Well, it’s easy. Prior to January 21st, 2013 (the cut-off date for the 10k Developer Commitment), log in to your vendor account in BlackBerry World. Then, click the Manage Products link. Your screen should look something like this:

The first thing to take notice is the Status of your application. Before you can apply for Built For BlackBerry, the status must be Approved or Up For Sale. If your application has not been approved for BlackBerry World, you cannot submit it to Built For BlackBerry testing. If the status is approved, you will see the word Apply underneath the heading “Built For BlackBerry”. Go ahead, click that link.

Here is where you agree to the terms and conditions of the two programs. If you are only interested in the Built For BlackBerry Program, you only need read and agree to those terms. This means your application or game will go through Built For BlackBerry testing but will not be eligible for the 10k Developer Commitment. If you want to be part of the 10k Developer Commitment, then you must read and agree to both terms and conditions. Once you have read and agreed to the terms, check the boxes next to the appropriate terms and conditions and click Save.

Your Manage Product screen will be updated to show you have applied for the program and your application is Pending approval.

Once your application or game has passed the Built For BlackBerry testing, the term Pending will change to Approved. But what if something is amiss? What if your application or game is Rejected?

Don’t panic – you’ll see that there is a message icon next to the term Rejected. Clicking this message icon will show you the reason(s) why your application failed the Built For BlackBerry testing. You can fix those issues in your application and resubmit the application for Built For BlackBerry testing.

That’s really all there is to it! Built For BlackBerry will identify your application as a great BlackBerry 10 application. I am really excited to start seeing, using, and playing all the Built For BlackBerry applications and games. Remember, launch is January 30th 2013, so make sure you get your apps into Built For BlackBerry testing before January 21st, 2013.

With the upcoming launch of BlackBerry® 10, we’ve got a few new features on their way and we want you to be prepared for them.

We understand that the success of your app is based on marketing properly to as many customers as possible. With this in mind, we’ll be introducing a new Improved Relevance Marketing Meta-Data feature set.

So what does this mean for you? Well, a lot. When we launch this new feature set, you’ll be able to upload multiple sets of meta-data (this includes screenshots and descriptions) that will be platform and language-specific. That’s right — no need to spread your applications across multiple product SKUs.

For example, if you want to deploy an app supporting BlackBerry® OS, BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablets and BlackBerry 10, you can do it all under a single application submission instead of three – all the while maintaining distinctive descriptions and screenshots for each platform.

What’s the benefit to you? Less SKUs in the store to manage – a single app supplies the binaries and meta-data for every platform you support. What’s the benefit to end-users? When they upgrade their BlackBerry smartphone to BlackBerry 10 or buy a BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, their apps can quickly and easily be reinstalled via My World. This also means that you keep your customer base when your users change platforms. Additionally, the user will see meta-data (description, screenshots, etc) that is optimized for his/her device platform.

Some updates to the BlackBerry App World™ storefront search will be made to further improve app discoverability. In January 2013, it will be updated to include searching on the following fields:

• Title
• Keywords
• Vendor Name
• Short Description

Long description will no longer be indexed for search.

Below you’ll find all the details currently available and how they compare to what will be available when these features launch shortly.

So, there you have it! Sound off in the comments and let us know what you think.

How to Target

If you wish to support BlackBerry 10 on a existing Approved/Up for Sale application, please submit it as a new release. Otherwise, when you’re creating a new release in the BlackBerry App World Vendor Portal, you will now see a new Family called “BlackBerry 10” and one new device “All Touch”. You can select “All Touch” to target your app for BlackBerry 10.

The BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha is also still available for targeting your app for testing purposes.

Built for BlackBerry and 10k Developer Commitment

The sooner you get your app submitted to the storefront, the sooner it can be tested for the Built for BlackBerry program; and if it’s tested and certified, you can then qualify for the 10k Developer Commitment.

To top it off, we’re going to review all apps submitted to BlackBerry App World in October and November for preferred carousel placements at launch as a thank you.

Developers, be sure you are using the Beta3 Developer SDKs launched on September 27 to create your applications.  Any app previously submitted, needs to be recompiled using the Beta3 Development Software and resubmitted.

Do you still need a reason to believe?

Everyone here in Developer Relations at RIM® is excited that developers are now able to submit their BlackBerry® 10 applications to the BlackBerry App World™ storefront and target BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha testing devices. This means that developers who are using the BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha testing devices will be able to download and test each other’s applications through BlackBerry App World.

