By: Hillel Fuld

By now, I don’t need to tell you that tablets are the next <insert wildly popular gadget of the last decade>. They are all over the place and everyone seems to be making them.  Having said that, until now, tablets were primarily viewed as consumer devices and less as business enterprise devices. This is true about the iPad with its lack of multitasking (should finally be taken care of this week) the Samsung Galaxy Tab with its overall plasticy toy-like build, and Toshiba’s attempt at a tablet, the Folio, with the lack of an app store (review to follow).

Comes along RIM, the company synonymous with enterprise with their own tablet device, the Playbook (not sure playbook is the greatest name if you are targeting businesses, but RIM’s branding or lack thereof is a topic for another time), and we have ourselves a fair game. The Playbook was announced a few months back, but we had not seen too much video footage of it. This new video put out by RIM, compares the browsing and graphics capabilities of the Playbook to that of the iPad. Of course, in this particular video, the Playbook comes out on top, but again, RIM put out this video.

More important than the quicker and more accurate rendering of Web pages on the Playbook, this was one of the first looks I got of the device, and I have to say, I am pretty impressed. With full Flash support, a much more portable body than the iPad and supposedly two cameras, I think the Playbook will give the iPad a run for its money. More about the Playbook here.

Anyway, enough babbling. Take a look at the below video and let me know what you think RIM’s chances are of competing in this hot space.