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Is RIM blocking side-loading of apps on the PlayBook or not?

10.04.2012
First RIM roiled its shrinking universe of users and developers with a single tweet about ending side-loading of apps on its PlayBook tablet. And then the company created more confusion with a blog post this week that was supposed to give "nuance" to the tweet.

And it's still not clear whether RIM plans simply to block side-loading as it's currently understood and practiced among PlayBook users, or to modify it and limit it. Side-loading, which is also an issue in other mobile platforms, is the ability to install outside of an official "app store," in this case BlackBerry App World.

The confusion started during an April 4 exchange on between Alec Saunders (@asaunders), RIM's vice president of developer relations, and a number of his followers. Mohamed Rizk (@Spy520e), a BlackBerry developer from Doha, Qatar, asked Saunders via tweet, "Heard you're removing Side Loading from OS 2.1, that's ok, but any workaround to test apps other than Simulator?"

BlackBerry developers use side-loading to install an app in development, test it and debug it, before submitting it to the online marketplace.

: "we're removing side-loading for consumers. Pretty sure we've got a solution for devs."