This was my third AnDevCon conference, and first one in Boston. We ask the same question at every conference we attend – “Is anyone wondering why BlackBerry is here?”  I’m very pleased to report that the number of hands in the air is steadily decreasing. Perhaps only a dozen or so out of the 300 in attendance at the Lightning Pitches in Boston didn’t know why BlackBerry would be at an Android developer conference. This is great – the word is getting out there – BlackBerry 10 is a great platform for Android developers!

Over the three day event, we helped developers port and repackage their Android applications right there on the spot in just a few minutes. Most worked immediately without a hitch and developers were delighted to see their app running on a BlackBerry Z10. This opens up a whole new market for them. For the few apps that didn’t port immediately, our tools flagged the issues and we shared them with the developers. In most cases, the APKs that didn’t work included native libraries (something that we don’t fully support). For a full list of Android support, please refer to our Android developer site.

In addition to porting apps and demonstrating BlackBerry 10 in our booth, James Dreher held a technical session for Android developers that packed the room. We had over 60 developers in the session and lots of great questions. One question that came up often was “When will BlackBerry’s Android Runtime support Jelly Bean?”

James Dreher, our resident expert on the BlackBerry Runtime for Android Apps, presents at AnDevCon Boston

If you’re following our Dev Blog, you’ll know that the we’ve launched the BlackBerry 10.2 beta with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean support!

One of the highlights of the show for me was discovering dot42. These guys have a platform for converting C# apps to Android. So, naturally, I immediately had the thought – “I wonder if I could take a C# app, run it through dot42’s conversion and then take the resulting AOK and port it to BlackBerry?”  Why not, right?  So we did it –the whole process took less than five minutes!  The app we tried was a fairly simple OpenGL ES Spinning Cube app, but it worked like a charm and performance was great. That was pretty cool, I have to admit.

The AnDevCon event continues to be a great developer event for BlackBerry.  Android developers are increasingly receptive to our run-time options and, more importantly, love BlackBerry 10. It’s not only a great phone platform, it’s a whole new market opportunity for Android developers!

Last weekend, I ventured to my first hackathon — and I must admit, I didn’t know what to expect. The hackathon was called Angelhack, and was hosted simultaneously in New York, Seattle, Silicon Valley, and Boston. I attended the Boston event and arrived for the sponsor set-up at 8:00 to put my table together. So far, it felt like a regular trade show.

Then the attendees started to arrive. They were mostly young, college-age people with a smattering of older techies. As people walked by the BlackBerry® table, they would look at the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablets on display and nod politely. After a few minutes, I got the attention of a young man and started asking him what he knew about the BlackBerry and BlackBerry® 10. “Nothing,” he said. I began to talk to him about BlackBerry 10 and the benefits of the new QNX kernel. He was impressed to hear that he could “choose his road” to get to BlackBerry 10, whether his road is HTML5, C++, Adobe® AIR®, or even Android™. I also noticed a few glances from some of the people at the other tables. Interest was building.

At Angelhack, there is a period of about four hours where the attendees can mingle and start to get to know each other. They can talk to the sponsors and even make idea pitches to the other attendees. Then it is time for the sponsors to pitch their platforms. I was the last to pitch; it was the perfect position. I knew that everyone would have heard the other pitches and I could trump them all. I had three minutes and I was determined to make the most of it.

I started with the BlackBerry 10 Jam information showing the growth of BlackBerry applications. I talked about the 254% increase in BlackBerry App World™ storefront vendors and the 240% increase in BlackBerry PlayBook tablet apps in the last quarter. I talked about RIM’s commitment to the developer, how we have seeded over 20,000 BlackBerry PlayBook tablets and will seed 5,000 BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha prototype devices. I talked about the BlackBerry Developer Relations group and how they are here for the sole purpose of helping developers make fantastic apps for the BlackBerry 10 platform. I could tell interest was building, but my three minutes was almost up, so it was time for the closer – in Q2 2011, BlackBerry App World generated 43% more average daily downloads per app than iOS App Store and 48% more than the Android Market/Google Play.

That seemed to seal the deal. Returning to my sponsor’s table, I now had a full house. People were interested in BlackBerry 10 and how to write applications for the platform. I showed demos of BlackBerry® WebWorks™ apps running on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet to illustrate how quick and responsive it is. Web developers couldn’t believe it. One artist/developer wanted to see how his HTML5 canvas app ran on BlackBerry PlayBook tablet because he had been disappointed in the performance on other platforms. We loaded his app (
http://whitchlight.com/sana
) and he was awestruck by the speed in which the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet rendered his canvas application. It is just another example of the excellent HTML5 support in the browser on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet and BlackBerry 10.

As my first hackathon came to a close, I felt a little sad to be leaving. I had met some incredibly talented and creative people, and I had seen some great apps created — even some works of art. I told myself that although this was my first hackathon, it wouldn’t be my last.

Maybe I’ll see you at the next one?

The Research In Motion® (RIM®) Developer Relations team recently hosted a BBM™ Hackathon event in NYC. Developers were invited to apply for a chance to participate in the event, getting one-on-one time with BlackBerry® platform experts and network with other developers while working on integrating social elements into apps using the BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM) APIs.

Attendees told us that they found the direct contact with our social platform experts to be invaluable – and we liked hearing that so much that we’ve decided to host more of these hackathon events across the globe in the coming weeks.

The first of these events happened yesterday in our company hometown of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, with the second event happening today, September 29th. Following this, we’ll be hosting BBM Apps Hackathons in Toronto, Chicago, San Francisco, Boston, Jakarta, Amsterdam, London and more. Here are the scheduled dates:

Updated Dates!

• Toronto: October 6th and 7th
• Chicago: October 10th and 11th
• San Francisco: October 16th and 17th (just in time for BlackBerry DevCon Americas 2011!)
• Boston: November 3rd and 4th
• Jakarta: November 14th and 15th
• Bangkok: November 17th and 18th
• Amsterdam: November 24th and 25th (updated)
• London, England: November 28th and 29th (updated)

To enter for your chance to attend one of the BBM Apps Hackathon events, follow this simple process to apply: Visit the site bbmappshackathon.com and fill out an application, outlining among other things (i) why you feel social platform integration adds value to mobile applications; and (ii) give an example of previous mobile apps you have developed.

Developers who are selected to attend a BBM Apps Hackathon event will also receive a BlackBerry gift bag, which includes a BlackBerry® 7 OS device. In addition, those selected to attend the Toronto, Chicago and San Francisco Hackathon events will also receive a pass to attend BlackBerry DevCon Americas 2011 and three night accommodation at the San Francisco Marriott Marquis for the duration of the conference.

We definitely recommend that developers of any level apply to attend these collaborative events. The BlackBerry Social Platform gives developers a way to tie existing apps to BBM, or to build social apps from the ground up. One of the benefits to these social aspects is the added viral buzz that an app can gain from integrating with BBM. At these hackathons, developers will discover valuable strategies that will help them add social aspects to their apps.

Would you be interested in this type of event? Let us know which hackathons you’ll be applying to attend!