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BlackBerry PlayBook to host 7digital Music Store

Research In Motion's upcoming tablet will come with a DRM-free MP3 store preinstalled. 7digital, based in London, offers more than 13 million MP3s.

Don Reisinger
CNET contributor Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has covered everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Besides his work with CNET, Don's work has been featured in a variety of other publications including PC World and a host of Ziff-Davis publications.
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Don Reisinger
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The upcoming BlackBerry PlayBook will come with a music store, Research In Motion announced today.

Customers in the U.S. and Canada will find the 7digital Music Store preinstalled on their BlackBerry tablets at launch. International customers will have access to the store later in the year.

7digital, which is based in London, already offers an app for several BlackBerry smartphones, including the Torch, Curve, and Pearl. 7digital sells DRM-free MP3 tracks--mostly for 99 cents--and boasts more than 13 million songs altogether. It previews songs before purchase and has a recommendation engine to help people find other music they might like.

The key detail that 7digital didn't reveal is when its PlayBook store will launch. There's a good reason for that: RIM hasn't said when the tablet will actually reach store shelves.

A report from the Boy Genius Report surfaced last week, predicting that RIM will launch its tablet on April 10--a claim that the company declined to comment on when CNET asked for confirmation. So far, RIM has only said that it will release its tablet in "early 2011." At a fiscal third-quarter earnings call in December, the company also revealed that it believed the "first revenue impact from PlayBook to be in RIM's first quarter." Its fiscal fourth quarter ended February 26.

When the BlackBerry PlayBook finally launches, it will feature a 7-inch display and both front- and rear-facing cameras. Like the recently announced iPad 2, the BlackBerry PlayBook will come with a dual-core processor. It runs the company's new Tablet OS, which was developed by QNX Software, a company RIM acquired last year.