Future BBX smartphones and RIM's BlackBerry PlayBook tablet will be able to run some compatible Android applications. And that's good news for both BlackBerry users and BlackBerry developers. (Read more details on the .)

More specifically, roughly 70 percent of the applications currently available via Google's Android Market are potentially compatible with the BlackBerry PlayBook and the BBX OS. The majority of applications that aren't BBX compatible employ licensed APIs for access to services like Google Maps, etc. And RIM currently has no plans to enable the use of these APIs. So any Android applications that require access to any of these licensed APIs will be incompatible with BBX devices for the foreseeable future, Saunders says.

So why would a mobile app developer choose to create a BBX specific application when he could just build an Android app and then "port" it over to the Android Player for BBX in a few simple steps?