iOS apps on BlackBerry? Could this really happen?

And we thought getting some Android apps running on the BlackBerry PlayBook was big. Earlier this week the BlackBerry community saw something quite bigger, and perhaps more significant. In fact, I couldn’t believe the headline when I saw it on CrackBerry: “Developer gets iOS apps running on Blackberry, for real.” There was, of course, plenty of skepticism at first, but the developer proved his mettle with a series of tests that proved it is possible. This obviously has huge implications for the future of the BlackBerry platform, but we’re quite a ways away from learning if it will indeed be possible on a wide scale. The foremost reason I retain my skepticism centers not on RIM, but on Apple. In the App Store, Apple has one of the most valuable mobile properties on the planet. It not only has hundreds of thousands of apps, but they’re also vetted. That is, it’s tougher to squeeze through a harmful app for iOS than it is Android. The combination of quantity and quality puts Apple in a premium position. I doubt they’d want to compromise that by allowing their apps to run on other platforms. The question, then, is of what Apple can do to prevent this. You can be sure they’ll pursue every avenue imaginable. While I don’t think they fear competition from RIM at the moment, I also don’t think they’d like it if even a small competitor started running apps that are exclusively available on their platform. It’s not going to cause a mass flock to BlackBerry, but it certainly dulls one of Apple’s competitive edges. Expect them to do something to fight this if it starts to catch on. Clearly RIM stands to greatly from this. If one user has figured a way to port iOS apps to the PlayBook OS, then it’s almost certainly going to be as easy for BlackBerry 10. RIM can use this as a selling point for developers. See how easy it is to create a BlackBerry version of your iOS app? Why not put it in front of as many people as possible? It’s basically the same tack they took with Android developers. I’m still not certain this will make a huge difference for BlackBerry 10, but that’s because Apple represents a significant obstacle. But if they have no real recourse here, RIM can use this information to its advantage. We can only hope that in addition to the apps being developed just for BlackBerry 10, that we can also get a selection of iOS apps as well.

About the Author

Joe Pawlikowski is the Senior Editor at MobileMoo.com and has been covering the mobile industry full time since 2007. When he's not writing about the tech scene, he can be found discussing his personal love - baseball (and more specifically the New York Yankees) as well as writing on his personal blog.