As more and more smartphones and tablets enter the enterprise, there is increasing desire to extend enterprise data beyond the desktop and into mobile. There are also more complexities when developing and deploying an app in an enterprise environment, such as data and device management, security, cross-platform and cross-device development, and connectivity for your application. With its core DNA rooted in the enterprise, the BlackBerry® platform addresses these issues with app development and deployment solutions – and as a developer, these can be leveraged to deliver a richer and more secure application.

The guide posted below will help developers make the right development decisions, leveraging the right tools and resources. This can save valuable time and money, and ultimately help build better applications. Key topics covered are:

• Overview of BlackBerry® WebWorks™
• Building HTML5 Applications with Native-Like Functionality
• Using Existing Web Development Frameworks
• BlackBerry WebWorks Resources
• Tools and Code to Help You Get Started Today
• Deploying and Managing Client Applications
• Securing Enterprise Content

Check out the guide below and share your thoughts and feedback in the comments.

At CES 2012 in Las Vegas, we previewed the upcoming BlackBerry® PlayBook™ OS 2.0 software, which is designed to have the BlackBerry® Runtime for Android™ Apps built-in! This offering will allow developers to repackage their existing Android™ applications to run on the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet, as well as the upcoming BlackBerry® 10 devices.

Seeing the great response for the BlackBerry Runtime for Android Apps at CES, developer meet-ups and conferences that we’ve attended over the last few months, we’re expecting a huge interest in the consumer space for these apps when the update is made available next month. We want to ensure that you are able to capitalize on this unique opportunity by having your applications available when BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 is launched!

In order to ensure that your packaged and signed Android app is available in the BlackBerry App World™ storefront for the release of BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0, be sure to have your app submitted by Monday, February 6th, 2012.

To help with the process of submitting your application for approval and entry into BlackBerry App World, we strongly recommend the following:

• Before submitting your Android application to BlackBerry App World, please make sure to remove all mention of the word “Android” from your application. Both in the application description and the application itself.
• Please remove all links to Android Market from within your application.
• When submitting your Android application to BlackBerry App World, please make sure to select a minimum BlackBerry PlayBook OS of 2.0.
• Please make sure your application is signed. For more information on code signing, please view the code signing documentation on the BlackBerry Runtime for Android Apps webpage (linked here).

We’ve released a few different options to convert your application (from APK to BAR) which are:

• The BlackBerry Plug-in for ADT, which is designed to augment your existing Eclipse development environment
• The BlackBerry Packager for Android apps, which is designed to allow you to test/convert your app through your browser (no downloads required!)
• The BlackBerry SDK for Android apps, which is designed to give you access to command-line arguments for scripting and getting your hands dirty

I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how easy the porting process is. You can of course submit your application at a later date, but in order to ensure broader reach and exposure to consumers, I would strongly suggest having it submitted by February 6th, 2012.

If you have any questions, our Android microsite is extremely useful, or feel free to drop by our forum or tweet us (@BlackBerryDev). It’s a great time to be a BlackBerry developer!

In a Flash Platform blog posted earlier today, Adobe® laid out their plans for Adobe Flash® Player on mobile devices. Many of our developers may be asking themselves whether and how they are going to be affected by Adobe’s decision to no longer adapt Adobe Flash Player for mobile devices to new browser, OS version or device configurations.

What I would like our developer community to know is that RIM will continue to support developers who have built Adobe Flash-based apps on our platform. As an Adobe source code licensee, we have a lot of leverage through our own integration and support of Adobe Flash and will continue to provide our desktop-class Flash experience to our customers. On its end, Adobe will continue to support the current BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet configuration.

We are excited to see Adobe focusing their efforts on HTML5, and on bringing their world class development and design expertise to HTML5 and mobile. As many of you noted, at BlackBerry DevCon Americas this year we strongly emphasized HTML5 development, and all of our platforms include best-in-breed HTML5 browsing capability, based on the WebKit engine. We believe that HTML5 is the future of mobile, and are delighted to be aligned with Adobe on this.

If you have a question, don’t hesitate to send it over.
– Alec Saunders, VP of Developer Relations and Ecosystem Development

While we will continue to support our BlackBerry Java developer community as they build for BlackBerry smartphones, after further investigation we decided against supporting BlackBerry Java on BlackBerry BBX. We concluded that the BlackBerry Java experience on the BlackBerry PlayBook platform would ultimately not satisfy us, our development community, or our customers as the platform continues to evolve.

On the BlackBerry PlayBook platform, developers have two native development options, which is the path forward for Super Apps and the future BlackBerry BBX platform:

• The Native SDK for the BlackBerry PlayBook, supporting apps using C / C++.
• The WebWorks SDK for the BlackBerry PlayBook, supporting apps written in JavaScript, HTML5 and CSS. HTML5 apps will work on both the BlackBerry PlayBook and BlackBerry smartphone operating systems today.

