Today, the Myriad Group is announcing the launch of Alien Dalvik 2.0, its port of the Dalvik virtual machine found in Google’s Android operating system. This new release will allow Android applications to run on non-Android devices, including TVs, e-book readers, and even on tablet computers, like Apple’s iPad.
The company says it will demonstrate the technology in action at next week’s CTIA Enterprise & Applications 2011 conference in San Diego.
With Alien Dalvik 2.0, the majority of Android apps can run unmodified using Android Package (APK) files, says Myriad. That means app developers could, in theory, write apps using in a single standard and run them across all platforms.
In theory, of course. Something tells us that Apple won’t allow Android applications running on its iOS devices anytime soon. (RIM, however, might be interested.)
What may be more relevant than the technical (but not likely) iPad compatibility is that Alien Dalvik 2.0 will support a range of platforms, including e-readers, TVs, set-top boxes, in-vehicle digital displays and avionics. In addition to apps, it’s also capable of mobilizing content that includes live and recorded TV and on-demand movies.
OEMs interested in allowing Android apps to run on their non-Android devices may find the technology useful, which began supporting MeeGo in February of this year. Myriad is also well-versed in Java and other embedded systems.
The fact that Alien Dalvik 2.0 supports iOS is a nifty party trick, but not one that will have much impact…expect in the jailbreaking community, perhaps.