When the long-awaited BlackBerry tablet hits the U.S. and Canada on April 19, Research in Motion (RIM) has a surprise up its sleeve: support for Android apps.
The company announced today that in addition to its new native SDK, the BlackBerry PlayBook will support apps written for Android 2.3 and BlackBerry Java. RIM also announced that it is bringing the Airplay and Unity 3 game engines to the PlayBook.
Android support on a BlackBerry-branded device is a big deal. Rumors about this sort of arrangement have been ongoing since early 2011, but it seemed an unlikely development until now. In a statement, RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis said: “The upcoming addition of BlackBerry Java and Android apps for the BlackBerry PlayBook on BlackBerry App World will provide our users with an even greater choice of apps and will also showcase the versatility of the platform.”
The technical details surrounding Android-compatibility aren’t clear. 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.
The big question is: how will Android apps be presented on the PlayBook? Our guess is they will appear in home-screen widgets with a full-screen option, given the differences in orientation and resolution. That could actually be an interesting experience, depending on execution.
To be clear, the apps that the PlayBook supports will be Android 2.3 — not Android 3.0. So this means that developers that want an easy port of a utility or basic game will have an easy time moving to the PlayBook. Developers building new tablet apps from the ground-up for Honeycomb, however, will still need to consider alternate development paths for PlayBook.
What do you think of the PlayBook and its Android app compatibility? Does it make the device more attractive? Let us know in the comments.
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