Today, the BlackBerry® Partners Fund announced the recipients of the Asia Pacific 2011 BlackBerry® Developer Challenge Recognition Awards at BlackBerry® DevCon Asia in Singapore. Congratulations to these developers for their amazing app contributions – be sure to check out their apps and see their creativity for yourself!

• Best B2C app developed for a customer by an agency or ISV – CX Mobile for the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ by Cherrypicks
• Most useful enterprise application – MphRx Connect by MphRx
• Best website conversion using the BlackBerry® WebWorks™ platform – Vuclip Video by Xinlab, Inc.
• Most creative implementation of Super App characteristics – PoP Indonesia by Remko Weingarten
• Top performers – Most innovative use of Payment Service and/or Advertising Service – Hangman by Spice Labs
• Academic – Most compelling app created by a student or faculty member – MacetTerus by 4id

Award winners took home free passes to BlackBerry DevCon Asia, BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablets, BlackBerry® smartphones and more. To read the full announcement of the 2011 BlackBerry Developer Challenge by the BlackBerry Partners Fund, go to http://www.blackberrypartnersfund.com/challenge. Stay tuned for the final round of Recognition Award winners at BlackBerry DevCon Europe!

The winners of the Most Addictive Social App using the BBM™ Social Platform have been announced by the BlackBerry Partners Fund at BlackBerry DevCon Americas. These apps showcase the power of the BBM platform, and how you can use it to add engaging, social elements to BlackBerry® smartphone applications. Congratulations to these developers and thanks to everyone that participated in the challenge! We look forward to seeing more of your BBM connected apps in the future!

North America:

• Grand Prize Winner – SeaBattleSE (Vendor: Toysoft Development Inc)
• First Runner-up – AP Mobile World Edition (Vendor: The Associated Press)
• Second Runner-up – Jingu (Vendor: Jingu Apps Inc.)

Latin America:

• Grand Prize Winner -  MTV Nightfinder (Vendor: Consultora Eudaimonia SRL)
• First Runner-up – Social Game Center (Vendor: Walkover)
• Second Runner-up – Navita Translator (Vendor: Navita Tecnologia)

Europe, Middle East and Africa:

• Grand Prize Winner – Wikitude (Vendor: Wikitude GmbH)
• First Runner-up – FancyTran (Vendor: FancyApps Limited)
• Second Runner-up – GPSLogger II – The free AIO GPS Solution (Vendor: Matthias Marquardt)

Asia Pacific:

• Grand Prize Winner – Cricket with Friends (Vendor: Synqua Games)
• First Runner-up – Menoo (Vendor: PT Elasitas Multi Kreasi)
• Second Runner-up – GiftnTake – Personalized Gifts for your Social Friends (Vendor: Risto Mobile Solutions Pte Ltd)

In addition, the BlackBerry Partners Fund has recognized the following applications in North America and Latin America to receive a Recognition Award in the categories below. Stay tuned for more updates on Recognition Award winners beyond these regions.

North America:

• Best B2C application developed for a customer by an Agency or ISV – QFolio – NASDAQ OMX Portfolio Manager by The NASDAQOMX Group
• Most useful enterprise application – Box by Box.net
• Best website conversion using the BlackBerry WebWorks platform – Hockeycentral by Rogers Media
• Most creative implementation of Super App characteristics – ScoreMobile for BlackBerry by Score Media Ventures
• Top Performers – Most innovative use of Payment Service and/or Advertising Service – Odesys LLC
• Academic – Most compelling application created by student or faculty – Pashto Script Tutorial by Sukhrob Karimov

Latin America:

• Best B2C application developed for a customer by an Agency or ISV – Sonora by Terra Networks
• Most useful enterprise application – Workforce Automation by Sensebyte Mobile
• Best website conversion using the BlackBerry WebWorks platform – La Cuarta by Patagonia Labs
• Most creative implementation of Super App characteristics – Engarrafora Vonpar by Binario
• Top Performers – Most innovative use of Payment Service and/or Advertising Service – Navita Tecnologia
• Academic – Most compelling application created by student or faculty – Fast Horse by Tiago Schenkel

Winners of the BBM competition and Recognition Awards received passes to BlackBerry DevCon, BlackBerry Smartphones and a BlackBerry PlayBook, BlackBerry Accessories and more.

To read the full announcement by the BlackBerry Partners Fund, go to http://www.blackberrypartnersfund.com/challenge.

