It will also come with a special version of the BlackBerry software that features multitasking and 1080p video playback. Other specs of note include 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi and support for Adobe Flash 10.1.