We’ve been hearing about Android apps on the BlackBerry PlayBook for months, but there hasn’t been much word about what they’ll look like. RIM engineers at Droidcon gave a list of Android features that won’t work on the BkackBerry platform.
Here’s what’s on the chopping block: widgets and live wallpapers, apps with Google Maps integration, apps with in-app billing, cloud-based messaging services, and apps that were built with the Android Native Development Kit (NDK), using SIP or VOIP SIP. The restrictions rest on the fact that the Android App Player is actually just emulating the Android platform on BlackBerry OS, so naturally apps won’t be able to behave as though they’re running on a true Android system.
The list of concrete compatibility concerns probably means that the implementation is finally, finally coming soon. But even with the heavy discounts to the PlayBook, it’s still way more expensive than the new Kindle Fire, with a less expansive marketplace and a Messianic feature set that’s resting on Android emulation. [Crackberry]