Apple’s throttlehold on touch panel production capacity forced Canadian manufacturer Research in Motion to delay the launch of its BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, a report published by Taiwanese publication DigiTimes claimed.

Originally scheduled to debut before the end of March 2011, the PlayBook will now be released on 19th of April.

According to DigiTimes’ report, “PlayBook shipments were postponed for about a month from the original schedule due to a delay in software testing & shortage of touch panels because Apple already booked up most of the available capacity.”

The PlayBook will come more than a month after Apple rolled out its second-generation tablet, the iPad 2.

RIM’s upcoming tablet will be available at 20,000 Canadian and US retail stores. In Canada, the Best Buy and Future Shop stores will sell the tablet, while in the US the tablet will be available at the Best buy stores as well as Best Buy Mobile stores.

The 16GB model of the 7-inch PlayBook will be available with a price tag of $499, while the 32GB and 64GB models will cost $599 and $699, respectively.