Jim Tobin, SVP of the Software, Services & Enterprise Markets at RIM, used the company’s blog to talk-up the benefits of supporting BlackBerry and Android Java apps on the company’s PlayBook tablet device, while also underlining the benefits of embracing the BlackBerry Tablet platform fully. Tobin said that “for the majority of developers, the way to go is still the BlackBerry platform and the widened set of tools we’ve made available. Only these can ensure that the developer harnesses the full power of the BlackBerry Playbook tablet in terms of extremely rich graphics, full multitasking and ultrafast processing.” However, because of the support for ‘application players’ which will enable the device to run apps written using other technologies, “if there are developers currently developing for the Android platform, they can now rapidly move onto our platform while they evaluate our other development paths. We can now offer such developers an on-ramp to package and distribute their apps to our growing customer base of consumers, enterprises and governments.”

Tobin said that RIM will add full tooling support for native C/C++ development for the BlackBerry Tablet platform “over the coming months.” Going forward, the company intends to offer “the most powerful, flexible and open experiences for developers whether they choose to build with HTML5, Java, Adobe Flash, Adobe AIR, or native C/C++.” Also in the works are “a range of advanced cloud-based services including the BlackBerry Payment and Advertising Services, advanced location-based services, application analytics, and powerful push services.”

Tobin also talked up the benefits of the strategy for consumers. He said that “our customers will benefit from having access to highly optimised and integrated apps developed specifically for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet using BlackBerry tools, as well as a much bigger catalog of apps drawing from multiple other sources, such as the Adobe Flash and Adobe AIR, HTML5 and JavaScript developer communities (as previously announced) – and now the Android developer community. And this is all being done through our BlackBerry App World storefront to manage the app discovery and download processes for consumers.”