Ina Fried

Recent Posts by Ina Fried

RIM Offering Free PlayBook Tablets to Woo Android Developers

Research In Motion plans to give away tablets to Android developers who quickly port their apps to run on the PlayBook device.

RIM developer executive Alec Saunders mentioned the program in a Twitter message on Thursday, with the company offering up a few more details on its Web site.

The offer doesn’t give developers much time, requiring Android apps to be optimized for the PlayBook and submitted for listing in the BlackBerry World store by Feb. 13 in order to get a free tablet.

RIM has an app-playing engine that allows programs designed for Android to run on its QNX-based PlayBook.

The company also has a glut of the tablets, and has been running various promotions designed to reduce inventory and boost the number of tablets in use.

“Further details about the promotion will be posted on our developer site as soon as possible, but the plan is to provide one free 16GB BlackBerry PlayBook to every registered BlackBerry App World vendor who converts their Android app for use on the BlackBerry PlayBook,” RIM said on its Web site.

Latest Video

View all videos »

Search »

Just as the atom bomb was the weapon that was supposed to render war obsolete, the Internet seems like capitalism’s ultimate feat of self-destructive genius, an economic doomsday device rendering it impossible for anyone to ever make a profit off anything again. It’s especially hopeless for those whose work is easily digitized and accessed free of charge.

— Author Tim Kreider on not getting paid for one’s work