Nov 20, 2009

BlackBerry Poised For Apps Evolution in 2010

BlackBerry had its iPhone 3.0 moment this week, when Research in Motion unveiled four new services for developers making BlackBerry apps.

Enabling developers to use in-App payments, push notifications and battery-friendly geolocation, as well as making in-app advertising easier, should kickstart a new wave of app development for BlackBerry, even if the APIs won't be available to the masses until the first half of next year.

However, the iPhone 3.0 comparison doesn't stop there. These new services can certainly be seen as RIM playing catch-up to Apple, since they've been available to iPhone developers since earlier this summer.

Actually, though, this is no bad thing. The unpalatable truth for all the smartphone platforms is that iPhone has the momentum right now when it comes to developer support.

Anything these platform-owners can do to persuade iPhone developers to look beyond the App Store is a good thing. Google has been calling up developers of innovative iPhone apps and trying to tempt them to Android, for example.

RIM's
announcements this week - backed up by its strong smartphone market share in North America and its 80-20 revenue split on the BlackBerry App World - will also act as an incentive.

Click here to read Mobile Entertainment's in depth analysis of the four new services.


By Stuart Dredge, http://www.casualgaming.biz

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