A report filed by Bloomberg citing its own sources has confirmed that the next generation of BlackBerry hardware which will run QNX as its operating system will also include support for Android apps by being bundled with the same emulator as the one being pushed to the PlayBook tablet in an update next month. The emulator will enable the QNX powered BlackBerry hardware and the PlayBook to run Android apps up to those compatible with Froyo, but will not be able to run apps built for Gingerbread, Honeycomb or Ice Cream Sandwich.
The intent of the emulator is to shore up RIM’s currently anemic developer support for both the BlackBerry and PlayBook as a software platform compared to Android and iOS, though the lack of support may be better attributed to complaints of poor tools and documentation as well as a perceived lack of support from RIM for native development, either via BlackBerry App World or via official third-party dev tools such as Adobe’s Flex and AIR runtimes.
The first BlackBerry phones using QNX as the OS will not be released until 2012, with RIM announcing and carriers launching the latest BlackBerry handsets this month using the stopgap BlackBerry 7 OS in the Torch 9800, Bold 9900 and Curve 9300 before moving to QNX next year.
