RIM Introduces BlackBerry PlayBook and Platform for BlackBerry Super Apps

At the Blackberry Developer Conference, DEVCON 2010, Research in Motion (RIM) made several announcements, unveiling the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet and associated OS, as well as introducing the BlackBerry Enterprise Application Middleware development platform.
 
The new BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, aimed at “either large organizations or an army of one,” provides web browsing, multitasking and high performance multimedia, advanced security features, out-of-the-box enterprise support and a development platform. Weighing under a pound, and providing a 7” high-resolution touch screen display, the tablet uses a 1 GHz dual-core processor and the new BlackBerry Tablet OS to supports true symmetric multiprocessing. It supports Adobe Flash Player 10.1, Adobe Mobile AIR and HTML-5, and includes dual HD cameras for video capture and video conferencing, plus rich stereo sound.
 
BlackBerry smartphone users will be able to pair their tablet and smartphone using a secure Bluetooth connection and use the tablet display to view email, calendar, tasks, documents and other content on a larger display, without having to sync or duplicate data. The smartphone content is viewable on the tablet, but remains stored on the BlackBerry smartphone, providing enhanced security.
 
"We won't see the product until early next year, and the big question is how well the ONX operating system will play with the BES and the rest of the RIM product line," says Michael Finneran of UCStrategies and dBrn Associates, Inc. "The real surprise is that the PlayBook doesn't support 3G, so they won't be selling it through the mobile operators. I'm waiting to hear more about RIM's channel plans."

RIM Develops Platform for BlackBerry "Super Apps"

Also at DEVCON 2010, RIM introduced BlackBerry Enterprise Application Middleware, an application development platform designed to help enterprise and corporate developers create "super app" enterprise applications and services for BlackBerry smartphones with ease. Along with RIM, IBM Interactive, Oracle, and SAP presented plans to enable development solutions and services for "super apps" using the new platform.
 
According to Blair Pleasant of UCStrategies, “RIM’s developer platform can make it easier to develop not just basic Unified Communications (UC) applications, but integrate mobile communications with business processes, which is what UC is all about. This is the type of platform that can help to make it easier for RIM’s partners to create UC applications that leverage RIM’s products, providing increased integration with UC and mobile capabilities.”
 
Included in the BlackBerry Enterprise Application Middleware is a set of application programming interfaces, libraries, and server software that make building "super apps" easier. The "super apps" can access instant data push and alerts, efficiently transfer files with enterprise applications, make it simple to search a user's device for location, presence, availability, etc., and more. It can be used with other popular application development platforms, and can give developers access by integrating with said platforms.
 
Combined with the advantages of BlackBerry Enterprise Solution, these capabilities offer real-time communication, cost-effective data usage, web-based administration of smartphones, and several more services. IBM Interactive, Oracle, and SAP are currently performing early trials for BlackBerry Enterprise Application Middleware.
 
The first BlackBerry Enterprise Application Middleware libraries will be previewed at BlackBerry DEVCON this week, demonstrating Alert/Notifications Push, File Transfer, and Device Information to Server App. The first set is expected to be in closed beta later this year, and additional libraries should be released in 2011.
 
For more information, visit www.blackberry.com.