How do you submit an application? It’s the same process you’d use for any other BlackBerry® smartphone or BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet app – you just need to select the BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha for your app.

Next, apps are vetted for content to ensure that the BlackBerry App World Vendor Guidelines are adhered to. Then they’re tested to ensure they do not interfere with the normal operation of the BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha testing device. You may be contacted by a member of the Review Team if they run into any problems or have any questions/concerns. This entire process normally takes a five to ten business days.

Once your application is Approved, it will automatically be posted Up for Sale. You can opt out of this automatic posting during the submission process, but must be done prior to submitting your application(s) for approval. Keep in mind it may take a few hours before your application is searchable and visible in BlackBerry App World.

The recent update to the OS on the BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha testing devices includes a BlackBerry App World client, so developers will have to update their test devices to access apps. Additionally, anyone that visits the BlackBerry App World webstore will be able to see your application after you click “Post for Sale”. Please ensure that you use app Icons and descriptions with that in mind.

You can also choose to leave the application in an Approved status. This allows you to deep link to your application using the AppID (found on the Details page of your application). Using the standard Web Store URL, you can deep link to your application from a device. The standard Web Store URL is http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/<AppID&gt;. You can download your application using the deep link for testing purposes and you can share this link with select users for targeted testing.
All applications on the store can be reviewed, but only by users who purchase or download the application. Use these reviews for your testing purposes. These will be reset when you submit your application for commercial release of BlackBerry 10.

As a BlackBerry App World vendor with an application live in the store, you are able to generate download and purchase reports for your app.

Finally, we recommend that your app is available for free as this is a testing period. However, we do allow you to charge for your app and test in-app payments.

Happy testing and we look forward to seeing all your great apps!

One of Alec’s favourite things is to do a little myth busting regarding developing apps for BlackBerry®. He’s in Beijing at the BlackBerry® 10 Jam World Tour today doing just that. There’s a myth out there that there aren’t apps for BlackBerry smartphones and the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet. Let me help bust that myth.

BlackBerry smartphone and PlayBook users around the world have downloaded over three billion apps since BlackBerry App World™ launched! (Editor’s Note: You can tell Victoria is excited, because she doesn’t like using exclamation points in blog posts)

Three billion app downloads averages out to over 2.5 million downloads each day.  What’s even more important – and impressive – is that the number of daily downloads continues to increase. It took 786 days to reach the one billion mark, 210 days to reach two billion, and only 176 days to reach the three billion number. I should also note that this number does not include apps downloaded from third party BlackBerry app stores, or those pushed internally at companies around the world, or those downloaded directly from the web.

Special thanks is due to the over 28,000 BlackBerry App World vendors and the BlackBerry App World storefront team. BlackBerry App World has continued to grow steadily with more than 90,000 applications now up for sale (we know other platforms use other metrics like submitted, or approved, but we prefer the more tangible “up for sale”).

I look forward to sharing more great numbers from our app and dev teams as we continue toward the new year. What was the first app you ever downloaded onto your BlackBerry?

Besides releasing his first app, the author’s also been busy launching a new website with some other BlackBerry developers which went live this week. OSBBx is a collaboration between six developers, and while it’s in early stages right now, they are going to have a wiki, tutorials, forums, and a showcase of community projects.

Now the reason both of these creations are even more awesome is due to the outstanding tutorial that Jeremy has written. He covers the elements of bbUI.js that he used in Crochet Buddy HD with great detail. If you are looking to get started with BlackBerry WebWorks, this is an excellent resource to get you going. He covers the action bar, lists, buttons, and screens with screen shots, sample code, and step-by-step instructions – and when you get to the end he’s got all the tutorial source code for you to check out for yourself. BlackBerry developers are awesome!

Check out the OSBBx site and Jeremy’s tutorial, and if you or someone you know has ever thought about crocheting, $0.99 for Crochet Buddy HD is a solid investment.

Last week was a whirlwind for BlackBerry® developers. BlackBerry 10 Jam was the official launch of the BlackBerry 10 platform to the developer community – SDK’s, tools, and of course the BlackBerry 10 Alpha device.

