Research in Motion, the Canadian manufacturer of the ubiquitous BlackBerry smartphone, launched its Playbook device in Canada and the U.S. Tuesday morning to compete in the growing market for tablet computers dominated by Apple's popular iPad.

The stakes are high for the Waterloo, Ont.-based company, which is also competing against a growing offering of smartphones from Apple and manufacturers of Google Android devices. In the tablet market, it's facing off against Apple's iPad 2, which launched last month.

Unlike Apple, RIM allowed preorders for its BlackBerry Playbook online and made the device available at a larger number of stores.

Some buyers who lined up outside Best Buy in downtown Toronto ahead of the 7 a.m. launch Tuesday morning said they liked that users can surf the Web by pairing the Playbook with a smartphone, without incurring additional charges from their wireless carrier. Others said they felt the Playbook would be more secure with their data than other tablet manufacturers.

While CTV Tech Expert Kris Abel said that he likes the Playbook, "it does have some issues," including that there are only a couple of hundred applications currently available.

"There's not much you can really do with the device -- it's slick but it needs more functionality," Abel said.

But the Playbook's smaller size, compared to the iPad, means that it's more portable and can be used with one hand, he said. The software is simple to use and fast to operate, and the device's Web browser can display Flash video, unlike the iPad. Yet pricing for the Playbook is similar to Apple's offering, starting at about $500.

As with its smartphones, RIM says it believes that most of the Playbook's buyers will be businesses, rather than consumers buying at retail stores.

One draw for business clients will be the Playbook's "quick on" feature, Abel said, which can save time compared to using traditional computers.

"You can walk into a business meeting room and not have to wait for your laptop to power on," Abel said. "You have your numbers at your fingertips. You can do your presentation right then and there."

One analyst told CTV's John Venavally-Rao that he expects the company will sell between three and five million of the devices this year. While the iPad is expected to sell many times more than that, "for any consumer electronics device, if it sold five million units it's generally considered a success," Venavally-Rao said.

"The iPad is one of the fastest-selling consumer electronics items ever in history," he said. "So to try and beat that or to even come close to that is really impossible for any manufacturer."