BlackBerry Developer Conference Wrap-Up: Top 5 Stories at DevCon 2010
CIO.com's Al Sacco highlights the top five BlackBerry-related announcements made by RIM at its third annual BlackBerry Developer Conference, including the unveiling of the much-hyped BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.
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Research In Motion (RIM) (RIM) last week held its third annual BlackBerry Developer Conference (DevCon) in San Francisco, and the Canadian company made a variety of interesting developer- and BlackBerry-user-related announcements, not the least of which was the unveiling of the brand new BlackBerry PlayBook tablet computer and the associated Tablet OS.
To save you time sifting through all the BlackBerry DevCon 2010 noise, I've collected what I think are the five most significant news announcements made in San Francisco and offered quick summary of each. Hit the links after each announcement for more details and the official press releases, where available, from RIM.
1) The BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet
During his Monday afternoon keynote, RIM Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis unveiled the BlackBerry PlayBook and showed off a video clip of the tablet and the Tablet OS in action. The company didn't have any functioning PlayBook tablets on display for DevCon attendees to handle, but it did have a demonstration room where BlackBerry enthusiasts could get a quick peek at the hardware.
The PlayBook is meant to be an enterprise tablet, and it will connect to a BlackBerry smartphone via Bluetooth to share a cellular connection. The BlackBerry PlayBook is 9.7 mm thick. Its widescreen display is 7 inches. The PlayBook browser supports HTML 5 and full Flash 10.1. Two HD cameras, one on the front and another on the PlayBook's rear side, enable 1080p HD video capture and video conferencing. The BlackBerry tablet uses non-proprietary HDMI connections and USB ports. And the PlayBook packs a powerful dual-core, 1GHz processor.
No pricing details are available at this point, but the PlayBook is expected to become available in early 2010.
Check out RIM's official PlayBook website and the company's press release for more details.
2) RIM Waives BlackBerry App World Submission/Update Fees for Developers
This announcement sort of got lost in the fray of all the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet news, and RIM for whatever reason failed to issue any sort of press release on the subject--at least that I saw--but, in my mind, and according to a number of developers I spoke with at DevCon, it's a significant one: RIM has done away with the registration fees developers had to pay in the past to submit and eventually distribute applications through BlackBerry App World, RIM's mobile app store.
From RIM's App World Distribution page:
"BlackBerry App World limited time offer: registration and submission fees are waived."
That means any new developers who may have been interested in working with RIM to market their applications through BlackBerry App World, but were scared away by the fees, can now submit to App World for "free"--devs may still have to pay for BlackBerry signing keys, etc. And existing developers who were holding application updates back until they could justify charging users for them--in part, to cover new application-update submission fees--can now offer updates for free to users, if they so choose.
