Blackberry Playbook is available a day early at Carphone Warehouse

MOBILE PHONE RETAILER The Carphone Warehouse has confirmed that it will stock the Blackberry Playbook a day early at selected stores.

The Playbook will be available at a few Carphone Warehouse stores in the UK a day earlier than in its online shop and at other retailers on 15 June. If you're desperate to get the tablet 24 hours earlier then you can head to Selfridges store on Oxford Street, Westfield shopping centre, Manchester Trafford Centre, Bluewater and Bristol Cribbs.

The maker of the Playbook, Research in Motion (RIM) today said that it will launch the device in 16 more countries including the UK over the next 30 days. The list includes India, France, Germany and Hong Kong along with 12 other nations.

The Playbook is RIM's first tablet and it comes with its own Blackberry Tablet operating system and a 1GHz dual-core processor. The Carphone Warehouse has the Playbook priced at £399 for the 16GB model. Double the storage to 32GB and you'll have to pay £479, and the price for the top of the range 64GB version is £559.

It is unclear how well the Playbook will sell in the UK after initial reports that it's been struggling in the US and Canada.

Our first impressions of the tablet were good, so we think it's got a chance, with a special appeal to Blackberry phone owners because of the tethering features. µ