More exciting news arrives today from the BlackBerry Partners Fund™ Developer Challenge, announcing the winners of the Best Adobe® Flash® and Adobe® AIR® app competition for the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet! It’s been exciting to see such an array of amazing apps highlighted from all around the world. Thanks to everyone that participated in the competition, and congratulations to these winning developers!

North America:

• Grand Prize Winner: Papa’s Burgeria (Vendor: Flipline IDS LLC)
• First Runners-up: News Catcher (Vendor: XIMAD Inc)
• Second Runners-up: iSpeech Translator (Vendor: iSpeech.org)

Latin America:

• Grand Prize Winner: PaginasAmarillas (Vendor: Carvajal)
• First Runners-up: El Financiero para BlackBerry PlayBook (Vendor: Ironbit SA de CV)
• Second Runners-up: Bubbler! (Vendor: Juan Ignacio Albanesi)

Europe, Middle East, Africa:

• Grand Prize Winner: n-tv Nachrichten PlayBook (Vendor: LINEAS Informationstechnik GmbH)
• First Runners-up: Doodle Blast (Vendor: FlexibleAIR)
• Second Runners-up: SVIT – Ebook Reader with EPUB Support (Vendor: Pronic, Meselina Ponikvar Verhovsek s.p.)

Asia Pacific:

• Grand Prize Winner: Love Indonesia for BlackBerry PlayBook (Vendor: Love Indonesia)
• First Runners-up: StockPulse – Stock and Equity Tracker for BlackBerry PlayBook (Vendor: XLabz Technologies Pvt Ltd)
• Second Runners-up: Abcday (Vendor: Vostrix)

The competition winners take home a share of prizes in a total pool worth over $3 million USD, including BlackBerry smartphones, BlackBerry PlayBook tablets, a BlackBerry App World™ storefront feature, BlackBerry Alliance memberships and more. Be sure to read the full BlackBerry Partners Fund press release to get all the details.

We hope to see you at an upcoming BlackBerry DevCon where these winners will be recognized!

The BlackBerry Partners Fund has announced the winners of the Most Innovative BlackBerry® WebWorks™ app for the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet and BlackBerry® smartphone competition. Developers were required to submit an application for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet and the same (or companion) application for the BlackBerry smartphone, designed for BlackBerry® 6 or higher. The winning entries selected by region are:

North America:

• Grand Prize Winner – Guitarist’s Reference and Guitarist’s Reference Torch
• First Runner-up – Meeting Cost
• Second Runner-up – Light ’Em Up

Europe, Middle East, Africa:

• Grand Prize Winner – Daily Express UK
• First Runner Up – Twinoo Lite
• Second Runner Up – Interlecta

Asia Pacific:

• Grand Prize Winner – Shogomo
• First Runner-up – Chatmosphere IRC Chat Finder
• Second Runner-up – Rock Paper Scissors

Winners in the above categories took home various prizes including some of the following: BlackBerry DEVCON passes, BlackBerry PlayBook tablets, BlackBerry smartphones, gift certificates, BlackBerry App World™ Features, and more! Congratulations to these developers – we look forward to recognizing them at BlackBerry DevCon Americas and showcasing their apps at the event.

Stay tuned for upcoming news on the winners of the remaining competition in the BlackBerry Developer Challenge, and best of luck to those participating. If you’re up to the challenge, submit your BBM™ integrated app to the Most Addicting Social App Using the BBM Social Platform by Friday September 23rd at 11:59 PM EST.

Be sure to check out the official website for more information on the challenge as well as the BlackBerry Partners Fund press release announcing the winners.

Picture the scene: 30 enthusiastic developers, Wi-Fi® and BBM™ experts, press and video crews on hand to capture the very process of turning ideas into BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM) connected apps. Early this August, developers spent two full days entrenched with their cohorts, hacking away at completely new applications that incorporate BBM and adding BBM into existing applications.

Organized into five groups, developers had the chance to work together and discuss their apps with direct access to members of the BBM development and product teams. It was evident to those in attendance that this new event format – open, collaborative – was working out well. Problems that could take hours for a developer to fix on his or her own suddenly took minutes, and a helping hand was always within reach.

