Well now we all knew that Research In Motion was mulling over allowing Android applications to come to their first mobile tablet the BlackBerry PlayBook, but now RIM has finally got round to giving their official stamp to the speculation.
According to an article over on Android Community, Research In Motion has now gone all official and announced that they will support Android apps on the BlackBerry PlayBook via an “optional app player” that will be available to download the same day the BlackBerry tablet is released.
Here’s a snippet of that RIM announcement…” Developers wanting to bring their new and existing apps to the highly anticipated BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet will soon have additional tools and options to enhance and expand their commercial opportunities. Research In Motion (RIM) (Nasdaq: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today announced plans to greatly expand the application ecosystem for the BlackBerry PlayBook. The BlackBerry PlayBook is scheduled to launch in the U.S. and Canada on April 19.”
“RIM will launch two optional “app players” that provide an application run-time environment for BlackBerry Java® apps and Android v2.3 apps. These new app players will allow users to download BlackBerry Java apps and Android apps from BlackBerry App World and run them on their BlackBerry PlayBook.”
You will note that RIM state that the BlackBerry PlayBook will support Android v2.3 apps, so it isn’t too clear if the BlackBerry PlayBook will initially support Android 3.0 Honeycomb apps or whether RIM will update at a later date.
So there you have it, do our reader’s feel RIM opening up to the use of Android apps is a good thing, and will the move make you consider purchasing the BlackBerry PlayBook over say the Samsung Galaxy 10.1 or Motorola Xoom?
