The Port-A-Thons are now closed and it’s time for you to be rewarded.

Some of the Port-A-Thon rewards required draws. We needed to wait until the app approval deadline (April 9, 2013) to draw the names of the winners.

We are pleased to announce that the draws have taken place for trips to BlackBerry Live 2013 and BlackBerry Dev Alpha B devices.

Notifications are being sent out this week to the developers that have won and all winners will be contacted via email by the end of next week. Please check your spam folder for any messages from blackberrydeveloperprogram@blackberry.com that might have snuck in.

Again, thank you for your incredible dedication and support. More importantly thank you for your patience. We were humbled by the turnout at these events and worked as quickly as possible to work through the unexpectedly large number of applications that were submitted.

If you have any more questions please contact us at blackberrydeveloperprogram@blackberry.com. Let us know in the comments what you thought about the Port-A-Thons and if you think we should do them again.

We love working with developers from all around the world and especially if they make cool games that we can play on our new BlackBerry 10 devices! Right after BlackBerry Jam Asia 2012, we had an amazing opportunity to work with incredibly talented game developers from the Asia Pacific Region. To give you an idea on the amount of travelling it took: 16 days, 8 cities, 39800 miles per head!  The best part was we found 260 happy game developers at the end of the trip.  The GotGame Port-a-thon event comprised of locations spanning six Asia Pacific countries including Thailand, Singapore, Australia, Indonesia, India, Hong Kong and China.  During these intense one-day events, we got a chance to work with some amazing talent from the gaming industry.  As a result, almost 800 high quality game titles were submitted over a span of just three weeks!

We would like to give a BIG Thank you to all the game developers who participated in these events and made GotGame Port-a-thon LIVE a huge success!

We are working hard to get your apps approved. We have teams around the globe approving BlackBerry 10 apps as fast and as accurately as possible.

Here is the important information about the All Aboard, Android, Community and Last Chance Port-A-Thons.

• We will have all app reviews completed by March 12, 2013
• You will have until March 26, 2013 to resubmit fixes
• All resubmitted apps will be reviewed by April 8, 2013
• To be eligible for Port-A-Thon rewards, the cutoff date for having your app approved and up for sale in BlackBerry World is April 8, 2013
• Your rewards will only be delivered once all of your apps are approved and up for sale
• The draw for BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha B devices and BlackBerry Live trips will take place on April 9, 2013 and those winners will be contacted

If you have any questions please email blackberrydeveloperprogram@blackberry.com, or leave your feedback in the comments.

Thank you for supporting BlackBerry and BlackBerry 10.

Let’s talk about one of the best parts of the Port-A-Thons; the rewards. Here’s an update on the reward process that highlights how and when things will happen.

Updated Timelines

For the All Aboard, Community, Android and Last Chance Port-A-Thon’s, we’re extending the deadline to get your app approved.

You will now have up to February 18, 2013 to get your apps approved. This fits nicely with the deadline to apply for the $10k Developer Commitment.

Please note: The Got Game Port-A-Thon is now closed.

Rewards Process

Rewards are distributed to vendors only after all the apps have been put “up for sale”. By default, apps are automatically put “up for sale” when approved.  If you chose otherwise, please take a moment to put them “up for sale” and ensure you take this step to receive your rewards.

Cash Rewards are distributed by our program partner Milestone. You will receive an email to confirm payment information from rimredemption@milestoneintegrated.com . If you live in a country serviced by PayPal, you will need to confirm your PayPal Account. If you live in a country not serviced by PayPal, you will need to provide wire payment details. After this information is provided you will receive your payment in 4-6 weeks. We are working hard to have the money transferred as quickly as possible.

Device rewards are distributed by Touchstone. You will receive an email to confirm shipping information from BlackBerryPlayBookOffer@tmgideas.com. After confirming your shipping details, the device(s) will be shipped as quickly as possible. Note that RIM pays all shipping costs and duties. If you are required to pay these fees, please contact BlackBerryPlayBookOffer@tmgideas.com with the details and you will be reimbursed.

Trip rewards are distributed by HRG. You will receive an email from A Thousand Words Marketing and HRG.

