BlackBerry PlayBook could be running Android apps in the future

(PhysOrg.com) -- Research In Motion, the company that is best known as the makers of the BlackBerry line of mobile products, is developing software that will allow its soon-to-be-released BlackBerry PlayBook tablet to run Android-based applications.

The BlackBerry PlayBook runs on the BlackBerry Tablet OS, an operating system that was developed by QNX Software, a company that Research In Motion bought during 2010.

While nothing official has been released, several unnamed sources stated that Research In Motion had originally tried to use third-party software in order to run Android-based applications on the tablet, but none of the them were found to be worth using. The new software is being developed in-house in hopes of creating a better user experience.

Not that Research In Motion is promising anything at all. Despite this development project the company has yet to give any indication that they plan to bring Android apps to its platform in the near future. So, this may be a development project for future versions of the BlackBerry Tablet OS or simply a project that fizzles out. In either case the PlayBook will not be reliant upon the Android-based applications to get apps out to the users.

Research In Motion offered details about its own developer program, which would let developers create native apps that run on the tablets operating system, at the event where the BlackBerry PlayBook was announced, in September of last year. The platform also supports applications that have been developed in a variety of languages including: HTML5, Adobe AIR, Flash, and Java.