BlackBerry PlayBook Will Support Android Apps

March 24, 2011 at 2:12 pm PT

When the BlackBerry PlayBook finally arrives at market next month, its app ecosystem is going to be quite a bit larger than expected. Moments ago, Research in Motion announced that its forthcoming tablet will support BlackBerry Java and Android applications.

Which means the PlayBook isn’t launching with 100 apps. It’s launching with well over 200,000.

You’ll need an “app player” to actually use them on the device, but that shouldn’t be too much of a bother, assuming it works well.

On its face this seems a smart move–theoretically. It should appease potential buyers looking for a big catalog of apps and app developers looking for a big user base. But RIM needs to execute it flawlessly. Everything must work as advertised or the move could backfire.

RIM Expands Application Ecosystem for BlackBerry PlayBook

Waterloo, ON – 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.

In addition, RIM will shortly release the native SDK for the BlackBerry PlayBook enabling C/C++ application development on the BlackBerry® Tablet OS. For game-specific developers, RIM is also announcing that it has gained support from two leading game development tooling companies, allowing developers to use the cross-platform game engines from Ideaworks Labs and Unity Technologies to bring their games to the BlackBerry PlayBook.

Support for BlackBerry Java and Android Apps

“The BlackBerry PlayBook is an amazing tablet. The power that we have embedded creates one of the most compelling app experiences available in a mobile computing device today,” said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO at Research In Motion. “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.”

Developers currently building for the BlackBerry or Android platforms will be able to quickly and easily port their apps to run on the BlackBerry Tablet OS thanks to a high degree of API compatibility. The new optional app players will be available for download from BlackBerry App World and will be placed in a secure “sandbox” on the BlackBerry PlayBook where the BlackBerry Java or Android apps can be run.

Developers will simply repackage, code sign and submit their BlackBerry Java and Android apps to BlackBerry App World. Once approved, the apps will be distributed through BlackBerry App World, providing a new opportunity for many developers to reach BlackBerry PlayBook users. Users will be able to download both the app players and the BlackBerry Java and Android apps from BlackBerry App World.

The BlackBerry PlayBook and BlackBerry Tablet OS are built on the QNX® Neutrino® microkernel architecture with a 1GHz dual core processor and a leading OpenGL solution, which allows RIM to make this incredibly broad platform support possible.

BlackBerry PlayBook users and developers who are interested in seeing the new app players for BlackBerry Java and Android apps can see demos at BlackBerry World in Orlando, Florida (May 3 to 5, 2011) (www.blackberryworld.com).

BlackBerry Tablet OS Development Tools

The BlackBerry Tablet OS already supports an incredibly robust platform with support for Web development standard HTML5, through the BlackBerry® WebWorks™ SDK for Tablet OS, and Adobe® AIR®, through the BlackBerry Tablet OS SDK for Adobe AIR. The BlackBerry Tablet OS is built from the ground up to run WebKit and Adobe® Flash® as well, giving developers a fast and true Web experience to leverage.

RIM is also announcing today that the BlackBerry Tablet OS Native Development Kit (NDK), which is currently in limited alpha release, will go into open Beta by this summer and be demonstrated at BlackBerry World. The BlackBerry Tablet OS NDK will allow developers to build high-performance, multi-threaded, native C/C++ applications with industry standard GNU toolchains. Developers can create advanced 2D and 3D applications and special effects by leveraging programmable shaders available in hardware-accelerated OpenGL ES 2.0.

Other features of the BlackBerry Tablet OS NDK will allow developers to:
Take advantage of the QNX POSIX library support and C/C++ compliance for quick and easy application porting and for creating native extensions for both BlackBerry and Android applications
Easily integrate device events like gesture swipes and touch screen inputs
Integrate the BlackBerry Tablet OS environment into existing code management and build systems using industry standard Eclipse CDT (C/C++ Development Tools)
Leverage work done in standard C/C++ to make it easier to bring applications to the BlackBerry Tablet OS
Find and fix bugs quickly with provided debug and analysis tools

“The response to the BlackBerry PlayBook from the developer community has been exceptional. Our commitment to supporting HTML5 and Adobe AIR development has resonated and spurred developers to create fun and innovative applications for BlackBerry PlayBook users,” said David Yach, Chief Technology Officer, Software at Research In Motion. “The upcoming BlackBerry Tablet OS NDK beta will add C/C++ tools to our repertoire and gives developers one of the broadest and deepest platforms to develop on.”

Gaming Engines

Building on the power of the BlackBerry Tablet OS NDK, RIM is working with leading gaming and application development technology providers such as Ideaworks Labs and Unity Technologies to implement their native engines and application development platforms. Developers will be able to take advantage of these engines when building games and other applications for the BlackBerry PlayBook.

The Ideaworks Labs Airplay SDK is expected to include support for the BlackBerry Tablet OS soon, making it easy for publishers and developers to use their existing code to bring their games and apps to the BlackBerry PlayBook.

“Supporting a new OS can be a challenge for developers,” says Alex Caccia, President of Ideaworks Labs, “however, integration of the BlackBerry Tablet OS with the Airplay SDK makes this a non-issue. We think this is a far-sighted move by RIM: the BlackBerry PlayBook is a great device for games and applications, and combining this with content distribution via BlackBerry App World brings an exciting new ecosystem for developers.”