My apps are approved, when do I see reward emails?

To mirror the extension of the submission deadlines, the reward emails will extend as follows. We take a snapshot of approved apps at the end of day each Friday. Information is then provided to Touchstone (for cash), Milestone (for devices) and HRG/Thousand Words Marketing (for Trips) who then send out the reward emails on Tuesdays.

If you notice your apps are approved, please wait until the following Tuesday to get your reward emails.

What happens if you are not able to attend BlackBerry Jam?

Given the new deadline extensions, we realize that trip winners may have some logistical challenges getting to Amsterdam for the BlackBerry Jam Europe 2013.  For those that are unable to attend BlackBerry Jam Europe 2013, we will extend the trip offer to BlackBerry Live in Orlando on May 14-16, 2013 under the same conditions. Please note that the trips are non-transferrable.

When are the draws happening for Community Port-A-Thon?

The Community Port-A-Thon draw for Trips and devices will be held on February 18, giving participants additional time to get their apps approved and become eligible for the draw.

As the draw happens after BlackBerry Jam Europe, the trip will be for BlackBerry Live in Orlando on May 14-16, 2013. To make this even more exciting, we’re adding $500 USD spending money for the trip winners.

The draws for the All Aboard and Got Game Port-A-Thons have been drawn and winners have been notified.

Last Chance Port-A-Thon

If you participated in the Last Chance Port-A-Thon last weekend, expect to be notified of your eligibility by Friday, January 25. This email will inform you of the apps that were submitted during the Port-A-Thon and your eligibility for rewards. Please note that those apps must be “Up for Sale” on or before February 18, 2013 to be eligible to receive an award.

Thanks for all your apps!

Developers set a new record for last weekend’s port-a-thons, and devs from APAC definitely contributed in great leaps: More than half of the apps submitted globally were coming out of Asia! We saw great submissions from India, China and the rest of this region.

On Saturday January 12th, hundreds of developers attended the offline Technical Support sessions in eight Asian countries. The sessions included coding, porting, discussions, eating and lots of fun. But most of all, they were about providing technical support to our developers.

In Indonesia, the local Android Community showed great interest for the Android Port-A-Thon, and we can’t wait to see more apps ported after the official launch of BlackBerry 10.

The registration to the Manila offline event went so well that PinoyBBDev community had to host sessions in two different venues. The PinoyBBDev event was such a cool gathering that the developers didn’t want to leave. Photos below from the PinoyBBDev event show that activities were very well-organized with lots of great food and music!

In Beijing, our China evangelist Mike Zhou didn’t sleep the night of January 11th because there were hundreds of questions asked on Weibo (the Chinese equivalent of Twitter) till morning. iiberry, a BlackBerry Developer community based in Beijing, helped to organize the session and provided great technical support by answering questions from developers online.

At the Shanghai session, CNBB Dev Group leader Jonah Lin (CEO of MMMOOO) provided technical support onsite, and Chinese game company finger2finger submitted 260 games! After their big submissions for the last Port-A-Thon, the China Flash Dev Community also managed to contribute a huge number of apps.

The below picture is one of the strategic games submitted last weekend:

MMMOOO’s Weibo tweets on the Port-A-Thon generated more than 5000 retweets and 4000 comments.

Photos below are from Shanghai Port-A-Thon event (courtesy of CNBBDev):

In India, there were also two separate offline Port-A-Thon tech support sessions held – one at Rubus Labs @ Start-up Village, and the other at SV University. Each session had very keen and enthusiastic developers who were really focused on the one goal for the day – to port all their apps onto the BlackBerry 10 platform!

This photo shows students busy coding in the India Port-a-thon Tech Support Session:

The Port-A-Thon series not only helped developers to start building for the BlackBerry 10 platform, but also got the attention of many regional mobile application companies. Mingdge Technology, a mobile app company, said on Weibo this week: “There was never a platform as generous to developers as BlackBerry 10 and helps startup developer make money. Looks like I will eventually give up on iOS, specialize on BlackBerry 10, RIM rock on!”

