BlackBerry PlayBook to run Android Apps

With a lot of focus on the iPad 2 being released in twenty five countries today, there are still other good tablets on the horizon, such as the offering’s from Samsung and Research In Motion. RIM has announced today their upcoming BlackBerry PlayBook will run Android applications.

Chloe Albanesius of PCMag.com is reporting that the tablet will also be able to use apps specially designed for the BlackBerry platform. The company announced it will release two optional ‘app players’ for the device which will run environments for Android 2.3 applications, and BlackBerry Java apps. These will be made available via the BlackBerry App World, and placed in a secure sandbox on the tablet PC.

RIM also announced that they will be releasing a native SDK which will allow for C/C++ app development for the PlayBook. RIM president Mike Lazaridis said in a statement that doing this will give owners “an even greater choice of apps and will also showcase the versatility of the platform”.

Developers building for both platforms will be able to port their applications to run on the tablet OS, and to do this they will have to submit to the App World for approval before getting put in the app store. The new app players will be showcased at BlackBerry World between May 3 and May 5 in Orlando Florida.

Do you like the idea of Android apps finding their way on to the PlayBook?