With its BlackBerry DevCon 2010 slated to kick off in San Francisco on Sept. 27, Research In Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) is teasing a number of forthcoming developer products and services slated to make their official premiere during the event. First and foremost, RIM will unveil a new mobile social applications platform that builds on the device maker's BlackBerry Push Service solution, which enables the creation of time-sensitive applications and tools that push information and updates directly to users' phones. "We now see new apps launching every week that take advantage of BlackBerry Push Service," writes Mike Kirkup, director of RIM's Developer Relations program, on the Inside BlackBerry Developer's Blog. "But then someone asked us: ‘Why can I only push from a server to an app running on a device? Why can't I push data immediately from device to device like BlackBerry Messenger does, so my app can engage two mobile users in a truly real-time social experience?' Hmmmmmm... what a great idea! And what if that were expanded into a broader platform for mobile social apps? Sound interesting? We think so."
Also on tap for DevCon 2010, according to Kirkup: Unspecified new commerce services following on the heels of the credit card payment and operator billing capabilities introduced in conjunction with BlackBerry App World 2.0, launched in late July. Kirkup also touts new enterprise integration services, writing "We're so excited about this one that we're going to wait for DevCon to unveil what it's really all about." Even so, he offers a hint: "If you think there is still a huge opportunity out there for mobilizing mission-critical enterprise applications and back-end data stores, but feel that it is still too difficult and costly to manage data replication, client-side app development, back-end authentication and so on--well, we're going to have some exciting things to show you." Kirkup also states RIM will upgrade its BlackBerry Widget platform, enabling developers to create full-featured, interactive widgets built entirely in HTML5.
For more on BlackBerry's DevCon 2010 plans:
- read this Inside BlackBerry Developer's Blog entry
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