BlackBerry PlayBook (and future BlackBerry BBX devices) also supports two development communities via:

• The Adobe® AIR® SDK for the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet, which supports apps built using Adobe AIR, Adobe® Flex®, and Adobe® Flash®.
• The BlackBerry Runtime for Android Apps, which supports apps written using Android v2.3.

On the current BlackBerry smartphone OS, developers have two development options:

• The BlackBerry® Java® SDK, which supports apps written in J2ME or BlackBerry Java, for in-market BlackBerry smartphones running versions up to and including BlackBerry® 7.
• The BlackBerry® WebWorks™ SDK, which as mentioned, supports HTML5 apps running on both BlackBerry PlayBook and BlackBerry smartphone operating systems today and will support BlackBerry BBX-based smartphones and tablets in the future.

So, the next big question on your mind may be: Is this the end of the BlackBerry Java SDK?

The short answer: Absolutely not.

There are currently over 70 million smartphones in market today running the BlackBerry operating system and this number is growing:

• The first BlackBerry 7 smartphones were just released, which will sizably increase the addressable market for BlackBerry Java applications.
• There are more BlackBerry 7 smartphones yet to come and our customer base will not switch overnight to BlackBerry BBX-based smartphones; both platforms will co-exist for quite some time.
• BlackBerry smartphone users are well known for getting long lives out of their smartphones. Even when upgrading to a newer model, older models are often not taken out of service, but are instead passed along to others.
• RIM is committed to its BlackBerry development community. BlackBerry Jam is just the start. Developers can expect enhancements to continue on the BlackBerry Java SDK, making it easier and faster to produce money making apps for in-market smartphones running the BlackBerry operating system.

For more information on the various development options for the BlackBerry platform, check out the all-new landing page for developer.blackberry.com, as well as the newly launched microsites for the BlackBerry WebWorks SDK, the BlackBerry Runtime for Android Apps, and the BlackBerry Native SDK.

- Alec Saunders, VP of Developer Relations and Ecosystem Development

Here’s what the Inside BlackBerry Developer’s Blog (IBBDB) learned.

IBBDB: Congratulations, Alec, and welcome to the RIM team.

Thank you. I’m thrilled to be here.

IBBDB: Tell our readers a little bit about yourself.

I’ve been in technology for over 20 years now. I’m a University of Waterloo graduate (1987) and I’ve spent most of my time working with software developers in various roles throughout my career – first at Microsoft, and then as VP of marketing of QNX Software Systems – which is the embedded operating system company that created the OS for the next generation of BlackBerry devices. In 2002, I went to Versatel Networks, a company that built a platform that allowed software developers to create compelling voice applications that ran in telephone networks, and in 2003, I struck out on my own with a friend and mentor, Howard Thaw, to build a company called iotum inc., which we conceived, financed, staffed, and launched successfully. At the beginning of this year, I went to my board and asked them to find a new CEO. After eight years I wanted a change, and I felt the company needed a really strong sales oriented CEO. So I offered to help find a new CEO, and in June we brought in the new guy, and I started looking for something new. I went looking for something that would allow me to return to what I love doing most, and that is working with developers.

And of all the opportunities I looked at, RIM was the most exciting to me.

IBBDB: What makes it so exciting for you to join RIM?

I’ll take you back to the late 90’s for a second, my first encounter with BlackBerry, or at least, what would become BlackBerry. It was Las Vegas, CES, and there I was in the back of a cab trying to get a press release edited … on a RIM pager. It was cool. I’d never seen anything like it and the promise of being able to do email wirelessly was mind blowing. Pretty soon tons of people on the Microsoft corporate campus were carrying one. And over the last decade, since that time, RIM has expanded to 175 countries, and its products are distributed by over 600 carriers across the globe and all from that start with the RIM Inter@ctive Pager. Despite the intensely competitive market out there, RIM continues to pull down huge numbers: 150 million devices RIM has shipped to date, 70 million subscribers on RIM’s network today, over 1 billion app downloads (increasing at 120 million per month) since BlackBerry App World launched.

All of that adds up to a huge opportunity for our partners, for developers … There’s no reason why developers shouldn’t be able to make a great living just by serving BlackBerry customers. And my team’s job is to make it as attractive, easy and fun as possible for developers to build for the BlackBerry platform – smartphones and tablet alike.

IBBDB: How are you planning to accomplish this?

Good old fashioned elbow-grease, as my Dad used to say.

Developer evangelism is all about personal contact, listening, responding, and educating. We’re going to work very closely with the developer community, expand on support and programs that make it easy and rewarding for developers to create apps, be in the midst of developers to understand their needs and secure a great developer experience, and identify and remove the barriers developers face in supporting our platforms and doing business with us.

