Research In Motion (RIM) hasn't enjoyed any great success with its BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, but it seems that plans of a 4G LTE-powered PlayBook slate aren't going anywhere as the company is tipped to launch a 4G LTE PlayBook tablet priced at $549.95 as early as next week.

Folks at MobileSyrup leaked an internal document from Bell Canada, showing that a 4G LTE variant of RIM's PlayBook tablet may debut next week. The blogging site claims that the tablet will go on sale from July 31 for an off-contract price of $549.95. For the U.S. and rest of the world, the site is unsure whether the new PlayBook tablet will launch on the same day or sometime after.

The specs revealed in the document point to a processor upgrade in the new PlayBook tablet to a dual-core 1.5 GHz, while other specs are believed to remain the same. The current PlayBook tablet has a dual-core 1 GHz processor with 1GB of RAM and 16/32/64GB of internal storage. The tablet has a 7-inch display with resolution of 1024 X 600 pixels. It also sports a 5-megapixel rear camera that can record full HD 1080p videos at 30fps. The front facing camera is 3-megapixel, which also records videos with the same resolution and frame rate.

Additionally, the PlayBook 4G LTE will run PlayBook OS 2.0 out of the box.

The plans of a 4G LTE PlayBook tablet are not completely new. RIM first announced plans about such a tablet at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in 2011. Sprint was selected to unveil the tablet on its WiMAX network. However, the plans for the 4G PlayBook tablet were axed as RIM wanted to focus more on the emerging LTE platform.

The BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, at the moment, comes in a Wi-Fi only version with added connectivity features like Bluetooth, GPS, 3.5mm audio jack, microUSB, and HDMI port. Packing 5300 mAh battery, the PlayBook tablet is rated at 10 hours of talk time.

The specs aren't actually bad, but it seem too late for BlackBerry, especially when Google has launched its $199 Nexus 7 tablet. The success of the tablet is dependent on only one factor, whether users want a 4G LTE tablet or not.