RIM Offering Free PlayBook Tablets to Woo Android Developers

Research In Motion plans to give away tablets to Android developers who quickly port their apps to run on the PlayBook device.

RIM developer executive Alec Saunders mentioned the program in a Twitter message on Thursday, with the company offering up a few more details on its Web site.

The offer doesn’t give developers much time, requiring Android apps to be optimized for the PlayBook and submitted for listing in the BlackBerry World store by Feb. 13 in order to get a free tablet.

RIM has an app-playing engine that allows programs designed for Android to run on its QNX-based PlayBook.

The company also has a glut of the tablets, and has been running various promotions designed to reduce inventory and boost the number of tablets in use.

“Further details about the promotion will be posted on our developer site as soon as possible, but the plan is to provide one free 16GB BlackBerry PlayBook to every registered BlackBerry App World vendor who converts their Android app for use on the BlackBerry PlayBook,” RIM said on its Web site.