In many ways the QNX OS is a risk for RIM, because it has no existing applications, and must attract developers so that it can offer a variety of applications at launch. In order to make sure that the BlackBerry PlayBook launches as a success, RIM has done their best to attract a variety of developers to the platform. Best I can tell, they have done a good job doing this.

Besides those developers who have traditionally supported BlackBerry, there is also significant interest from the Adobe community. There are a surprising number of developers who are interested in the PlayBook, who have no history at all with developing for BlackBerry, or working with BlackBerry AppWorld. These represent new additions to the BlackBerry ecosystem who had beforehand ignored RIM.

While it is still to early to tell if RIM has attracted enough developers to offer a large number of applications at launch, at the very least they have succeeded in getting a variety of developers interested in the BlackBerry PlayBook.