For some time now, people have speculated and have rumored that the playbook would run Android Apps and RIM ran away with it and kept on pushing the rumors around but finally they made the announcement that it would run Android Apps. This is a big change for Rim, since up to now they have had their own application software that uses RIM Application Codes, Android Apps are completely different.
The technical details surrounding Android-compatibility aren’t clear.
Mashable C. Warren wrote: We assume RIM is using a virtual machine that can support Android code. This method is likely similar to what the QNX-based tablet will do to run apps written for older BlackBerry handset devices. RIM says developers will just need to repackage, code sign and submit existing Android apps to the Blackberry App World. For developers that want to create native apps for the PlayBook, RIM says its BlackBerry Tablet OS Native Development Kit will be in open Beta by this summer. It seems odd to release a device to consumers before the native development kit is even in open beta, but we guess that’s why RIM is expanding its options to also include apps written for BlackBerry Java, Android and Adobe Air.
Now this is going to be interesting, however it seems like Playbook will be running Android 2.3 and not 3.0 as previously thought. But this move will increase the RIM Applications network by thousands, it will definitely be a different kind of move. It seems like everything now days is being taken over by either Google Apps, or Apple Apps, we’ll just have to wait and see how this works out.
