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Many have been rather skeptical about the whole Android Player aspect of the recent BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 update that recently rolled out. While some thought it wouldn't be worth their time to take a few minutes to convert their Android application to the BlackBerry PlayBook, others took the risk and went for it. Could it really be beneficial to developers to use the tools RIM provided for them to convert their Android APK into the appropriate bar file and submit it through BlackBerry App World for us to be able to download?
Well, one developer who took the risk took to their blog to let us know about the experience they had after porting their application to the BlackBerry PlayBook. Neil Burlock, the developer behind Solar system Explorer had some pretty awesome results that he shared, which lead us to believe there are probably others out there with similar stories. In just 36 hours of being in BlackBerry App World the application sold over 150 copies.
Sure, you may be thinking that isn't a ton of copies sold but it took roughly 10 months in the Android market to reach the same number of sales. The developer did code the application using Shiva which is compatible with several platforms, but it was not compiled against the specific BlackBerry PlayBook code. Even without the use of native code, the developer is still getting great reviews on the performance of the application on the PlayBook.
Hopefully more success stories of Android developers will continue to surface, and we will continue to see Android developers as well as BlackBerry developers standing behind the product. What would be even better to see is these developers who understand that their applications can be successful on the BlackBerry platform begin to use native BlackBerry code to develop instead of only porting.
Source: Burlock.org
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