As BlackBerry prepare to enter the tablet PC battlefield, speculation grows as to their, along with any company’s potential for challenging the market-dominating iPad 2. However, BlackBerry have assured at least a little favour will fall on their side, after announcing that their latest offering will match the price of the iPad 2 when launched next month.

Of course, this may not be enough to persuade the drove of loyal Apple disciples unwilling to consider any alternative as a viable option. It is therefore thought that the success or failure of the BlackBerry Playbook tablet will rest in the hands of their own legion of loyal followers, which indeed for a quite substantial customer base. Furthermore, a large proportion of the BlackBerry ‘fan club’ exists within the business world, where history has seen colossal orders of BlackBerry products ordered for corporate use.

Whether or not business interest will be enough to send the Playbook into the stratosphere along with most of Apple’s range remains to be seen, as the application of tablet technology for industrial use is still at a fairly remedial stage. However, in the year since the original iPad’s release, interest and enthusiasm toward the potential of such devices has soared with little sign of abating.

The Playbook will be the first tablet offering to offer a direct price comparison to Apple’s iPad 2, with both the Samsung Galaxy Tab and Motorola Zoom expected to cost more.

› See More: BlackBerry Playbook, Xoom, iPad 2 in War for Tablet Superiority