Just weeks before the BlackBerry PlayBook became available for purchase, RIM made the announcement that the BlackBerry PlayBook would be able to support Android Apps. Today at BlackBerry World, we got our first chance to see exactly what this experience will look like on the PlayBook. Long story short, it's looking pretty darn good. RIM is working hard to make the experience very integrated on the PlayBook.
As we learned previously, Android App Developers will have to signup with BlackBerry App World and bring over their apps (an easy process), from which PlayBook owners will be able to download the Android-gone-BlackBerry apps from App World. On the PlayBook homescreen, the Android apps will appear the same as any other app - you get the same sort of icon. To launch an Android App, first the Android App Player has to be open and running on the PlayBook. If it's already open and you launch an Android App, it'll quickly load within the App Player. If the App Player is not already open when you launch an Android App, it'll first open the App Player and load the app within it (essentially the App Player is literally running the Android OS, so it has to open before the apps will run). Because the PlayBook doesn't have buttons, RIM has mapped the PlayBook's Tablet OS neatly to the Player. So where you would have an option button on Android, within the Android App Player you can swipe down from the top bezel to bring up the options menu.
Hit up the video above to see it in action and let us know what you think in the comments. The performance with the apps demoed looks pretty solid, so I'm thinking this is going to be a BIG WIN for PlayBook owners. And I'm sure if that considering this is really phase one implementation on a young platform, that we'll further see this support improve over the months ahead. Excited much??
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