BlackBerry PlayBook will support Android apps, RIM rep proclaims [video]
BGR exclusively reported in January that Research in Motion was hard at work trying to add support for Android applications to the BlackBerry PlayBook and its QNX-based OS. The move would be a huge one …
Context & Ripple Effects
BGR's January exclusive first reported that RIM was working to bring Android applications to the QNX-based PlayBook, and fresh evidence of Android code running on BlackBerry hardware surfaced days ago in a follow-up on Android apps running on BlackBerry phones. With this week's statement from a RIM representative, the company has moved from leak to public commitment.
The confirmation lands against a backdrop where Research in Motion is widely seen as losing carrier mindshare — reporting through late 2010 documented RIM slipping down carriers' priority lists as major players consolidated around Android. For a tablet launching into a market where the app catalog is the primary purchase criterion, borrowing Android's library is RIM's fastest available answer.
First-order effects
- Android developers gain access to the PlayBook without writing native QNX code, letting RIM claim a large app catalog on day one despite the platform being months old.
- The move hands RIM a direct rebuttal to the 'not enough apps' objection that has dogged every non-iPad tablet pitch ahead of the PlayBook's launch.
Second-order effects
- Google gains nothing and risks confusion: an Android-compatible device outside its certification program means PlayBook users could experience Android apps Google doesn't control or vet.
- Competing tablet platforms face a forced response — if a brand-new OS can rent Android's catalog via a compatibility layer, the 'apps gap' argument weakens for any challenger willing to do the same.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, compatibility layers become a standard launch strategy for new operating systems, shifting competitive weight away from raw developer recruitment toward runtime performance and integration quality.
- It also signals that platform wars are consolidating around a de facto Android application standard — even RIM, which built its business on a closed stack, now competes partly on Google's terms.
The trend: Mobile operating systems with thin native catalogs are increasingly leaning on Android application compatibility rather than building ecosystems from scratch.