And with that comes yet another platform to entice developers.
The announcement of the PlayBook tablet device provides a new platform for developers to create multimedia-rich web apps to entice users.
The question is will developers jump at the idea of yet another option?
With Apple and Google leading the way in gaining interest from code developers, RIM’s entry into the market isn’t likely to be easy but it does have some positives going for it.
The Blackberry Tablet OS is built on the QNX operating system, more popularly used in embedded applications such as vehicles and with dual-core CPU performance the starting point, there’s a bit more “give” in the devices capability.
Apps can be built based on HTML5/WebKit or Adobe Flash. For those developers who’ve missed having Flash on the iPhone/iPad, it will give them a chance to join the smartdevice market. RIM’s Blackberry App World will provide the app distribution model path trod by its rivals.
At this stage, RIM has plenty of wooing to do however, those interested can sign up for SDK information at the RIM website here.
As usual, one of the key considerations for developers will be how well the PlayBook copes with high-performance applications and battery life. The general rule for these things is typically the more feature-rich the app, the tougher it will more likely be on the device’s battery. And with few details on that area for the PlayBook at the moment, it will be important to see just how good the power management is on this device, particularly with its dual-core capabilities.