This was a moment we’d been working toward since before DevCon Americas in the fall. I know there was a lot of pressure to show a phone last fall, but until the SDK’s were ready, and developers could actually use them, there would have been little point. Instead we steadily built first the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ OS 1.0 SDK, the PlayBook OS 2.0 SDK, and the PlayBook OS 2.0 software release, knowing full well that these releases, accompanied by the over 20,000 BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablets we had seeded into the market, would be a good foundation for the next phase – the actual BlackBerry 10 devices.

The excitement in the air was palpable. Folks started lining up at 7 AM on Wednesday morning to get the first Dev Alpha devices. And by noon, I couldn’t walk the hallways of the show without someone stopping to show me the code they had been working on.

Since then we’ve been bombarded by requests for BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha devices from developers who didn’t make the show. The good news? We’re going to take the show on the road – so come jam with us in a city near you. Check out the BlackBerry Jam Road Show page for more info.

A couple of thank you’s are in order. Thank you to the developers who came to the BlackBerry 10 Jam last week – you’re investing your energy, time, and money in making not just your own products successful, but ours as well. Also a very public thank you to all the teams at RIM who have worked for months to pull the BlackBerry 10 Jam off – the developers, product managers, marketing, and of course our very own developer relations group. Thank you!

Now go code something! We’ve got a monster of a product to ship together!

Originally published on www.saunderslog.com

As noted during BlackBerry DevCon Americas, there would continue to be BlackBerry smartphone releases based on BlackBerry® 7 OS.  Today we’re pleased to provide you with a new developer tool to prepare for this: the BlackBerry® 9220 smartphone simulator.

We have a new simulator available for download on our simulator download page, or you can download it directly using this link:

• BlackBerry 9220 smartphone simulator

Alongside the launch of the new simulator, we have also opened up the BlackBerry App World™ storefront to allow you to start posting your applications for sale. Many applications designed for the BlackBerry® 9300 smartphone series should be easily ported to this new device with little to no change in the application.

We encourage you to test your applications as soon as possible using the new simulator, and then navigate to the BlackBerry App World vendor portal to post your applications for the BlackBerry 9220 smartphone running BlackBerry® 7.1 OS.

The BlackBerry 9220 will support Bluetooth® 2.1 and include the following profiles:

• Headset Profile (HSP)
• Hand Free Profile (HFP)
• Address Book Integration using AT commands or OBEX (Object Push)
• Phone Book Access Profile (PBAP)
• Dial-Up Networking (DUN)
• Bluetooth Stereo (A2DP / AVRCP)
• Serial Port Profile (SPP)
• Secure Simple Pairing (SSP)
• A/V Remote Control Version 1.3
• Bluetooth Message Access Profile (MAP)

BlackBerry 9220 – Device Info

• 320 x 240 resolution, 164 dpi
• Application Icon size: 46 x 46 pixels
• Memory: 512 MB Internal Persistent Storage, 512 MB RAM
• 2 MP Camera, 5 X digital zoom
• QWERTY keyboard
• Networks: EDGE, GPRS, GSM
• FM Radio
• Wi-Fi® 802.11 b/g/n
• Mime Type: Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9220; en-GB) AppleWebKit/534.11+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.1.0.316 Mobile Safari/534.11+

BlackBerry 9220 – Multimedia Capabilities

Mobile applications fall into many categories, but games have always been amongst the most popular. Spice Labs has had success developing easy-to-use gaming apps that please app-savvy users ranging from young kids to corporate executives with favorites like Snake and Hangman. Spice Labs is based in India and develops consumer and enterprise applications for a global audience.

Prashant Singh tells us why the developers at Spice Labs like working with the BlackBerry® platform.

How important has it been for Spice Labs to work closely with Research In Motion® (RIM®)?
It’s been a really important part of our growth. In just one year, we’ve become elite members of the BlackBerry Alliance Program. We have access to the newest technology to test the games and we can actually contact the people who are developing the technology. I can pick up the phone or email and get a quick response, and that kind of access is really hard to beat. The RIM team has given us a lot of advice, and we’re working on a lot of initiatives with them. We see it as a mutually beneficial partnership.

How has Push technology been useful to you?
We love the tight integration between the framework and the user experience. We use Push in a number of our apps, including Hangman, where we send a daily word pack to users every day. Thanks to the precise targeting of Push, we’ve been able to really customize our content packs and increase user engagement. We believe they return to our apps because Push allows us to target them with fresh content that makes the game more relevant.