Special thanks goes to the awesome APAC BlackBerry Dev Groups for their support on the offline Port-A-Thon Technical Sessions: BBDevID, ID-Android Dev CNBBGroup, Rubus @ StartupVillage, iiberry, BBIndia,  BBVietnamand Pinoybbdev!

Look out for more from the developers here at the Last Chance Port-a-Thon this weekend!

This weekend during the BlackBerry Community & Android Port-A-Thons we witnessed something very special happen, something which can energize all our developer community!

We had over 1,000 people around the globe come together for 37.5 hours and submit over 15,000 apps for BlackBerry 10. After five hours we had over 4,000 apps submitted and after nine hours we had over 6,300 apps submitted. One of the developers put this into perspective when he tweeted

@lougazzola Impressive. I remember it taking over a year for AppWorld to get its first 6,300 apps…

— Eric Harty (@Ebscer) January 12, 2013

The Twitterverse was a buzz with over 1,200 #BB10Portathon mentions. 15,060 apps submitted shows that it’s easy to build a BlackBerry 10 app.

We’ve witnessed a huge transition of developers who now believe in the potential for success on the platform and take the time to create an incredible number of apps. The RIM team creating our developer SDKs and tools have made it easy for developers to bring their apps to BlackBerry 10 – in the language you like writing in. Here’s what our community is saying:

@lougazzola @leinir @4shelbysdevs I agree with this. I can even port my android app/webworks/phonegap in under 1 minute really.

— NemOry Oliver (@NemOry) January 14, 2013

@nemory @lougazzola @leinir @4shelbysdevs agreed.. I ported my Adobe Air app in around a minute packaged and signed.

— Stephen (@NZCoderGuy) January 14, 2013

Erik Oros (Application Development Consultant) fielded questions in his area of expertise (HTML5) and I (Lou Gazzola, Senior Marketing Manager) hosted the event. Both of us were on for the complete 37.5 hours. RIM had over 20 experts from around the world that helped developers and I am blown away by the community support with “Oliver”, “K Cheung” and “Michael K” spending most of the time porting apps AND helping the community.

We also had our partners available with representatives from Marmalade, AppendTo (jQuery), PhoneGap, and Appcelerator participating. After witnessing what was happening many of our partners stayed well beyond their scheduled hours.

What an incredible effort from the entire community!  I want to extend a very heart felt Thank You to everyone that participated!!

Last call for porting apps - Register now for the Last Chance Port-A-Thon!

When we decided to hold a series of Port-A-Thons to help our developer community port their apps over to BlackBerry 10 we had no idea how wildly successful they would be. This past weekend’s Port-A-Thons brought in more than 15,000 apps! It has been truly inspiring to see so much excitement and support for BlackBerry 10. So we’re going to do it one more time. All new BlackBerry 10 apps built using any type of development approach or the BlackBerry App Generator are eligible!

One more chance to get rewarded

The Last Chance Port-A-Thon will start at noon ET on January 18, 2013 and run for 36 hours straight. As with past Port-A-Thons, this will be a virtual event, which means you can log in from wherever you want to and our experts will be available to help you port your apps. The more apps you port, the greater your rewards*:

• Port one or more approved apps and you’ll receive $100 per eligible app, to a maximum of 20 paid applications per Vendor
• Additionally, submit five (5) or more apps and be entered into a random draw for one (1) of two hundred and fifty (250) BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha devices. You’ll receive one (1) entry for the first five (5) approved apps and an additional entry for each approved app after that.

Get prepared ahead of time

Getting a few things prepared ahead of time means that you can get porting as soon as the event starts.

• Register as a Vendor at BlackBerry World if you haven’t already.
• Request signature keys. Make sure that you select for BlackBerry® PlayBook™ OS and BlackBerry 10 and higher. Downloading in advance is strongly recommended as the time involved to do so could prevent you from earning rewards.
• Load up your laptop BlackBerry tools and plug-ins. Make sure you have your full source code file readily available too.
  • Make sure you have your images and icons ready to go.
  • Last but not least, don’t forget to register for the event.

This is the final Port-A-Thon before BlackBerry 10 launches on January 30, 2013. Hope you can join us.

