(CNN) -- Once the most popular smartphone, the BlackBerry has been losing ground in the past year to iPhone and Android models. So Research in Motion is trying to carve out a new market with the PlayBook (the upcoming BlackBerry tablet) due to hit stores in the U.S. and Canada on April 19. Prices start at $499, same as for the iPad 2. However, the BlackBerry operating system is definitely not on the cutting edge of smartphone platforms. So there's been ample skepticism about how attractive a BlackBerry tablet might be to consumers, especially compared with slick offerings such as Apple's iPad and the growing array of Android tablets.
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BlackBerry's PlayBook tablet hits stores April 19 and will start at $499
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In an effort to make the PlayBook more attractive, BlackBerry is opening it to Android apps
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But few Android app developers may be willing to jump through hurdles for an unproven tablet
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The PlayBook also falls short in terms of supporting integrated BlackBerry messaging services
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He points out that touting the PlayBook as running Android apps is misleading, since consumers won't be able to download apps from the @placeholder app market and run them on the PlayBook.
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Email, contacts, and calendar data are not 'live' on the PlayBook as they are on a regular @placeholder.
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The PlayBook will then mirror whatever data is on the @placeholder."