From the developer side, what are some other important features of the BlackBerry platform?
There really wasn’t much of a learning curve in terms of understanding and mastering the development side. The BlackBerry platform wasn’t constrained in terms of processing power, connectivity or memory. We use Java® for our BlackBerry apps and Adobe® Flash® for our BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet app, and they’re both very straightforward. The toolsets are easy to use, and there are a lot of people who already have a lot of expertise with them.

You mentioned the importance of integration – what are your thoughts on BlackBerry Super Apps?
Super Apps are a much needed and exciting initiative that enables a lot of device integration, integration with BBM™, and more. We believe that they are the logical next stage in the evolution of mobile apps, and it’s encouraging that RIM offers this functionality. We have a detailed plan to integrate Super App functionality into our portfolio of apps. We are very satisfied with RIM’s initiative in enabling a vibrant developer ecosystem.

Why is it important for Spice Labs to develop for the BlackBerry market?
As developers, we want our software to reach the maximum number of users, so developing for the BlackBerry platform was really a no-brainer for us. Plus, the BlackBerry platform has a huge base of very savvy users that we wanted to target with our applications. It’s been a very important platform market for us, and our return on investment is higher on the BlackBerry platform than any other.

How have you benefited from distributing your apps on the BlackBerry App World™ storefront?
BlackBerry App World offers a highly targeted distribution platform for mobile app developers. You can choose your niche and target your app with a high degree of specificity, which helps us reach out to our users. We have integration in place with the BlackBerry® Messenger SDK, and we’ve done well with the BlackBerry® Advertising Service. It’s beneficial because advertisers are willing to pay top dollar to reach RIM’s users, as they are a desireable demographic for advertisers. Since most of our apps are free, a key parameter for us is also the download count, which directly impacts our advertising revenue.

Thanks for this interview, Prashant! Readers, be sure to check out Spice Lab’s offerings in BlackBerry App World.

(I’d like to introduce Trevor – the Product Manager for our BlackBerry® Payment Service. Trevor’s here today to talk about the launch of BlackBerry Payment Service 1.5! – AK)

This past January we introduced the BlackBerry Payment Service SDK 1.0, which provided new ways to monetize applications through the BlackBerry App World™ storefront. Since then, many developers have leveraged the SDK to start accepting in-application purchases, and today we are excited to announce a great extension to the SDK that will enable developers to start offering subscription-based services. Starting with BlackBerry Payment Service SDK 1.5, developers will now be able to offer auto-renewing subscriptions for applications and in-application digital goods.

The BlackBerry Payment Service SDK 1.5 builds on the existing API from 1.0, so it is designed to allow developers to quickly add subscriptions without having to learn a new API. The new SDK provides APIs to check for the status of a subscription and the ability to cancel subscriptions. BlackBerry Payment Service manages the subscription renewals automatically and sends out renewal reminders and receipts to users. Please note that applications with subscription services will require users to have the recently released BlackBerry App World 3.0 installed on their device.

Subscriptions are offered with 7-day or 30-day renewal periods, and all recurring billing is automatically handled by BlackBerry App World. Developers also have the flexibility to offer a free or reduced price “trial period” to entice users to test-drive the subscription. Users can pay for subscriptions using PayPal®, Credit Card and Carrier Billing (as available for their country and carrier), which gives users the same payment options they already enjoy today in BlackBerry App World.

This new subscription feature could be used to offer premium content like a newspaper or magazine or provide access to a cloud-based service. A great example of this is the recently announced BBM™ Music – a new social music sharing and discovery service. BBM Music uses the BlackBerry Payment Service SDK 1.5 to offer a monthly subscription to an easy-to-use cloud-based service; this enables social and viral music discovery by allowing users to build an evolving, community-based music library that is shared amongst their BBM Music friends.

With the introduction of BlackBerry Payment Service SDK 1.5, developers now have access to a new business model for their application and can easily move to a “freemium” model if they choose. Premium features or content can now easily be offered on a subscription basis. This has benefits for both the customer and the developer. The customer can take advantage of the service for a free or lower up-front cost, and the developer receives a more predictable revenue stream. BlackBerry Payment Service SDK 1.5 is designed to take care of the heavy lifting required to offer subscriptions so our developers can continue to focus on providing great content.

To get started, you can find the documentation here and download the SDK. Let us know what you think in the comments!