RIM has also been working closely with Unity Technologies, providers of the highly popular, multi-platform Unity development platform and Union, the firm’s games distribution service. Through Union, dozens of high-quality Unity-authored games are slated to make their way to BlackBerry App World for the BlackBerry Playbook.

“With a sharp focus on the multimedia experience, very powerful hardware, and fantastic games in the pipeline, the BlackBerry Playbook has all the right ingredients to be a mainstream hit,” said Brett Seyler, GM of Union at Unity Technologies. “Through Union, Unity developers have an opportunity to reach a new audience and grow with another great new platform.”

Tagged with: Android, apps, Blackberry, BlackBerry PlayBook, digital, Google, hardware, innovation, John Paczkowski, PlayBook, Research In Motion, RIM, software

comments so far. Add yours.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_47XHGLZVO6IUYLMWVUYFVN5LQU Dr No

This is a move of sheer desperation by RIM in an attempt to stay relevant for a little longer in the mobile market.
Anonymous

We’re about ten minutes away from RIM giving every person willing to try the PlayBook $5.
Anonymous

I’m pretty sure I still haven’t seen a single in-depth, hands-on preview of the PlayBook… and this is for a device launching in weeks?
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_47XHGLZVO6IUYLMWVUYFVN5LQU Dr No

You’re not the only one who has wondered about this. It’s very strange indeed.
http://www.facebook.com/georgemag George Magdaleno

Smaller than a Xoom and with more Apps. I have an iPad 2 but having BBM on a tablet is great!
Anonymous

I’m sorry did I miss all the iPad 2 reviews weeks before it’s limited launch???

Demo Playbooks have been in the wild for weeks now and beta programs are starting shortly along with review units.
Anonymous

«I’m sorry did I miss all the iPad 2 reviews weeks before it’s limited launch???»

You must have; Walt Mossberg posted his first thoughts on March 3 and his full review on March 9, in which he stated that he had been testing the iPad for “about a week.” The iPad was announced on March 2 for retail availability on March 11 – none of this “2011″ or “Q3″ mess. Several dozen media outlets received review units in advance of retail availability.

The iPad 2 was announced at a media event, even though we all knew it was coming. At that event – the very same day – every media member on hand got to play with, video, photograph, blog, tweet and opine on just about every aspect of the device in an area specially set up for them to do so.

Unlike RIM, Apple doesn’t pre-announce their products. They don’t (typically; the iPhone is the lone exception) demo a unit at, say, AllThingsD with no price or release window and keep talking the product’s strengths up with nothing else to show. They have an event, they announce and demo the product, they let all attendees have extensive hands-on time with production-ready units, and they announce when it’s in stores.

I just did a couple of Google searches for Playbook reviews – I got results from as far back as last September essentially regurgitating the announcement video and press release. I did a search for previews and finally found a decent piece from Engadget, which covered all of 30 minutes with the device.

There is simply no comparison. For a device that was announced six months ago and is due out in “Q1″ (which ends next week, by the way), the paucity of real information is bothersome.
Anonymous

RIM has not had a “LAUNCH” event for Playbook. They have trickled out information about it and have shown it at various industry events. So if your part of the industry you’ve had a chance to demo the device at various stages of development.

RIM is not Apple and Apple has masses of fanboys and tech blogs that cover when Steve poops. They work this group into a frenzy until they “announce” the device many have written about for months so unsure how one way is different as they are basically the same thing.

RIM is not the type of company people are going to line up. I doubt there is anyone else in the tech business outside of video game systems / games that have such “events”.

My guess is RIM will do their “consumer” launch / event either before Playbook release (which looks doubtful and I agree seems foolish) or will use their yearly Blackberry conference to market it. Their core audience is enterprise and that is the market they will focus on for Playbook launch.

Review units will be seen early April as RIM has alluded to since Feb and we will know soon enough if they have a solid offering or not.
Anonymous

tRIMM managers seem to believe that buzz comes from happy talk. Au contraire my giddy Canadian friends. Buzz happens when a company has established a reputation for innovation and execution. It then becomes an article of faith that new products will be exciting. RIMM should probably focus on just “moving the chains” as opposed to throwing the long ball and actually deliver a product within a few weeks of a big announcement.
Anonymous

RIM actually buried the lede. It’s much bigger news that they are opening up a native C API, because other than Apple, nobody has that on a mobile yet. C is where all the real apps are. There are a lot of apps on iOS because the developers were able to reuse 90% of their C code from PlayStation or Windows or DOS or Mac, which are all C platforms. Android requires you to rewrite your whole app in Java, which nobody wants to do. That proposition has been failing for 15 years now.

> it’s launching with well over 200,000.

Yeah, Android has 200,000 apps, but look how many made it into Amazon’s Crapstore: 3000. That is the sum total of halfway decent Android apps. RIM can get 3000 C apps of their own within 6 months if they do a decent C API and developer program.

> You’ll need an “app player”
> that shouldn’t be too much of a bother
> assuming it works well.

