[mandony]

When the PB was announced I eagerly anticipated having both PB apps and Android tablet apps. Regret my let down when I understood Android phone apps are something different from a tablet app. Further, Android tablet apps might not even be cross tablet operational.

Maybe it is a good idea for RIM to delay release of their Android app player. They not only must assure the player is flawless but also the apps are playable.

According to the NYTIMES blog below, the new HP tablet may only have a couple of hundred apps currently available.

Just How Many Android Tablet Apps Are There? - NYTimes.com

[Gadjet freak]

That was an excellent article. Some are predicting that the openness and myriad of android phone and tablet mfgs and screen sizes and spec differences will ultimately cause the platform to fragment out of business.

RIM would be better served by not hitching their train to the mess that is android apps.

[lotuslanderz]

I dont know much about this, but wont the Android 2.x apps that work on the 7" Galaxy Tab work on the PlayBook?

[Schlymer]

I think that RIM needed to use slight of hand here to be able to get their foot in the door. By saying that the playbook will be able to play android apps, it bought them some time. I think that what they really want is for android app developers to jump through the hoops and port their apps over to the playbook, rather than having an android player. It makes more sense for QNX, to have all native apps. Pretty soon apps that you would see on android devices will start appearing on the playbook, then RIM will indeed have android apps on the playbook. Anything short of this would mean RIM wasted a lot of money on QNX and would have been better off with android OS.

QNX is a sleeping giant.

[bb.pl]

I think that RIM needed to use slight of hand here to be able to get their foot in the door. By saying that the playbook will be able to play android apps, it bought them some time. I think that what they really want is for android app developers to jump through the hoops and port their apps over to the playbook, rather than having an android player. It makes more sense for QNX, to have all native apps. Pretty soon apps that you would see on android devices will start appearing on the playbook, then RIM will indeed have android apps on the playbook. Anything short of this would mean RIM wasted a lot of money on QNX and would have been better off with android OS.

RIM said a lot of things. If you still believe that they will deliver on all their promises you are grossly mistaken. Be happy with what you have and anything else you get, think of it as a bonus.

[mandony]

I think .... It makes more sense for QNX, to have all native apps.

Good point. What sets PB a step above all others is that the RIM-Adobe development tools are Flash based, PB's key app point.

[Schlymer]

RIM said a lot of things. If you still believe that they will deliver on all their promises you are grossly mistaken. Be happy with what you have and anything else you get, think of it as a bonus.

I completely agree with you. I have never owned anything android and the playbook is my first tablet. I bought it for what it was out of the box and am very happy with it. It works great and any apps that come in the future, especially core apps will make the playbook better. I have no belief that everything RIM said will materialize, but what has is the most powerful tablet on the planet. When the software catches up it will be insane.

[Erandhawa]

Compatibility is probably one of the reasons rim has stated the app needs to be submitted by the developer. I am pretty sure they will test to make sure the app works the way its supposed to then post it into appworld. with that in mind rim will hopefully release the app player soon and android developers will hopefully begin submitting apps to rim sooner. i am sure there will be an anouncement before app player is released to tell android developers they can submit apps early so app world will have some android apps at release.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[mandony]

RIM said a lot of things....

Perhaps RIM is correct to backoff on Android. Google has not yet developed a set of tools that makes Android apps somewhat transportable from tablet to tablet.

[Gadjet freak]

Remember, RIM has only promissed the tiny android phone apps and not the tablet apps.

Which makes me wonder, why cant RIM get its own blackberry phone apps working on the playbook?

[mandony]

Which makes me wonder, why cant RIM get its own blackberry phone apps working on the playbook?

It sounded like, from the NYTIMES article, it is not easy to redefine an app made for a small screen phone to a big screen tablet. This also seems to a problem with developing tablet seven inch apps that are also good for ten screens.

[mandony]

They will come, but that will probably be after we've all abandoned this platform.

There is a grander plan for RIM. Their new phones will all use the 'platform'. There is winning combination, high power new chips with an OS built for it, not a work-a-round OS for the new chips.

