APK files on the upcoming official release

With the new OS 2.0 coming out in February 2012 including (I think) the Android player, we should be able to run Android apps. Is it then correct to assume that if one has an APK file that can be converted to BAR format, then by installing it on the Playbook it can play normally? (installing via development mode)? Even though it is not available via the normal App World?

Thinking of buying either Android tab or Playbook for the kids, and if the above can work smoothly, then the way to go is definitely a Playbook.

Yes, you can do that on the OS 2 beta currently. It is not just a matter of converting apk to bar though, the app might or might not be fully functional. There are couple of android app list on CB that you can look at to see which apps people got working which ones don't work out of the box (you can even download the working/free bar files fromt hose threads.

Here's a related question. With Android ICS, a lot of Apps are going to have to be updated to support ICS right? Wouldn't that kill a lot of current Android Apps, thus making it unable to work on the PlayBook in the future?

Like quite a few apps support only Gingerbread, Froyo, and Eclair, while others are limited to only Honeycomb. How would the Android App Player support all these apps? I guess this is where Android fragmentation comes into play?

Actually, the PB has runtime for the whole 2.x series(including froyo on up to gingerbread). As well, if you have PB 2.0 beta and load the other launchers, you can see that honeycomb and ice cream sandwiches runtimes have been added somewbere down the road.

So yes, it supports all of android except 1.x that I know of. But be sure to know that your total memory usage WILL be around 550mb average. Android is eating quite a bit, but then PB has 1gb memory anyway.

Maybe when the new "Black Forest" tablet comes out next year, hopefully it will sport 2gb memory to provide good use of android. I am on 2.0 beta right now and love it! Even have a few android apps installed and they run great.