With the release of Research In Motion’s new BlackBerry Playbook on the horizon, RIM has shown off the new tablet during the D: Dive into Mobile conference and has revealed more details on the device along with quashing a rumour that the BlackBerry Playbook would challenge the Apple iPad on price.

According to an article over on Apple Insider by Daniel Eran Dilger, and by way of Zdnet, RIM is in the process of meeting with BlackBerry developers in San Francisco, New York and Toronto, and has revealed that there will be 3 models of the new BlackBerry Playbook which will be somewhat similar to the WiFi iPad.

There have been rumours that RIM would challenge Apple’s iPad in the mobile space by undercutting Apple’s pricing by up to $100. Previous reports had placed the RIM BlackBerry Playbook pricing at $399 for the 8GB, $499 for the 16GB and $599 for the 32GB as reported (here)

However Research In Motion execs have said that the BlackBerry Playbook will have a starting price for the 8GB version of “under $500,” having said that, “under $500” does give a lot of scope for aggressive pricing.

As for details on the RIM BlackBerry Playbook, it is said that the device will sport a “very nice glass similar to the iPad. The build quality is better than current Android tablets on the market.” And the device will sport a 1GHz dual-core ARM Cortex A9 processor.

Apparently though there are only a few prototypes of the device for developers to look at as at the New York event there were roughly 150 developers in attendance but only three Playbooks available, and that RIM isn’t actually delivering a Playbook emulator with a functional web browser just yet with the article stating, “This item is no small issue since there are a lot of HTML5 developers in the house.”

The BlackBerry Playbook SDK is a “black box” meaning developers will not be able to debug applications like they can with Android, and built-in native apps run on Adobe Air right out of the box. However, according to BlackBerry US, any developer that creates a “qualifying” app for the device before its launch in North America will be eligible for a free BlackBerry Playbook, which should entice a few developers aboard.

We have a video that explains everything for your viewing pleasure of RIM co-CEO Mike Lazardis showing off the BlackBerry Playbook during the D: Dive into Mobile, courtesy of All Thing D, but as the video was a tab on the small size we have source the same video but clearer and larger from YouTube user BBThemes, which you can view below.

So what do our readers think about the RIM BlackBerry Playbook, are you waiting to snap the device up once it see release, or have you already purchased an Apple iPad or Samsung Galaxy Tab? Do you think the BlackBerry Playbook has anything different to offer a customer over the current available tablets?