[howarmat]

Compatibility is probably one of the reasons rim has stated the app needs to be submitted by the developer. I am pretty sure they will test to make sure the app works the way its supposed to then post it into appworld. with that in mind rim will hopefully release the app player soon and android developers will hopefully begin submitting apps to rim sooner. i am sure there will be an anouncement before app player is released to tell android developers they can submit apps early so app world will have some android apps at release.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

haha, they dont do that now, what makes you think they will start doing it with android apps.

[dkingsf]

RIM has been outflanked on every front on tablets AND smartphones. They were smug about their embedded "enterprise" base and didn't see companies allowing other smartphone platforms, and have no experience (read "clue") about the consumer market.

BBM was the "cool" thing in its day, but it's now passe.

My company, which in the past allowed ONLY Blackberries on BES (over 10,000 devices), now is allowing iPhone and Android devices. People with Blackberries within my company now number under 2000. Security is in place for iOS and Android, and our security department is looking at getting rid of BES altogether due to the high cost of support. If they do, bye bye Blackbird(berry)!

[mandony]

haha, they dont do that now....

What is RIM's job? They must test the app to assure that it does not corrupt their OS. It is not their MAIN job to say the app is 'great' or even more than a toy.

[mandony]

Security is in place for iOS and Android, and our security department is looking at getting rid of BES altogether due to the high cost of support!

This may be true for many organizations. There is always a question of compromises.

So far this year several foreign rouge governments have fought un-successfully with RIM, trying to release the high security afforded by BB phones.

Oh, by the way, the CNN reporter just announced a priority message, on their BLACKBERRY, from their confidential government source.

[howarmat]

What is RIM's job? They must test the app to assure that it does not corrupt their OS. It is not their MAIN job to say the app is 'great' or even more than a toy.

read this thread its a good example of what steps RIM can take to make appworld and app approval better

http://forums.crackberry.com/f222/ap...-sucks-627638/

[klingon]

i think this is poppy **** i know YouVersion & others are waiting to release there android apps, it is more money in their pockets. I have seen at least four persons going out and buying playbooks after seeing mine & what it can do, just a little more time & you will get what you need

9700, Playbook

[lnichols]

Honeycomb, Android 3.0 is a mess right now. The source code hasn't been released, and isn't getting much developer support because Android 4.0 is supposed to the combining OS that will be for both phone and Tablet. You'll probably see much more Android tablet support with 4.0 software. The Playbook Android player will only support Android 2.3 software when released. RIM would need to make a new player when the 4.0 source code is finally released to public, and I would assume that they would do this.

[haimez]

This may be true for many organizations. There is always a question of compromises.

So far this year several foreign rouge governments have fought un-successfully with RIM, trying to release the high security afforded by BB phones.

Oh, by the way, the CNN reporter just announced a priority message, on their BLACKBERRY, from their confidential government source.

RIM actually caved and gave those governments the ability to monitor and block traffic across the BIS network within their country. That's what prompted the BBC interview to end with "that's not fair!"

[sookster54]

There are many Android apps that runs fine on tablets, there aren't many made for Honeycomb however. I'm sure I can install IMDB, Angry Birds, Seesmic, Jorte calendar, K-9 Mail, EA Mobile's Tetris, etc. and maybe even Google+.

Also someone on my google+ list has several different tablets, and he says the PB's browser loads up google+ at the closest to loading it on a PC's browser better than all the other tablets. Which I found a little interesting.

[howarmat]

i would say 90% of android apps/games and even widgets made for the phones run without issue on the tabs. Another 2-3% run with some issues but still accomplish what they were created to do. and then 5% or so just dont run at all in my experience.

[walkerjjj3]

there are two areas where rim dropped ball and are still holding out with the pb in my opinion. First there is no universal video conferencing app yet available. l know it may be possible with other playbooks but after all the negative press i am not likely to find anyone I know I can video conference with. Its like having one walkie talkie! The other is no bridge sms capability. These should be addressed first in my opinion as it renders the tablet almost useless in the meantime. Most of the pb apps lve seen so far appear childish in appearance and not much better in function.