Day one consisted of short presentations about the platform and tools, followed by intensive coding sessions – the perfect balance. Day two gave developers the chance to work out more kinks and eventually show off their apps. We were impressed: completion ranged from just the framework of an app to fully-functioning examples. Here’s just a sample of what we saw:

• Sharing tasks and status over BBM
• Finding friends based on tags or your location
• Challenging other BBM contacts through a game

I am excited to see these developers complete their apps and eventually submit them to the BlackBerry App World™ storefront and the 2011 BlackBerry Developer Challenge. The format of this event allowed us to collect feedback and ideas directly from developers, which are of immense value to us as we evolve the BlackBerry development platform, SDKs and tools. We’ll certainly be hosting similar events in the future.

To see some of the action that took place, take a look at our photo album on Facebook®. To get in on the action and build a BBM-integrated app, download the BBM Social Platform SDK and get started. And don’t forget to submit your app as the ‘Most Addictive Social App Using the BBM Social Platform’ in the 2011 BlackBerry Developer Challenge (see the terms and conditions). We look forward to seeing your creative ideas come to life through your apps!

With the BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM™) v6.0 client now officially launched, we’re excited to announce that the BlackBerry® Partners Fund’s 2011 BlackBerry® Developers Challenge has just opened submissions for the ‘Most Addictive Social App Using the BBM Social Platform’ competition*! You can now test the apps you’ve been creating with the BlackBerry® Messenger SDK against the gold release of the BBM v6.0 client and submit them to the competition. If you haven’t created an app yet that integrates BBM features, you still have time to get to work. Submissions for the BBM competition close September 23rd and we’ve compiled a list of resources to help you get started:

Three-part webcast series: ‘Integrating with the BBM Social Platform, One Step at a Time’

• Step 1: Viral Distribution and the BBM Contact List
• Step 2: User Profile and Custom Profile Box
• Step 3: BBM Chat and Embedding Chat within your App

Blog posts:

• BBM Social Platform – Help Your App Go Viral!

Tools and Resources:

• Visit the BlackBerry Messenger Social platform landing page to download the latest BBM™ SDK and documentation. You can find the BBM v6.0 gold client in the BlackBerry App World™ storefront.
• Twitterview with Research In Motion® (RIM®) development experts on @BlackBerryDev – Tuesday August 2nd at 2:30pm EDT. Bring your BBM questions!

We look forward to seeing your creative ideas come to life through your apps! Submit your app to the ‘Most Addictive Social App Using the BBM Social Platform’ competition today and be among the first to be considered for an incentive prize package (see the terms and conditions). For more information on this year’s BlackBerry Developer Challenge, see http://www.blackberry.com/developers/challenge.

*No purchase necessary. Submission deadline: 11:59PM EST on September 23, 2011. See Terms and Conditions for complete details and restrictions. Void where prohibited.

The BlackBerry® Partners Fund has just announced the launch of the BlackBerry® Developer Challenge for 2011 and has started accepting submissions for the first Competition! This year, there are three Competitions in total. Their purpose is to recognize, reward and celebrate innovation within the BlackBerry developer community. Similar to last year, each Competition will recognize winners in their respective regions, which will give developers the opportunity to stand out from one another with local content and language support.

The three Competitions are as follows:

• Best Adobe Flash/Adobe AIR app for the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet –now accepting submissions – click here for the Official Rules
• Most innovative BlackBerry® WebWorks™ app on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet and BlackBerry® 6 (same app or companion app) – begins May 9, 2011
• Most Addictive social app using the BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM™) Social Platform –beginning later this summer

New this year, in addition to the Competitions, the BlackBerry Partners Fund will be honouring applications in six categories to receive a Recognition Award. The recipients, which will be recognized regionally, will be selected in the following categories:

• Best B2C app developed for a customer by an Agency or ISV
• Most useful enterprise application (all technologies)
• Best website conversion using the BlackBerry WebWorks platform
• Most creative implementation of Super App characteristics
• Top Performers – Most innovative use of Payment Service and/or Advertising Service
• Academic – Most compelling app created by student or faculty

It’s exciting to note that across the three Competitions, there is approximately $3 million US in prizes available to be won. That’s almost double the value of last year’s prizing. This includes the incentive prizes that will be given out to the first 100 submissions in each Competition. Each incentive prize includes a free BlackBerry smartphone and a feature in the BlackBerry App World™ carousel for 1 week! Please click here for the full terms and conditions.

To find out more details on the BlackBerry Developer Challenge and to submit your apps, visit the BlackBerry Partners Fund website and BlackBerry Developer Zone. I’m very much looking forward to seeing your apps submitted to the Competitions – happy building and good luck!