* A total of $500,000 USD is available for distribution. To qualify for a Reward, you must register on the website at  http://developer.blackberry.com/offers/lastchanceportathon and submit your App into the BlackBerry World Vendor Portal between 12:00:01 pm on January 18, 2013 and 11:59:59pm ET on January 19, 2013. Any apps submitted outside this time frame are not eligible for this Reward program. Only those apps that have been approved through BlackBerry World and RIM will be considered towards a Reward. No purchase necessary to be eligible for the draw.  The odds of winning the draw depend on the number of eligible Vendors entered.  Skill-testing question applies to Canadian residents.  Limit one (1) Limited Edition BlackBerry 10 Device per person. Cash rewards limited to 20 per Vendor regardless of reward category.  See the Official Terms and Conditions for complete details.

A lot of you have been asking about the rewards, so we want to help answer those questions with this update. The response to All Aboard Port-A-Thon was so overwhelming that it has taken us a little longer than we anticipated to process all the information and ensure everyone is getting the correct rewards.  We sincerely apologize for the delays and confusion.

Thanks for your patience

Emails to redeem your rewards are scheduled to go out this Tuesday, January 15 to all who are eligible for the rewards.

• Monetary reward emails will come from Milestone rimredemption@milestoneintegrated.com.
• Device reward emails will be sent from service@tmgwebstore.com and BlackBerryPlayBookOffer@tmgideas.com.
• Trip reward emails will be sent from HRG and/or A Thousand Words Marketing.
• Finally, the winner of the draw for the trip and devices will come from BlackBerryDeveloperProgram@rim.com.

Please ensure you have all these emails whitelisted so they don’t end up in your spam/junk folder.

In order to thank you for your understanding while we work through the reward logistics, we are making three valuable modifications:

1. We have extended the app submission reward eligibility window from 12:00 pm EST on December 14^th to 8:00 am on December 16^th. This means that if you didn’t qualify for monetary rewards originally due to the timing of your app submission, you may qualify now!
2. We are extending the deadline for approvals of changes to apps that are eligible to January15^th .
3. As announced at the Port-A-Thon, we committed 100 additional BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha testing devices to those who submitted 5 or more apps during the event. Winners for this draw will also be contacted.

We hope this will help to answer all of your questions Thanks again for your ongoing support: BlackBerry 10 just wouldn’t be the same without you.

More chances for rewards

Finally, in case you haven’t heard, there are still a few Port-A-Thons to go:

There are two events happening today, January 11, 2013: the Android Port-A-Thon and Community Port-A-Thon. Both offer participants the chance to earn cash rewards and be entered into device draws.

If you have more apps that you could port to BlackBerry 10, we’d love to have you join in for the chance to earn even more rewards! Visit the links above for more information or to register.

Don’t forget to submit your app for the Built for BlackBerry Program and 10k Developer Commitment.

The BlackBerry 10 Community Port-A-Thon will start on noon ET January 11, 2013 and run for 36 hours.  This is also going to be a virtual event, so it is up to you to decide where you would like to join us from.

Get Rewarded

The more you port and build the greater your rewards*:

• Port  one (1) – five (5) approved apps – $100 per eligible app –to  a maximum of 20 paid applications per Vendor
• Port five (5) – ten (10) approved apps – THE FIRST TWO HUNDRED (200) QUALIFIED PARTICIPANTS receive one (1) BlackBerry Dev Alpha Device plus $100
• Port ten (10) or more approved apps -  THE FIRST TEN (10) QUALIFIED PARTICIPANTS one (1) paid trip to BlackBerry Jam Europe to celebrate  the launch of BlackBerry 10 with us plus a Dev Alpha Device as well as $100!!!
• Additionally for those that did not receive a BlackBerry Dev Alpha, or Trip to BlackBerry Jam Europe, we will be conducting a random draw for one hundred (100) BlackBerry 10 Dev Alphas and ten (10) trips to BlackBerry Jam Europe.  All those who meet the criteria for a Dev Alpha  Device or the Trip but were not one of the firs 200 or 10 , respectively, to qualify, are eligible for the respective draws.

