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For those looking to nail down a launch date for RIM’s tablet, Trinidad & Tabago’s TSTT’s Jay Alvi has said they plan on launching the BlackBerry PlayBook this February. That falls in line with RIM’s established early 2011 launch window, and also conveniently lands on the month of Mobile World Congress, where co-CEO Mike Lazaridis will be issuing a keynote. The BlackBerry PlayBook was announced at the end of September, and generally blew everybody’s socks off. It’s boasting a dual-core 1 GHz processor, 1 GB of RAM, 5 megapixel camera on the back, 3 megapixel camera on the front, and a 7″ 1024 x 600 capacitive touchscreen. Arguably the most impressive feature of all is the brand new operating system made by QNX. It’s light, it’s fast, and multitasks like woah. I’m particularly excited to see this OS find its way onto RIM’s smartphones, but that probably won’t happen for a little while still. A February launch is interesting timing since it’s when wallets are still a might empty from Christmas, but it’s also not trying to shoulder into the busy summer or fall, where the PlayBook could just be drowned out by other products. Whenever it launches, it’ll be giving the Apple iPad and Samsung Galaxy Tab a run for their money, but who knows what other tablets will be available by that time? Curious to see how she runs? Check out this live demo of the BlackBerry PlayBook from Adobe MAX a few weeks ago.

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With just a single phone model in its repertoire (two including the iPhone 3GS, which is still available for purchase), IDC reveals Apple has passed RIM to become the fourth largest cell phone vendor in the world. Last quarter, Apple sold 14.1 million iPhone units to snag 4.1% of the global market. RIM rang up about 12.3 million units over the same period and slipped into fifth place globally. Sony Ericsson was displaced from the top five list. The top three manufacturers on the list remained unchanged, with Nokia having sold 110.4 million units (32.4% market share), Samsung unloading 71.4 units (21% market share) and LG hawking 28.4 million phones (8.3% market share). This news, obviously, is not good for the BlackBerry maker. RIM recently introduced its next-generation operating system, BlackBerry 6, and also launched its first touchscreen/QWERTY hybrid handset alongside a good amount of hype. Still, it was passed by Apple, which will only pick up pace in 2011 with the expected introduction of a CDMA iPhone model. IDC’s full press release can be found after the break.Read more at www.boygeniusreport.com

If you believe a spy shot leaked to our friends at PocketBerry, then YES, BlackBerry OS is in a particularly steady (if not steep) decline. The image you’re looking at above was snapped by an anonymous tipster, present at a T-Mobile U.S. east region meeting. The graph pretty much speaks for itself. Oh BlackBerry OS, oh Windows Mobile… you guys are in trouble. But this should come as no surprise, right? According to Gartner, Google Android devices have outsold the iPhone globally, and RIM’s BlackBerry in the United States in the second quarter. That said, it should be noted that Nokia and RIM are still the kings of the castle, with Symbian OS making up 41.2% of the market, and BlackBerry holds 18.2%. However, if the Android invasion is well and truly on, it should be interesting to see what the situation is at this time next year. Will Android hold the leading market share globally? How about Apple and iOS? Will RIM’s BlackBerry 6 OS help the company hold pace? Or is the chart above simply sign of things to come? I wish I had a crystal ball, but sadly I don’t. I have a bowling ball in my basement, but that’s just not the same. What do you think the future holds for RIM and their OS? Read more at www.intomobile.com

Today Research In Motion® (RIM) introduced the new professional-grade BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet and BlackBerry® Tablet OS – check out the above video for more details on the new BlackBerry PlayBook! Stay tuned for future posts on the Inside BlackBerry blog family about BlackBerry PlayBook. In the meantime, read the press release here! Read more at blogs.blackberry.com