In May at the BlackBerry World™ conference 2011, we announced the launch of the first ever BlackBerry® DevCon Europe and the second BlackBerry® DevCon Asia. We are now pleased to tell you the dates and location of these events – BlackBerry DevCon Asia will be held in December in Bangkok, Thailand with specific dates to be announced shortly. BlackBerry DevCon Europe will follow in Amsterdam, February 7 & 8, 2012.

We are excited to expand these events as this gives us an opportunity to talk to you about the latest in BlackBerry development, as well as giving you the opportunity to share your experiences and showcase your applications with your community. As such, there is no better way to share your story than to answer the Call for Papers. If you haven’t submitted a paper yet, we want to hear from you – in fact, we are extending the deadline to Friday July 15th for BlackBerry DevCon Asia and Friday September 16th for BlackBerry DevCon Europe. Stay tuned for details on registration and pricing for both of these events.

Remember to visit the BlackBerry DevCon website to learn about these events and to register for the upcoming BlackBerry DevCon Americas!

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

BlackBerry® DEVCON Asia 2011 received huge positive responses from all participants and BlackBerry developers in Asia. To close off this amazing event, I tried to sum up DEVCON Asia in a few words – check out the video above.

One of the great parts of BlackBerry DEVCON Asia 2011 was getting to chat with various developers, and learning what they’re excited about and what they thought about the event. We did a series of brief one-on-ones with developers and representatives from the community and compiled them in this video:

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

For our registered developers, we have posted presentations and source code samples, as well as access to the latest developer news and resources on BlackBerry Developer Zone. Become a registered developer by clicking on the link – you’ll get access to further info about our development platforms, and there’s no cost.

Post a comment and let us know about your own BlackBerry DEVCON Asia 2011 experience, and what you thought of all the announcements.

Last week, we saw the BlackBerry® Application Platform take a major step forward. We’ve posted several key announcements made at BlackBerry DEVCON Asia, and we’re already receiving tremendous feedback from the developer community. To recap:

BlackBerry® Tablet OS announcements

• With the release of the beta version of the BlackBerry® WebWorks™ SDK, developers can now build BlackBerry® WebWorks™ applications for both the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet and BlackBerry® smartphone platforms!
• The release of the updated Adobe® AIR® SDK for the BlackBerry Tablet OS will enable developers to create custom loading screens for their applications and leverage some of the updated look and feel for the native components.
• We announced an extension to the free BlackBerry PlayBook tablet offer, presenting WebWorks developers with the opportunity to participate and providing additional time for Adobe AIR developers to finish their applications worldwide.

BlackBerry smartphone platform announcements

• Developers can now fully test in-app payments with the BlackBerry Payment Service, with the release of the BlackBerry App World™ v2.1 client now available for beta testing.
• With the release of an updated BlackBerry® Push Service SDK, it has never been easier to develop push applications for the BlackBerry platform.

With these announcements we’d like to open the door further, talk about where we are today – and what’s to come.

The BlackBerry Tablet OS will support Adobe AIR and BlackBerry WebWorks apps when the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet launches. Stay tuned for updates regarding support for Java® and Native C/C++ apps.

Last week at DEVCON Asia, we provided updates on several enhancements to the BlackBerry smartphone platform. We previewed what’s coming soon with the BlackBerry® 6.1 platform, including OpenGL®-ES2.0, Support for Digital Compass (enabling augmented reality), new location and user interface APIs. We also provided an update on the highly anticipated BBM™ Social Platform, confirming BETA SDK availability in Q1 of this year.

We couldn’t be more excited about our direction!

Today’s BlackBerry WebWorks offering is a sign of what’s to come with the BlackBerry platform. We are fully embracing modern Internet technologies including HTML5, JavaScript®, Adobe® Flash® and AIR, Java and OpenGL as platforms for content services and powerful applications. With the Adobe AIR and BlackBerry WebWorks platforms, we are immediately opening up the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet to millions of web, Flash and mobile app developers who can also leverage our application distribution channels and BlackBerry Payment Service. With Java, Native C/C++ and OpenGL coming to BlackBerry Tablet OS in the future, we have an exciting vision for a mobile platform that offers the broadest choice and greatest flexibility to developers.

We hope you join in our enthusiasm and excitement for the future of mobile computing. As always, we look forward to hearing your feedback and we’ll provide further updates on both our smartphone and Tablet OS platforms soon!