As a current Flash/Flex developer, I’m constantly looking for new toys that will allow me to publish products to their platforms – and we just got a new contender.

The PlayBook – a tablet forthcoming by way of RIM, a business-centric renowned mobile device company, and is looking at developers to help catapult their product into the limelight.

If you know NOTHING about this new tablet, check out the world-wide premier that went on during Adobe MAX this year:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyJVNK7aSW4]

But as of recent, what’s really caught my eye is how it compares to another well-known device – the iPad.

You can see from this YouTube video that the performance of the browser alone is pretty darn good, and can perform more functions like a desktop. If you’re like me, that’s EXACTLY what you’re expecting.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s72rGDUn2uo]
Furthermore, RIM has dedicated it’s first release of an SDK to the AIR platform. This means that AS3/Flash/Flex developers can immediately jump in, and start playing with the technology via their simulator, and feel comfortable with the language/syntax to develop apps.
From a consumer stand-point, this merely means it can boast the “It has Flash” retort, and they’ll feel comfortable knowing they’re going to get a better experience transitioning from desktop to mobile.

What’s also exciting for developers is that they’re working on a WebWorks SDK, a Java SDK, and a native C/C++ API. This means with the addition of AS3/AIR, that practically every major language can be utilized to create an application of your liking.

I’m a Developer, Where Do I start?

Of course this goes without saying, but you’ll need some resources to get started; mainly the SDK, simulator, and of course FlashBuilder 4. There’s also a plethora of marketing and documentation available to assist you in where to start!

Resources:

Hopefully after I get a solid application done for the Android market using AIR for Android, I’ll be writing up a series of posts spotlighting considerations for porting applications over from standard AIR to the BlackBerry QNX SDK. I also assume (hope) as time goes on, the stop-gap will be lesser and lesser to avoid large rewrites for cross platform development.