Blackberry Releases Playbook Development Kit

Research In Motion's Blackberry division announced today the availability of a new software development kit for the upcoming Playbook tablet PC.

Let The Apps Begin!

As we noted last month, Blackberry is heading into the tablet PC world to take on the Apple iPad. Playbook's fate is subject to the same issues that were discussed earlier in that it is not going to be about the hardware features, but rather the quality and volume of applications that will be made available.

Blackberry is making sure that they have full control over the applications developed. All Playbook programs will be subjected to approval under development guidelines.

Playbook Apps Built On Adobe AIR SDK

Playbook developers will be building their applications on Adobe AIR's 2.5 SDK. The kit includes:

• API documentation
• Adobe Flash Builder 4.0 plug-in
• ActionScript user interface widgets
• Packaging and signing tools

Because the Blackberry Playbook is not out yet, a software emulator is provided for developers to write and test their applications on.

Blackberry Playbook References

• Playbook Adobe AIR forum
• Playbook developer documentation
• Playbook webcasts
• Playbook SDK

About Kerry Kobashi

Kerry is the founder of KerryOnWorld. He lives in Silicon Valley and has worked as an engineer and project manager. He owns Kobashi Computing a consulting company.