More bad news for the PlayBook
Recently it has been confirmed in a report that there are some serious capabilities issues between PlayBook and the Android Operating System. Mainly suggesting that certain Android applications will NOT run on PlayBook due to incompatibility functions, I would be pretty upset if I was a PlayBook user right now especially since it took forever for this tablet to be released and it had so much hype surrounding it.
RIM is gearing up to show off the Android app player for their PlayBook tablet next month at BlackBerry DevCon, but that hardly earnings they’re adopting Android wholesale. In fact, at a Romanian developer event, RIM engineers clarified just some of the Android features we won’t be considering in QNX 2.0 for the PlayBook: live wallpapers, widgets, SIP, any apps made with the Android NDK, apps that embed Google Maps, in-app billing, apps with multiple Launcher options, anything using Android’s text-to-speech engine, or cloud messaging system.
That closes doors for a lot of apps, but RIM has already been up-front with the fact that developers will need to run their Android apps through a separate development kit and re-submit everything for App World. The PlayBook still runs QNX at its core, and with that are going to be some limitations. Still, I suspect that most apps will be able to find work-arounds or simply cut features with minimal fuss, considering the bulk of the app is already on paper and should transplant cleanly. RIM’s in an fascinating spot, trying to tap into the popularity of Android while still advancing their own platform. While that force seem like they’re giving up ground to the competition, the Android App Player will certainly address an ongoing demand for quality apps on the PlayBook. With any luck, these rebates knocking the price of the base model down to $300 will stick around until after the App Player goes live.
In any case, here’s a demo of the App Player from a few months ago, and as you can see, it’s running honestly well. I’m excited to try it out, but is the feature too late appearance to really sell the PlayBook?
via Thinq
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