In an attempt to generate more developer interest in its Playbook tablet, RIM has announced that the Playbook will now support Android apps. However, the Playbook won’t be able to support many Android features, which may backfire for RIM. For example, the Playbook won’t support live wallpaper, VoIP, the Native Development Kit, App Widgets, Google services (including Google maps and in-app billing) and “apps containing more than one activity tied to the Launcher.”
With all those restrictions, “the pool of apps that are willing to play in this environment is going to get smaller and smaller,” predicts Matthew Baxter-Reynolds. “What do you call a platform for which nobody bothers to write native apps? Here’s a suggestion: dead.”
