Citrix Receiver and the RIM PlayBook

This blog was originally posted to http://blogs.citrix.com/author/benjaminb/ on April 19, 2011:

Earlier today, Research in Motion (RIM) announced general availability of its new BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. Citrix first announced support for the (QNX-based) BlackBerry PlayBook at Fall Synergy 2010 and consistent with our Receiver Everywhere vision we are planning to release a Receiver for PlayBook by the end of Q3.

Citrix Receiver will greatly extend the PlayBook’s enterprise capabilities, by giving owners easy and secure access to their corporate data and business desktops while bringing hundreds of thousands of existing business applications to PlayBook users. PlayBook will be the first RIM device to feature the QNX operating system, which, one could certainly speculate will become the standard OS for BlackBerry devices going forward. PlayBook requires close development between Citrix and RIM engineering teams to develop a new Citrix Receiver product specifically to support the QNX operating system and to leverage the unique enterprise capabilities and features of the PlayBook. Citrix already enables the latest BlackBerry devices on the market as Citrix Receiver for BlackBerry has been offered as a free download on both BlackBerry App World and www.citrix.com client center since May 2010.

RIM’s strong enterprise market position fits well with the Citrix vision to enable virtual computing across the enterprise and to enable users to enjoy the virtualization lifestyle, with the ability to work most productively from anywhere on any chosen device. Citrix and RIM are currently planning to demonstrate Receiver for PlayBook at two events next month, BlackBerry World and Citrix Synergy. In late February, Citrix was featured as the key enterprise partner at BlackBerry’s PlayBook pavilion at Mobile World Congress where an early version of Citrix Receiver was demonstrated on a pre-production PlayBook.

Citrix Receiver for PlayBook once again extends the Citrix commitment to Receiver and “Receiver Everywhere” by making it available for virtually every computing platform – Windows PCs/laptops, Macs, iPhones, iPads, Android smartphones and tablets, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and now QNX devices.

Update 6/28/11: We hear you… Citrix Receiver for Playbook is under development and targeted for end of 3Q11 release.