Rumor: RIM's Playbook Could Run Android Apps(update:confirmed)

NeilN, that's the first thing I thought, too, when I heard that Google was closing the door on Honeycomb.

In the space of 24 hours, we have heard that Google is closing the door (temporarily?) on Honeycomb, Motorola is developing their own OS to compete with Android, and RIM is implementing functionality to piggyback off Android Marketplace.

Things are getting complex in a hurry!!

But back on topic, Android app support is a very good thing for Playbook stakeholders, as RIM has never been able to incubate a compelling AppWorld experience. Prior to this confirmation, I would have speculated that Playbook was doomed to fail, but now I think it at least has a chance of commercial payback.

Wow, that's an eye opening link....

The other caveat to this deal is that it will require developers to manually port their apps to BlackBerry App World; it's not as if a user will be able to hop over to the Android Market (or, for that matter, third-party markets like GetJar) and directly download whatever Android app they wish.

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So Playbook users cannot access an Android Marketplace and download apps that interest them.

RIM has made it easy to port apps to their platform, but developers must still do some minor conversion work and put their apps on BB AppWorld. That's a helluva lot different than being 'Android compatible' !! I don't think RIM was entirely forthright about this.

I was assuming it would be the same as a Blackberry, using Desktop Manager 6.

It's not a dedicated media manager program, but there is functionality in there for basic copying of media files.