The Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM) BlackBerry PlayBook tablet computer. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg
Research In Motion Ltd., looking to score a hit with its PlayBook tablet computer, is working on software to allow the device to run applications forGoogle Inc.’s Android, three people familiar with the matter said.
RIM plans to integrate the technology with the PlayBook operating system, giving customers access to Android’s more than 130,000 apps, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the effort isn’t public. RIM, after looking outside the company, is developing the software internally and may have it ready in the second half, two people said.
The Waterloo, Ontario-based company aims to make the PlayBook stand out againstApple Inc.’s iPad and a rising number of competing devices. By offering a tablet with the security and messaging of BlackBerry smartphones and the wide choice of Android apps, RIM may be able to woo customers who would otherwise opt for alternative devices, saidChetan Sharma, an independent wireless analyst in Issaquah,Washington.
“It will be a shrewd move to let Android apps run RIM without any performance or user interface hiccups,” said Sharma in an interview. “It will make the RIM platform attractive to consumers as it lacks the strength of the rivals from an apps perspective.”
Marisa Conway, a spokeswoman for RIM, declined to comment. RIM has said it plans to introduce its tablet in the U.S. in the first quarter and then overseas.
RIM rose 98 cents to $64.55 at 3:08 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The stock fell 14 percent last year as Apple climbed 53 percent and Google declined 4.2 percent.
Android Rising
Android tablets captured 22 percent of global shipments in the three months to Dec. 31, a tenfold jump from a year earlier, according to Boston-basedStrategy Analytics. That narrowed Apple’s share of the tablet market to 75 percent, from about 95 percent three months earlier.
There are about six times as many apps available from Google’sAndroid Marketas the 20,000 in RIM’s App World. The selection has helped companies that make Android devices, including Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. Android became the world’s top smartphone platform, researcherCanalyssaid last month.
No Dalvik
RIM had considered using Google’s Dalvik, the Java software used in running Android apps, and decided against it for reasons including an ongoing patent dispute betweenOracle Corp. and Google over the software, two people said.
Oracle gained the Java programming language as part of its $7.3 billion purchase of Sun Microsystems Inc. last year. Developed by Sun in the mid-1990s, Java lets developers write programs that work across different operating systems and on a variety of computers.
Katie Barron, an Oracle spokeswoman, and Shari Doherty, Google spokeswoman, didn’t immediately return calls seeking comment.
RIM is looking to the PlayBook to boost revenue as its share of the global smartphone market drops. BlackBerry represented 14.4 percent of the market in the fourth quarter, down from 20 percent a year ago, according to Canalys.
RIM is building its tablet on QNX, software bought as part of a $200 million acquisition from Harman International Industries Inc. in April. QNX will give the PlayBook more reliability than rival operating systems built for smartphones and adapted for tablet devices, RIM co-Chief Executive Officer Jim Balsillie has said.
Opting for QNX also put the PlayBook a step closer to Android as they share the common Posix standard, said Peter Misek, an analyst with Jefferies & Co. inNew York.
Wade Beavers, who runs mobile application developer DoApps Inc. inMinneapolis, said he would welcome an easier way to sell his software to RIM customers. He used to make apps for BlackBerry smartphone users and now focuses on Apple and Android devices.
“It was too much headache for too little return,” he said in an interview.
To contact the reporters on this story: Hugo Miller in Toronto athugomiller@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Peter Elstrom atpelstrom@bloomberg.net