IBBDB: In terms of direction what would you tell developers – should they invest in BBOS or QNX?

It’s not actually an either/or question. Although we’re not making any secret of our move to QNX, BBOS will be in the market for many years to come. I’m always telling developers that there’s a great business opportunity in the BBOS market. Think of the companies that made millions supporting Windows XP when Windows 7 was already on the market! We are in the midst of a major global launch of BlackBerry 7 and we’ll have customers on BBOS based smartphones for years to come, and they’ll continue to want to buy software too. And, we’ll have other customers who want to migrate to the latest and greatest devices as soon as they are available. It all depends on the customer. And the best part is that with our HTML5 solution – BlackBerry WebWorks HTML5 – developers can build great applications that target both environments.

IBBDB: DevCon Americas 2011 is coming up …

I’m excited and looking forward to the conference. It’s a great opportunity for us to discuss our development platform with our partners, get their valuable input and engage for future collaboration. We will have lots of updates to share with developers including about the QNX development platform for PlayBook and smartphones, about our plans for a global roadshow – be where our developers are – as well as our educational campaign, which we will be kicking off at the conference itself … I won’t divulge more but I do encourage developers to check out the DevCon Americas sessions catalog and sign up to hear first hand from RIM and other BlackBerry experts and contribute their ideas …Oh, and not to forget, those developers who don’t yet have a BlackBerry PlayBook, here’s their chance to get one at DevCon and kick start the development of their next app directly on the PlayBook …

IBBDB: There are lots of things happening today in the mobile space, where do you think the industry is going?

One of the most exciting stories in the industry today is the rise of HTML5 for mobile applications. Developers everywhere are looking for a solution to the cross platform problem, and they seem to be landing on HTML5. The best part of that is that we’re so well positioned to compete on HTML5. With BlackBerry WebWorks HTML5 you can build awesome high performance applications using web technologies, and you can do it in days instead of weeks or months. I encourage everyone to check out WebWorks HTML5 if you haven’t already. I think you’ll be surprised by the rich quality of the applications created with WebWorks.

IBBDB: Anything else you’d like to share with our readers about yourself?

I’m a Waterloo Math grad (class of 87), married with 5 sons, an outdoorsman, amateur photographer (check out my flickr stream!), music lover, wine enthusiast and an avid blogger. In fact, one of the things I’m really looking forward to is starting to blog about what’s happening at RIM… I’m really hoping that blogging and social media are tools that we can use to further connect with developers.

IBBDB: Thank you, Alec, for sharing your thoughts with the Inside BlackBerry Developer’s Blog. We are looking forward to our next conversation.

As soon as the issue was identified, it was escalated for root cause analysis and resolution. Through that investigation, we identified a diagnostic activity that was acting abnormally during the signing process. Upon resolving the issue with this diagnostic process, operations were restored to a level of service that we would expect.

The signing servers are now operating normally and developers can continue with code signing. We are continuing to monitor the service closely and are actively evaluating new solutions that we can implement to improve the reliability of the service overall. As always, thank you for your support and for bearing with us through this exercise.

- Tyler Lessard, VP Developer Relations and Alliances

Back at our BlackBerry World™ conference in May, we introduced the world to the new BlackBerry® Bold™ 9900 and BlackBerry® Bold™ 9930 smartphones and the new BlackBerry 7. We recently followed that up by launching a BETA of the BlackBerry 7 SDK with the BlackBerry Bold 9900/9930 simulator on our BlackBerry® Developer Zone website to enable developers to start testing and optimizing their BlackBerry® applications for BlackBerry 7. In addition to that, we have opened up the BlackBerry App World™ storefront to enable vendors to start posting their applications for sale in time for launch of the BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930. We’ve seen great adoption of the new tools already and have heard from many developers that their existing BlackBerry® 6 applications are running as-expected on BlackBerry 7 without change. However, it is important to note the following two key items as a BlackBerry developer regarding BlackBerry 7 and how you can prepare for launch:

1. Re-Posting Your Apps in BlackBerry App World for BlackBerry 7: Applications that are currently posted for download or sale in BlackBerry App World will not be automatically posted for sale for BlackBerry 7 smartphone customers. BlackBerry App World vendors are encouraged to test their applications as soon as possible using the new BlackBerry 7 SDK, and then return to the BlackBerry App World vendor portal to post their applications for sale for the new BlackBerry Bold 9900/9930 running BlackBerry 7.

2. Preparing Now for New Screen Sizes and Resolutions Supported by BlackBerry 7: Though BlackBerry 7 retains binary compatibility with our BlackBerry 6 platform, it will support a variety of new screen resolutions and screen sizes that will require some developers to update and re-compile their existing applications. We’ve heard loud and clear from our developers that they want to know this type of information well in advance so that they can build and test their applications ahead of time and have them ready for future devices as they launch. To address this, we have now posted new information on what screen characteristics will be supported by BlackBerry 7 along with new BlackBerry 7 smartphone simulators to emulate each of these different configurations. Read on for more information!

