As mentioned in my previous post asking for topics for the upcoming 2010 BlackBerry Developer Conference, I am very please to announced that we have opened up our Call for Papers for DevCon 2010 this week!

The sessions delivered by our community form a big part of the success of the Developer Conference and we are committed more than ever to find the most relevant and insightful sessions for our attendees. I strongly encourage everyone in the community who is considering speaking at the conference to check out my previous post or this forums thread in the BlackBerry Developer Forums calling for topics to get great ideas of what the community is looking for along with your own great suggestions.

The Call for Papers will be open until Monday May 24 but we will start reviewing your submissions as they come in so please don’t feel you need to wait until the end. You can submit your session proposal here: www.blackberrydevcon.com/call-for-papers.

I am really looking forward to reading all of the great submissions from the community!

There’s been a lot of buzz at WES this year coming out of the Solutions Showcase, as sponsors are highlighting amazing apps and showcasing their innovation in integrating those apps into the BlackBerry platform. One thing we’re hearing a lot of our sponsors tell people is “…and our app is available on BlackBerry App World.”

At WES 2010, RIM shared some significant numbers about BlackBerry® App World™ and I wanted to share them with you:

BlackBerry App World has been downloaded by over 20 million subscribers and is now available in 52 countries and six languages. There are over 6,500 quality applications in the storefront today, and those apps are generating an average of nearly one million application downloads per day – now that’s an impressive ratio. We have seen tremendous growth recently, and to me, this speaks to the overall popularity of BlackBerry App World and the opportunities ahead for developers. Of course we continue to push further ahead on multiple fronts. We are expanding into new regions and introducing new payment methods such as carrier billing and credit cards.  Stay tuned to the blog for future updates on these developments.

Also, in case you missed it earlier today, the Super Apps Developer Challenge was announced by the BlackBerry Partners Fund. This year’s challenge will be focused on “Super Apps” – which will showcase applications that feature intuitive integration and engage the user. The challenge is open to new and existing apps that are submitted to BlackBerry App World. More details on the challenge can be found here.

Thank you for your help in achieving these results! Have you had a BlackBerry App World success you’d like to share? Please comment!

Our good friends at the BlackBerry Partners Fund have just launched their third annual Developer Challenge, focused on finding the best applications that showcase “Super Apps” characteristics on the BlackBerry® Application Platform today.

I am particularly excited about the changes the team has made to the Challenge this year in three areas:

1. Regional Challenge – This is the first year that the challenge will be broken down into finding winners on a regional basis. It provides an opportunity for developers to differentiate themselves regionally and provide locally-focused applications with a compelling user experience.
2. Prizes and Prize Structure – The prizes for the Challenge this year have never been higher, with over US$1.5 million in prizes available to participants. The structure of the prizes has been modified to provide incentives and awards for applications throughout the entire Challenge, rather than prizes focused at the few winners. On an even more compelling scale, the prizes have been set up to help developers achieve commercial success with their applications through application promotion services, testing services, translation services, go to market services, and many others. Many of these services are being provided by partners in our Developer Services program at RIM®, which I find particularly exciting.
3. Available to new and existing applications in BlackBerry® App World™ – The Challenge has been opened up to all developers – both existing or new applications – to allow everyone to showcase how their application has the characteristics of a “Super App.” This should make for a great showcase of the power of the BlackBerry Application Platform and the sophistication of the applications built upon it.

You can find more information about the challenge on the BlackBerry Partners Fund website, and use the following link for more general information about “Super Apps” on BlackBerry.

I am highly anticipating seeing all of the submissions, and to have developers in our community recognized for making applications users cannot live without!

WES 2010 is now less than one day away, bringing with it a bunch of exciting sessions covering a wide range of tracks for both first time attendee and the WES veteran. While we highly recommend you check out the Session Catalog yourself, we also thought it would be a good idea to get the experts’ opinions on sessions you can’t possibly miss. We asked Mike Kirkup, Director of Developer Relations about his three most exciting sessions for the Developing Mobile Applications for the Enterprise track.

Mobilizing Web Services Using BlackBerry Widgets and the BlackBerry Browser

Prepare to dive into an engaging discussion about best practices, tips & tricks and examples of web services that can be used within your BlackBerry® Web or Widget applications. Web Services can conveniently provide access to services and data from web-enabled Enterprise systems and can greatly enhance the level of functionality and richness of application features and capabilities.

Deliver the Complete BlackBerry Smartphone Experience: Integrating your Applications with Native Applications

Don’t just built apps that people like, build apps that people love! Discover great ways to integrate your application seamlessly with native BlackBerry applications such as the inbox, calendar or address book.

As one of the key features in what can make an ordinary application a Super App, tight integration with other native BlackBerry applications can help to deliver an intuitive, contextualized and highly relevant user experience which will keep users coming back for more!

Enterprise Proofing your Applications

Learn more about some of the common IT security and manageability considerations that exist within an organization and their potential impact on BlackBerry applications. This session will empower you with the information you need to meet enterprise standards for releasing applications in an Enterprise environment. ”Enterprise proofing” your applications will allow your users to use and enjoy applications more successfully.

Post a comment and let us know which sessions you’re excited for. We hope to see you there!

Today, the BlackBerry Developer Relations team is happy to announce the beta launch of the new Developer Resource Center, and I wanted to share the details with you here on the blog. The resource center is your new central destination for BlackBerry® development support resources. We know how important it is to have the right support resources, and to have them always within reach. That said, we’ve been working hard to provide the right solution for the community.

There are two major things we are looking to accomplish with the Developer Resource Center:

First, we want to make it easier for you to find the right resources. The resource center enables you to search by topic – regardless of the available resource format. For example, you can now search for “networking” and find the relevant video, tutorial, knowledge base article, sample code and community support forum discussion. All of these format types will now be available in a consistent article template. Within the resource center, we have organized all of the content into specific topics which are consistent with the support forum boards (i.e. Java®, Web, Themes, etc). When we release the full version of the resource center, the integrated search will also include product documentation resources.

Second, with the community’s help, we want to build the best set of resources for BlackBerry development. One of the great things about the resource center is that it’s social. Not only can you comment on helpful resources, but you will also be able to create and submit your own content for publishing! This can be done by leveraging existing support forum posts to create an article, embedding a video, or writing a new article from scratch. The RIM® Developer Relations team will then review for technical accuracy before publishing to the community. Community-generated content will also soon be another way to earn recognition points as part of the Developer Recognition Program.

We welcome you to start exploring the BlackBerry Developer Resource Center – and please provide your feedback! We’ll look to incorporate it as we move closer to the full release of this tool and future improvements.

We look forward to collaborating with you in the Developer Resource Center!