BlackBerry handsets will be able to run Android apps RIM is planning to put its "app player" engine into the next generation of handsets, providing Android compatibility to its phones as well as tablets. Bloomberg has been talking to people who asked not to be identified but confirmed that RIM's QNX-based handsets, scheduled for next year, will get the Android compatibility …
Not to worry, that only affects private/consumer users, which makes them no more vulnerable than any phone with an OS that lets its owner install apps from the Web. But those of us with BES setups will simply restrict application rights and keep our lusers fuming at their inability to load games or other fun apps onto a business device.
<Insert evil laughter here>
It might not be quite that simple, I'm very curious how they've done it.
Bytecode is a halfway house already, they may have grafted a dalvik interpreter/ compiler into their jvm along side the normal bytecode one. Dunno if thats feasible, but if so and they've done it, it'd run things at the same speed as if they were java bytecode.
Certainly an interesting technical exercise. No comment on whether its a good idea....
Having already installed the (leaked some time ago) Andriod app player on the Playbook, you can't tell the difference between a native app and an Android up. As far as I can tell it just increases choice - which is a good thing.
Simon 4 - WTF 'confirmed that RIM's QNX-based HANDSETS'. Official Android player for Playbook hopefully within two months.
God, I sound like a Blackberry fanboi.
C'mon El Reg - check your facts prior to biased reporting!
Playbook has been out for just a few months, April in the US?, and the native SDK has been available to "selected" devs for quite a while. EA used it to code the "Need for Speed" game on the PB.
What's new is that the native SDK is going public to world+wife "soon".
Android player app exists... an early version of it leaked a month ago. Many android apps run, including some of the big-hitting apps, and run at full speed. Crackberry has quite a long list of apps confirmed to run.
AFAIK Android apps will need to repackaged and made available through the BB App World site to be "downloadable" (though there are clearly already ways to get them and repackage them "unofficially" to get them onto the PB)... you can't just grab them off the Android appstore, but I can't see why any developer wouldn't want the additional revenue for the minimal work in making it available through BB App World.
So. It's just providing additional choice to the consumer. Which has to be good. :)
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