New Screen Characteristics Supported by BlackBerry 7 and New Simulators for Testing

The new BlackBerry 7 smartphone operating system will support the following new screen characteristics on BlackBerry smartphones:

To assist our developer community in preparing their applications for BlackBerry 7, we have now posted new BlackBerry 7 smartphone simulators to emulate each of these form factors and screen resolutions. Each simulator has an associated simulator model number as referenced in the above table. With these new simulators, you can now start to test and develop your applications for BlackBerry 7 while working to ensure compatibility with various form factors and screen characteristics that it will support.

Posting Your BlackBerry 7 Apps to BlackBerryApp World

BlackBerry App World is now open for new app submissions and re-posting of existing applications that are compatible with the BlackBerry Bold 9900/9930 running BlackBerry 7. As additional new BlackBerry 7 smartphone models, that correspond to the additional screen characteristics and form factors outlined here, are introduced, we will open up BlackBerry App World for posting of applications to these new smartphones as well. In the interim, we encourage all developers to test your apps across these various new simulators to ensure you’re ready for upcoming launches.

Additionally, you can attend our webcast “What You Need to Know To Develop for BlackBerry 7” on June 29 at 2:00 pm EST to learn more about developing for BlackBerry 7 and the new BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 smartphones, as well as other BlackBerry 7 form factors. And as always, we will have an interactive Q&A session to directly answer your questions.

We thank you for your ongoing support and hope that this new information will help you get your apps fully tested and posted to BlackBerry App World in time for our new BlackBerry 7 smartphone launches!

- Tyler Lessard, VP Developer Relations and Alliances

Today we are pleased to announce that Scoreloop has joined Research In Motion (RIM). We’re excited that the Scoreloop team is joining the BlackBerry® Developer team and bringing their expertise in creating social and collaborative gaming toolkits for mobile developers to the BlackBerry platform.

Scoreloop is a pioneer in mobile social gaming and offers a customizable and cross-platform social mobile gaming developer tool kit. If you are not already familiar with them you can find out more about Scoreloop at http://www.scoreloop.com/.

We have recently enabled our developers to create social app experiences through our BBM™ Social Platform and have seen some very innovative applications result from that. We look forward to working with the team at Scoreloop to provide tools that will further enable our developer community to take gaming to a new level of social integration on the BlackBerry platform.

Stay tuned to the Inside BlackBerry Developer’s Blog and our @BlackBerryDev Twitter account for further updates on Scoreloop and the BlackBerry platform.

- Tyler Lessard, VP Global Alliances & Developer Relations at RIM

Research In Motion® (RIM®) has formed a great partnership with Adobe®, in which both are dedicated to providing developers with an exceptional development experience using the tools and technologies that you have grown to love. Supporting the community is one of the biggest priorities for both companies; for example, along with our BlackBerry® Developer Zone, Adobe has dedicated a page on their Developer Connection portal. Adobe evangelists have been quick to create content and tutorials, a great example of which can be found on our BlackBerry Developer Zone – Christophe Coenraets has created a tutorial on developing Flex for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet in 90 minutes.

If you are new to Adobe Flash and Adobe AIR development, getting started can be easily overwhelming. There are lots of tooling options and technology options to consider before beginning. The above article walks you through all of the necessary steps to get you set up and started. Christophe also shows how to get started developing your application using the new Flex Hero Mobile framework, which features many new components that are specifically targeted for mobile and touch screen devices. The tutorial also covers common tasks that most applications will need to perform, such as communicating with a web service and saving data locally.

This tutorial is an excellent first step into developing applications for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet with Adobe AIR. Afterwards, you should feel comfortable with the tools and deploying applications to the simulator so you can begin writing your own applications. Don’t forget that the deadline for submitting your application to BlackBerry® App World™ is March 31st, 2011 in order to qualify for the free BlackBerry PlayBook tablet offer.

- Julian, Platform Lead

Today we are pleased to announce that tinyHippos has joined Research In Motion (RIM). We’re excited that the tinyHippos team is joining the BlackBerry Developer team and bringing their expertise in cross-platform emulation environments to the BlackBerry platform.

tinyHippos are the makers of a mobile environment emulator called Ripple and have extensive experience in web and mobile widget/web development. If you are not already familiar with them you can find out more about tinyHippos at http://tinyhippos.com/.

We have been integrating support for web technologies like HTML5 and BlackBerry WebWorks into our developer platform, and working to continually deliver enhanced tools and frameworks to our developer community. We look forward to working with the team at tinyHippos to further provide a simplified and streamlined experience to our developers.

- Tyler Lessard, VP Global Alliances & Developer Relation at RIM