Playbook is just another tablet, it requires no extra hardware or any other external software to run. The plus side is it's cheapa and offers good storage for the price. The downside is the apps store in more limited than a Google device, but you can sideload Android apps that have been converted to run on the Playbook, such as Kindle app, Google maps and so on.
I'd always recommend it over any of the cheap android tablets out there.