Intel can't compete with charcoal - Bob Colwell, former Intel chief architect
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RIM’s Playbook will get Android apps support
IF YOU CAN'T BEAT 'EM, JOIN 'EM is the advice Blackberry maker Research in Motion (RIM) took to heart in adding Google apps support to its Playbook tablet.
Apparently RIM developers are working on software to give Playbook punters access to Google's ever expanding Android Market. Bloomberg reckons that three separate sources at RIM confirmed the Google apps operability and that the tablet will have full functionality sometime later this year.
If ever an Ipad killer is going to come to market, RIM stands a good chance of making it with the Playbook. The company might have faltered with Blackberrys and consumer smartphones in the last couple of years but plugging a consumer tablet into an existing ecosystem is a great idea.
Why create your own ecosystem when you can plug into one of the most successful ones going? This could be a savvy move by RIM if it really wants to make a play for massive consumer adoption.
Research house Canalys said that Android Market was already six times bigger than RIM's App World last month with over 130,000 apps to choose from. Jumping into the Android Market should give the Playbook a fighting chance, but it will take a small miracle to match Apple's sales numbers for Ipads.
"It will be a shrewd move to let Android apps run [on] RIM without any performance or user interface hiccups," independent analyst Chetan Sharma told Bloomberg.
"It will make the RIM platform attractive to consumers as it lacks the strength of the rivals from an apps perspective", she added.
Marisa Conway at RIM wouldn't confirm or deny the news, only toeing the company line that the Playbook will be released in the US first and then overseas.
RIM demoed the Playbook to the INQURIER in the US last week and we have a two-part hands on look at it you can watch. µ
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Why everybody wants an Ipad killer? Every device does the same thing, for a tablet PC. Play games, browse web, runs some apps, read books/documents. There is no Ipad killer, there will never be. I'm not a fanboy, but Apple hardware sets the build standard and quality, but is overpriced and OS is crap, and you can't do much with it like Android can. Playbook is smaller, half size smaller actually, not just 7" in diameter. Viewing angle is lower, not an IPS panel like Ipad, and no 10 hours battery (they say it's up to 8 hours, but Ipad has more than 10 hours even with WiFi). The Android OS is better though, but fewer games and apps than IOS (they have RAGE HD for IPAD, it's not out even for PC yet!).
For those of us QNX developers, running Android in a virtual machine under QNX isn't all that terribly difficult, so why not support it if you have the resources (dual-core 1GHz CPU, 1GB RAM)?
The Linux implementation can be stripped down pretty good and require minimal resources for running internet enabled apps, plus those apps would be contained to the VM and not violate security on the QNX side, a definite plus to the business users.