Android app interfaces on QNX

Hi,

Does anyone know if the Android apps that are set to be ported over to the PlayBook and the QNX platform will keep the grey buttons, black menus, and other things that make these apps obviously Android? Or will the GUI change to the BlackBerry style of menus?

I still can't help but wonder whether RIM is just slowly taking the best of BlackBerry and bringing it into Android. I seriously wonder why buy a touchscreen QNX BlackBerry when most apps are going to be Android ones. I might as well buy an Android phone and get the whole experience.

Any thoughts?

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couldn't agree more, i think the whole android app player is a huge mistake, what's going to happen is people are going to want android apps that simply won't work or are crippled on BBX, and end up saying f it, and get an android device. developers are going to say, man i can save a lot of time actually NOT developing for BBX and just port my app, regardless of whether all functionality goes over or not. really so many android apps integrate into the system of the device itself, i see it just being a huge headache. why RIM made an easy route for developers to not develop for their platform is beyond me.

Exactly. As let's face it, Android is where the apps are and now RIM wants to bring them over in their current form. Why not just ship the PlayBook with Android?

I agree. Where is the logic in allowing a rival platform to be the app ecosystem on the new BBX. Which with Microsoft and WP7 are going to face serious competition.

If I was in charge, I'd of never have considered an Android player or anything involving Android. Funny how Microsoft have more developers and apps for their platform without the need to use Android!

What is going on at RIM!

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Android Apps is just a nice bonus, I LIKED that the PlayBook has a different OS.

But the problem is that now BBX is essentially a combination of BlackBerry OS, QNX, and Android. And since when was that the objective?
Or should I just accept that BBX is not a ecosystem in itself. It is an alternative to the standard Android?

If Samsung comes up with an Android Bold 9900 copy - RIM is in big, big, big trouble with this really questionable move to allow Android apps.

Why not bring developers to QNX, why are they bringing Android designed apps to QNX?

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Originally Posted by NicoBerry

It is an alternative to the standard Android?

Even in the worst scenario, RIM will likely become the largest single Android platform (selling 60-70 milliong blackberries a year) with the least amount of fragmentation.

You only have to deal with 3 models --- a slab, a traditional blackberry, and a vertical slider. All 3 models have the same CPU/GPU (like BB7).

And they all have the same Android version.

For those of you that are so certain that developers are not going to make native apps or are not going to do a good job in porting their apps I have a question.

Are you developers? Do you know a lot of developers? If so is this the general consensus from a large group? If you are none of the above then it's just total speculation on your part. Or are you just saying that developers are lazy?

Everybody codes for both ios and android. The native Playbook apps will be ported from the ios source code --- from pure c app to pure c app.

Originally Posted by samab

Everybody codes for both ios and android. The native Playbook apps will be ported from the ios source code --- from pure c app to pure c app.

Can that be done? I'm no developer. But if a dev kit is to be coded in C++. Does that mean you're able to code in C also?

I'm not saying developers are lazy. I am just suggesting that now it is so easy (I saw a video from RIM demonstrating how quick it is to port an Android app) to the port to BBX platform. That is going to be a huge amount of apps that look and appear to be like the PlayBook is running Android! For example - Kindle. The grey and the menu is just like Android. I think that for advantage to RIM the developers should change the GUI. Otherwise and I will say it again, there is no ecosystem as BBX is depending on what happens with Android. I am not a coder but what if for future apps, the android logo appears? Then when the app is ported the android logo will start up on the PlayBook or a BBX Phone. Unless interfaces change - I think people will start to realise they are getting a limited Android experience and might as well switch and get the whole one.

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The use of the android logo is highly regulated by Google's license.

Listen to the podcast, Kevin mentioned that RIM knows that they should unify the UI experience with each Android app appearing in individual windows. If and when they do that, you won't know that you are using an Android app.

I don't have access to a PC but I will definietly listen to the podcast. I strongly hope that RIM sets a standard for all apps. The objective should be for this. I wonder will that be a requirement for the app to be released? The interface has to be changed to the BB standard.

Where does the "android player" fit in now that apps can be ported over?

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Originally Posted by kbz1960

For those of you that are so certain that developers are not going to make native apps or are not going to do a good job in porting their apps I have a question.

Are you developers? Do you know a lot of developers? If so is this the general consensus from a large group? If you are none of the above then it's just total speculation on your part. Or are you just saying that developers are lazy?

I'm a developer, been to past 3 devcons and WES/BBWorld... We decided to not support BBX and just port over our apps from Android.

We don't do games and the Android limitations, while significant, do not justify the investment in BB platform just yet. Taking a wait and see approach given what I know about how RIM operates.

We fully supported BB OS 4.5-7 as well, but that has been killed off.

Certainly not speaking for every dev, it probably depends on type of apps and where the dev is coming from. Certainly a number of devs I spoke to had similar plans to mine.

Why invest time and money into an unproven platform run by a company with a bad track record when you can do an Android app that is good enough? (good enough for time being anyways)

Originally Posted by johnsmith007

I'm a developer, been to past 3 devcons and WES/BBWorld... We decided to not support BBX and just port over our apps from Android.

Are you re-packaging your existing android app to the playbook?

Are you porting your existing blackberry java app to the java-esque android language for use in the playbook's android player?

Do you have an existing iphone/ipad native c app that may/may not eventually port over to the BBX platform?

Originally Posted by samab

Are you re-packaging your existing android app to the playbook?

Are you porting your existing blackberry java app to the java-esque android language for use in the playbook's android player?

Do you have an existing iphone/ipad native c app that may/may not eventually port over to the BBX platform?

Yep, repackaging existing Android apps. Using the beta 2.0, it works decent (after some tweaking and killing off a few features).

We support all major platforms including iOS, Android, WP, BB OS and even basic J2ME phones.

We will not be porting iOS app to PB, it would be much easier and less time consuming to write a native Cascades app than to port the Objective C code base from iOS there are just too many differences.

We do not write games, so we do not use plain C/C++ code and Objective C + Apple Frameworks are not easily ported to PB.

When Cascades becomes available (Summer 2012... maybe) and when the first phones start showing up, we will likely revisit this decision.

Originally Posted by johnsmith007

When Cascades becomes available (Summer 2012... maybe) and when the first phones start showing up, we will likely revisit this decision.

I thought that NDK 2.0 is already in beta and that it will come with Cascades.

Originally Posted by samab

I thought that NDK 2.0 is already in beta and that it will come with Cascades.

Perhaps a very closed beta ;)

Per RIM:

Availability of Cascades

Cascades will be released as a Beta during the Fall of 2011, with more and more advance features coming in future releases.

devblog.blackberry. com/2011/10/cascades-blackberry

That's exactly what RIM has done! Made it pointless for native app development. Pushing the developers to Android and the users will follow.

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Originally Posted by NicoBerry

That's exactly what RIM has done! Made it pointless for native app development. Pushing the developers to Android and the users will follow.

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Those developers are already developing for Android anyway (and ios too).

It all depends on how they developed their ios app. If they went for ease and developed with objective c for the ios platform, then they already lost much of the souce code portability to other platform --- it would be difficult for them to migrate their existing objective c source code to either Android's NDK, or RIM's NDK or to even Windows Mobile.

There are no users to follow --- when the number 2 reason why the Playbook fail is because of the lack of apps (number 1 reason being the lack of native email). There won't be users to be on the platform anyway for you to have the argument about them fleeing.