Get Ready to Port

Take advantage of the tips below to get a head start before you join the event.

Here’s what you need to get prepared ahead of time.

1. Register as a Vendor at BlackBerry World if you haven’t already.
2. Request signature keys. Make sure that you select for BlackBerry® PlayBook™ OS and BlackBerry 10 and higher. Downloading in advance is strongly recommended as the time involved to do so could prevent you from earning rewards.
3. Load up your laptop BlackBerry tools and plug-ins. Make sure you have your full source code file readily available too.
4. Make sure you have your images and icons ready to go.

Register

Submit your apps into BlackBerry World before BlackBerry 10 launches. Register for the Community Port-A-Thon for BlackBerry 10 today!

Have Questions? See our FAQ.

* A total of $500,000USD is available for distribution. To qualify for a Reward, you must register on the website at http://developer.blackberry.com/offers/communityportathon and submit your App into the BlackBerry World Vendor Portal between 12:00:01 pm on January 11, 2013 and 11:59:59pm ET on January 12, 2013. Any apps submitted outside this time frame are not eligible for this Reward program. Only those apps that have been approved through BlackBerry World and RIM will be considered towards a Reward. No purchase necessary to be eligible for the draw.  The odds of winning the draw depend on the number of eligible Vendors entered.  Skill-testing question applies to Canadian residents.  Limit one (1) Dev Alpha Device and one (1) Trip per person. Cash rewards limited to 20 per Vendor regardless of reward category.    See the Official Terms and Conditions for complete details.

The Android Port-A-Thon for BlackBerry 10 will start at noon ET on January 11, 2013 and run for 36 hours.  It is a virtual event, so you will be able to log in from the comfort of your home, your desk at work or even set up a porting party with your friends. As with the first events, the more apps you port the greater the reward for you.

Get Rewarded

The more you port and build the greater your rewards*:

• Port one or more approved apps –and get $100 per eligible app to a maximum of 20 paid applications per Vendor
• Additionally; submit five (5) or more apps and be eligible for a random draw for one (1) of one hundred (100) BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha Devices. Receive one (1) additional entry for every eligible app that you submit over 5.

Porting Android apps to BlackBerry 10

Since more apps mean more rewards, you should take advantage of the tips below and get ready before you join the event.

Here’s what you need to get prepared ahead of time.

1. Register as a Vendor at BlackBerry World if you haven’t already.
2. Request signature keys. Make sure that you select for BlackBerry® PlayBook™ OS and BlackBerry 10 and higher. Downloading in advance is strongly recommended as the time involved to do so could prevent you from earning rewards.
3. Load up your laptop BlackBerry tools and plug-ins. Make sure you have your full source code file readily available too.
4. Make sure you have your images and icons ready to go.

We also have porting guides and tools you can use to get a head start.

Guides:

BlackBerry Runtime for Android apps Overview

Port your Android app from BlackBerry PlayBook OS to BlackBerry 10 OS

Tools:

ADT Plug-in Repackaging Tool

BlackBerry Packager for Android Apps

Join us

Submit your apps into BlackBerry World before BlackBerry 10 launches. Register for the Android Port-A-Thon for BlackBerry 10 today!

Have questions? See our FAQ.

* A total of $500,000USD is available for distribution. Eligible vendors who submit a minimum of five (5) eligible apps will be entered into a random draw for a BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha Device. One hundred (100) Devices are available to be won. There is a limit of one (1) BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha device per Vendor. To qualify for a Reward, you must register on the website at http://developer.blackberry.com/offers/androidportathon and submit your App into the BlackBerry World Vendor Portal between 12:00:01 pm on January 11, 2013 and 11:59:59pm ET on January 12, 2013. Any apps submitted outside this time frame are not eligible for this Reward program. Only those apps that have been approved through BlackBerry World and RIM will be considered towards a Reward. No purchase necessary to be eligible for the draw.  The odds of winning the draw depend on the number of eligible Vendors entered.  Skill-testing question applies to Canadian residents.  Cash rewards limited to 20 per Vendor.  See the Official Terms and Conditions for complete details