Huge assumption.

You can’t expect users to do the fitting of the apps to the platform. Better to open a native C API and let developers bring over 90% of their app and do 10% fitting work and make an app that just works for the users.

Apple has set the pace in this space. People expect to tap “Angry Birds” and boom, they are shooting birds out of a slingshot. They expect to be able to update all of their apps by tapping “Update All” and it is done. They expect to be able to update or restore the device and the apps are all there afterwards. With various API’s, the apps are going to act differently, users are going to be confused by that and see that as broken.
Anonymous

Please do not say “RIM BBM” in front of the children.
http://twitter.com/res08hao1 Uncle Bernie

I thought the RIM suits were just interested in “Enterprise”. Now, they are borrowing a page from Microsoft and buying their way to legitimacy. One would think that if they really, really wanted to expand their “ecosystem” they would allow Apple apps.
Anonymous

«RIM has not had a “LAUNCH” event for Playbook.»

Bzzt. Wrong. RIM had a whole launch presentation at BlackBerry Developer Conference in San Francisco on September 27, 2010. Fine, it wasn’t exclusively a press event, but that was the launch, complete with slick-albeit-ridiculous video.

Nobody is asking for people to line up. We’re just saying that RIM continues to speak about all that the Playbook will be able to do, but there’s precious little reasonably object third-party opinion out there, seemingly because RIM hasn’t been getting these devices to influencers. It was only mildly reassuring to hear you say that demo units are getting out to reviewers; I would expect to have seen a short blurb from Ars Technica, Gizmodo or Engadget stating that they’d received a unit and to look out for their review shortly.

Nope. Nothing.

Now you’re saying the review units will be seen in early April – but I thought the product was due in Q1, which, again, ENDS MARCH 31ST. I’d prefer if RIM dialed down the mouthy announcements and focused on hitting the essential milestones with zero slip. Real artists ship, and all that.
Anonymous

«It’s much bigger news that they are opening up a native C API, because other than Apple, nobody has that on a mobile yet.»

Not quite true. Android has the NDK and webOS has the PDK. Also, your estimate of 90% reuse is waaaaay too high. Anyone who has written non-trivial applications for multiple platforms knows that while C and C++ are syntactically portable, they are by no means idiomatically so. Far too many assumptions are codified at the platform level, requiring abstraction layers to insulate portable logic from non-portable hard constraints.

Given the lack of overlap between PlayStation, Windows or DOS and iOS with regard to system APIs, I’d put the upper bound on average code reuse for non-trivial apps at 50%, with the median case probably being in the low 40s.

Putting that aside, however, RIM has created a significant problem for itself: if a developer can write an application for Android and implicitly target Playbook, why ever write a Playbook-native application? This is part of what Apple feared in Flash gaining a foothold on iOS, and part of the reasoning behind the now-relaxed §3.3.1. Even though the experience afforded by targeting this foreign API is lesser, it is often “good enough” to serve as a disincentive to learn native tools/technologies.
http://www.myvouchercodes.co.uk/ online stores

wow. that’s a really smart move on RIM’s part to support Android apps If someone is thinking to buy a tablet then for sure blackberry playbook is the best and this is the thing to buy!
demodave

(Citations of the author are in no way intended to out words in his mouth.)

“When the BlackBerry PlayBook finally arrives at market next month”. After the iPad 2 has been selling for a month.

“RIM will shortly release the native SDK for the BlackBerry PlayBook”. And then developers will have to *start* development.

“BlackBerry PlayBook users and developers … [cut] … can see demos at BlackBerry World in Orlando, Florida (May 3 to 5, 2011)”

“… BlackBerry Tablet OS Native Development Kit (NDK), which is currently in limited alpha release, will go into open Beta by this summer”

This is all two months into the future (or, more to the point, two months after iPad 2 sales launch). Sure, it’s a good idea to open up the environment if you don’t have a competitive offering. Get help where you can. RIM will need it. Yes, the CrackBerry was a phenomenon. The thought of a Blackberry reminds me of my former manager’s useless approach to running our group.

All this “really great stuff” looks like too little too late to me.
Anonymous

No, Douglas, I’m not looking for your carefully curated previews at events you organize or with your retail partners. I’m looking for independent previews from technology enthusiasts and blogs that will answer crucial questions of mine regarding stability, speed, shortcomings, user experience, developer story, etc. Think Engadget, Gizmodo, Ars Technica… AllThingsD.

Why on earth would I preorder your device when you haven’t given me a good reason to? I have limited, finite resources which I very carefully allocate toward my technology purchases. Despite my day job as a multi-platform software developer (Windows, OS X, iOS, Android, web), at home my only computer is a 3-year old iMac. I’m no gadget fiend; I won’t buy your device out of curiosity. I only integrate devices that I believe make sense for me, and suit my needs. I’m in the market for a tablet, and the leading contender is the iPad 2. So far, RIM has done nothing to convince me otherwise – or, more accurately, RIM has done nothing to enable the sources I trust to convince me otherwise.

Your move.

BlackBerry PlayBook Will Support Android Apps

comments so far. Add yours.

AllThingsD by Writer