RIM Reveals BlackBerry Runtime for Android Apps & Its Bevy of Restrictions

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RIM’s BlackBerry Playbook is not doing well on the market; that’s a well-known fact among those who’ve been following its journey since launch. In fact, things are so bad RIM is rumored to have halted production, although other sources say RIM will continue producing and selling the PlayBook even at a loss. One of the things those who’ve already bought it are waiting for is Android integration. And now that RIM has finally revealed some info about it, it might not be the wondrous Android apps-BlackBerry device fusion you were waiting for.

RIM spoke at Droidcon at the Eastern European Mobile Monday Developer Summit, and actually listed not only the features but also the incredibly numerous limitations of BlackBerry Runtime for Android Apps. According to the RIM engineers who spoke during the event, the features that will be unavailable to the PlayBook in spite of Android integration are the:

Live Wallpaper, SIP, SIP VoIP, Native Development kit-built apps, apps that only have App Widgets, apps with several activities tied to the Launcher, Google Maps-based services, in-app billing services, text-to-speed engine, and cloud-to-device messaging system

What do you think about all these limitations? Will you still buy the PlayBook if the price drops are permanent even if Android integration is minimal?