There is a bit of confusion on this point but it seems that while on stage today at Adobe Max Mike Lazaridis said that early PlayBook developers would get free devices from RIM if their apps are accepted in App World. Bla1ze over at CrackBerry quoted Lazaridis as saying that:
All you need to do is create an Adobe AIR application for the BlackBerry PlayBook and get it accepted to BlackBerry App World and you’ll get a free one. Those were the words spoken by Mike Lazaridis today at AdobeMAX while demoing the BlackBerry PlayBook live on stage.
On the other side of the fence we have the Elecronista staff (and the official AdobeMax twitter account) quoting Lazaridis saying:
RIM co-chief Mike Lazaridis also promised that early PlayBook developers would be “eligible” to get a free BlackBerry PlayBook as an incentive to write for the platform, though he was short on details.
I am hoping that Bla1ze is right but who knows. I am excited. RIM really needs to build developer excitement with device giveaways just like Google did when the first Android device was released. I still have a bet running with a friend that RIM might be able to surprise us and get the PlayBook out the door by the end of the year but so far odds are that I will lose. Still if RIM launches the PlayBook in January or February with an announcement at CES during January I think they will have a hit on their hands.
Now I will get back to brushing up on my Adobe Flash skills and see how I can port that knowledge to the PlayBook SDK… 🙂
Ronen Halevy ( View Profile) - Posts: