Safety, mobility, portability, and rapid access to data are crucial to public services, and this police cruiser is slick in its display of each of these features. Additionally, technology that is securely manageable is a must-have requirement for implementations in this industry – something that BlackBerry® Mobile Fusion brings to the table when considering police-issued BlackBerry smartphones and BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablets. The best part? BlackBerry Mobile Fusion prepares these forces for the future with the capability to manage upcoming BlackBerry 10 smartphones. Check out the video below to view some of the features in action, and to hear it straight from the Mobile Innovation team behind this vehicle:

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

Fitting in well after Government Day on April 30th, this solution is an example of embedded BlackBerry technology and is still impressive the second time around. It’s like a slice of the future when it comes to law enforcement and mobile tech.

What’s your favorite aspect of the cruiser? Can you see applications for this in community safety and law enforcement? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

We’ve focused on the “for business” aspects of this experience as well as the IT management portion, highlighting solutions like BlackBerry® Mobile Fusion, BlackBerry® Business Cloud Services for Microsoft® Office® 365, and BlackBerry® Mobile Voice System. For a deeper dive into the movies, music, lifestyle, and entertainment aspects of the total BlackBerry experience, head over to the Inside BlackBerry Blog!

Honestly, I felt a bit like I was walking through my own house with this one. BlackBerry technology that I use on a regular basis includes:

• BlackBerry® Stereo Gateway for Bluetooth® music control with NFC pairing
• My BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet with mini-HDMI connection for a home and mobile office setup
• BlackBerry MVS for taking calls to my desk phone anywhere I may be
• Citrix Receiver™ for BlackBerry PlayBook (coupled with the BlackBerry® Mini Keyboard™) for working from home and accessing my PC at the office
• All of the fantastic apps and features of BlackBerry 7.1 OS
• NFC tags for automating common tasks using my BlackBerry® Bold™ 9900 smartphone

How is BlackBerry technology integrated into your life? How do you use it at work, at home, and in your vehicle? Share your setup in the comments below.

As Thorsten Heins stated during the last quarterly earnings call, RIM remains committed to our enterprise customers. We’re designing a tightly focused and dedicated plan to continue to deliver solutions that are scalable, secure, and tailored to specific business needs. In an exciting announcement earlier today, Robin stated that by next year’s BlackBerry World, BlackBerry Mobile Fusion will be offered on-site as it is now, as a hosted and managed solution through partners, or completely in the cloud. Couple this with the evolving concept of a mobile office powered by BlackBerry 10, and the future is certainly bright for enterprise mobility.

Check out the videos below to hear it straight from Robin and Alan, and share what you’re most excited about in the comments below!

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

BlackBerry 10 Concept Previews and App Demos

In an exciting hint of what’s to come in BlackBerry 10, Thorsten Heins shared the vision for the future of the BlackBerry 10 platform to be released in the latter part of this year. Check out a video of the sneak peek that we shared earlier today, including a live taste of BlackBerry 10 software presented by Vivek.

BlackBerry 10 isn’t just about a smartphone, rather, it’s a mobile computing engine that’s being developed to enable a robust BlackBerry® ecosystem of devices, homes, cars, and future systems. To reinforce our commitment to launching BlackBerry 10 with fantastic customer experiences, several app demonstrations were shared during the BlackBerry World 2012 keynote to exemplify the work that’s already in progress. Check out the videos below to see the individual demonstrations:

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

BlackBerry 10 developer tools, including the Native SDK, BlackBerry 10 WebWorks, and Cascades, have been provided to developers over at BlackBerry 10 Jam. Additionally, they’ve been provided with Dev Alpha prototype devices (which are in no way representational of final BlackBerry 10 hardware or software) in order to work towards a rich app experience at launch.

What BlackBerry Means to You

During his portion of the keynote, Thorsten spoke specifically on what BlackBerry means to you; how it helps to make you successful and reach across your wide array of networks and relationships. He referred to the BlackBerry DNA, and how RIM as a company is laser-focused on enabling individuals and business to succeed with highly functional and highly intuitive mobile solutions – with this focus embodied and uplifted by the work being done on the BlackBerry 10 platform.

Check out the video below for a closer look!

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

What part of this year’s BlackBerry World keynote hit home for you? What was your favourite sneak peek or partner demonstration? Share in the comments below.

We’re confident that attendees left Government Day not only more technically knowledgeable, but more inspired and filled with ideas for how they can transform their own organizations. Here’s a glimpse at what some of the attendees had to say about this event:

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

This is a very exciting time for us here at Research In Motion, and it’s fantastic to be here in Orlando where RIM CEO Thorsten Heins made his debut as keynote speaker for BlackBerry World 2012. Onstage at the Marriott World Center, Thorsten shared his perspective on the BlackBerry DNA, and what “BlackBerry” means to those who use and experience our smartphones, tablets, and solutions.

“BlackBerry is about saving time, and it’s about success,” Thorsten shared. You want to get more done in a day, and to be productive, agile, and to communicate across a wide span of networks, relationships, and responsibilities. This is precisely how we seek to enable you and your business with BlackBerry solutions. The work that is being done on BlackBerry 10 embodies these characteristics from the ground up, whether you’re considering the ultimate efficiency under the hood, or a fluid user interface that will provide you with what you need when you need it, all with immediacy and responsiveness.

As the designers of one of the first mobile computing platforms, RIM has a strong history of providing connectivity, security, manageability, and award-winning hardware (let’s hear it for that Bold keyboard!). But now we’re looking to the future, and embarking on a clear path towards unprecedented mobile computing performance that is made simple for organizations and individuals worldwide. We’re focusing on core strengths, building strategic partnerships, and coming together in amazing ways to build the future and set new standards for how mobility is leveraged for success –both personally and professionally.

One concept discussed by Thorsten (and exemplified by the sneak peek of BlackBerry 10 shown live by RIM’s Vivek Bhardwaj during the keynote) that really stood out to me was that of “information feeds”. We’re constantly inundated with data. Think about it: text messages, Twitter mentions, Facebook posts, emails, documents, lists, action items, events, and reminders – the list goes on and on. What we’re seeking to accomplish with BlackBerry 10 is an intuitive and concise consolidation of these feeds so that you have instant access at the tip of your fingers, embedded context and prioritization, and unparalleled application switching to provide ultimate multitasking functionality. We’re looking to give you the means to handle anything that gets thrown at you and effortlessly take action.

What was your favourite part of the keynote? Was there one concept discussed or demonstrated that really stood out to you? Share in the comments below.

BlackBerry 10 is being crafted to provide a compelling user experience that is intuitive and extremely responsive, allowing you to instinctively increase your productivity and to stay ultimately connected to all aspects of your life. Check out the video below to see a hint of what’s to come!

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

It was great to see a hint at how BlackBerry 10 will focus on the ease of access to applications, communications, and functionality. No bones about it: This will be all about giving you the ability to quickly multitask in an intelligent manner and provide you with the information and connections that you need most often.

The keyboard being designed for BlackBerry 10 deserves a call-out. Tactile keyboards that provide a lightning-fast typing experience are a part of our proud BlackBerry® heritage. This is an expertise that, having been clearly demonstrated in BlackBerry smartphones, is being artfully and thoughtfully engineered into a touch-screen environment. We know that your typing experience is paramount, and we’re excited to share the developmental process as each detail of this interaction is considered.

BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha Prototype

In order to support the BlackBerry developer community and ensure that the launch of BlackBerry 10 in the latter part of this year provides you with rich app experiences, attendees of BlackBerry 10 Jam have been provided with prototype BlackBerry 10 software on Dev Alpha devices. In no way do these represent final BlackBerry 10 hardware or software. Along with the BlackBerry 10 Native SDK, BlackBerry 10 Cascades and the BlackBerry 10 WebWorks SDK launched this week, these developer devices will help enable BlackBerry developers to begin working on BlackBerry 10 apps right away.

Stay tuned for more updates on BlackBerry 10 as we approach the launch in the latter part of this year. We plan on sharing updates as significant milestones are reached. In the meantime, know that this platform is on all levels being designed with your personal and professional needs in mind. Let’s take it to a whole new level.

What are you most looking forward to in BlackBerry 10? What was your favorite feature included in the video? Share in the comments below.

At this year’s BlackBerry World™, there are tracks that cater to virtually every interest. We’ve been featuring Q&As with the track leaders, because no one knows the value of their sessions better than the person who curated the session lineup. I recently talked to John M., Enterprise Mobility Architect at Research In Motion® (RIM®) and the track owner of Mobilizing the Enterprise with Custom Applications. John works with some of the largest enterprise customers to help them build and deploy applications for the BlackBerry® platform. He tells me there are several great sessions to look out for this year.

Biz Blog: If your sessions are about apps, are they only for people who know how to write code?

John M.: Actually, we’ve worked very hard to tell the story of applications without necessarily focusing on code samples. I really want the BlackBerry® Enterprise Server administrator, IT decision maker or business analyst to come and listen to these sessions and get inspired about building apps for the BlackBerry platform. For example, we’re going to talk about Near Field Communication (NFC) technology in the session Deploying NFC in the Enterprise, but that doesn’t mean we’re going into all the ways you can invoke an NFC listener and parse the data. Instead we’re going to show all the cool things you can do with NFC and display some practical examples of the technology being used right now in enterprises.

Biz Blog: Are there any sessions that do get more detailed for developers and more technically-focused attendees?

John M.: We have the BlackBerry® 10 Jam that’s focused entirely on the developer community with an emphasis on BlackBerry 10. But I think developers coming to this track looking for more technical insight will enjoy How to Overlay (lots of) Data on a Mobile Map-based Interface. This is a hot topic for people deploying field service apps because it covers how to use mapping like Bing™ maps, Google® maps and BlackBerry® Maps. There’s also Develop Your First (Really Impressive) BlackBerry WebWorks App for anyone starting out with the technology.

Biz Blog: What excites you about developing for BlackBerry right now?

John M .: What’s most exciting about building and deploying apps for BlackBerry is that the platform has been designed with tools and functionality that are baked into the technology. The connection service that BlackBerry offers is that always-on service between the enterprise and the BlackBerry® smartphone or BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet. It creates a highly connected device that allows people to write unique applications. The BlackBerry platform is also a secure platform that has been independently verified by security researchers.

With BlackBerry® WebWorks™, you can create apps that run across BlackBerry smartphones and BlackBerry tablets – and future BlackBerry 10 devices – using HTML5, CSS and JavaScript® and this include access to our APIs, just like a native application. It’s that easy. That’s what makes this an exciting time to be building apps for BlackBerry.

Biz Blog: Are there any sessions that are focused on making apps more profitable?

John M.: I’m always looking for ways to show that enterprise apps can go beyond nice-to-have apps to inject value into the revenue stream. So, you might be using field service apps with maps that make your reps more efficient in moving from point A to B so they can see more customers in a day. Or maybe you’re using NFC technology to take mobile payments or take advantage of point of sale opportunities. You might even be creating forms that can be used to take applications for credit cards or insurance policies. Many of our sessions focus on the opportunities for creating revenue or efficiency.

Biz Blog: What really excites you about BlackBerry World?

John M.: Before I was an employee at RIM, I worked for a large financial company, and I came to BlackBerry World every year simply to see the Solutions Showcase. Getting to see all these vendors and what they bring to the table is amazing, whether it’s peripherals or software to help extend the value of your BlackBerry deployment. I would literally use the Solutions Showcase to set my agenda for the year and determine what vendors I would invest more time with at a later date. So registering for BlackBerry World is a must for me – it’s such a great place to learn about so much.

What is your development challenge and what do you hope to learn at BlackBerry World? Let us know in the comments.

As you might imagine, RIM employees are eager to participate in this world-class customer event. All of us have some reason to go – everything from “I want to follow up in person with customers who downloaded BlackBerry® PlayBook™ OS 2.0” to “I’m presenting to a room of hundreds of people on how to use BlackBerry® Mobile Fusion to deploy an internal application strategy.” So, right around now, there’s an annual “who’s on the list” discussion.

Thankfully, I’ve made the cut once again, and I couldn’t be more thrilled! I’ll be part of the team hosting our annual BlackBerry World tweetup (hashtag: #BBTweetUp) and staffing the ever-popular Social Media Desk in the Solutions Showcase area. The team will be capturing executive announcements, partner developments and customer excitement throughout the event to share with the world on our various social channels.

Although I may or may not have had to provide the event team with a bribe of baked goods in order to attend BlackBerry World, your participation is much more straightforward. Just visit blackberryworld.com/registration – and if you’re a returning alumni or coming with a team, be sure to check out the alumni discount and “3 for 2” group package.

Beyond the simplicity of registration, BlackBerry World offers highly relevant educational content. Last year 96% of attendees surveyed said attending BlackBerry World was important to their organization, and 99% of attendees would recommend BlackBerry World to a colleague. Clearly participants find the content of great value.

This year, we are so excited to share our insights on the mobile industry and update you on the latest technology offerings from BlackBerry that we’re hosting a special program for our partners and customers in the public sector – Government Day at BlackBerry World. Scott Totzke, the Senior Vice President of our BlackBerry Security Group (and a driving force behind Government Day at BlackBerry World) wanted to extend his personal invitation to you. Have a look at his video message:

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

So whether you’re one of the thousands of enterprise and small business customers attending BlackBerry world, or an IT leader from a government or public sector agency, BlackBerry World will have something for everyone. We look forward to seeing you in Orlando next week!

The BlackBerry ecosystem encompasses a diverse set of solution providers from the mobile industry. BlackBerry World™ has always featured specialized content for our partners because we want the experts who market BlackBerry products to know as much as possible about the latest products and business opportunities. The BlackBerry Channel Partners track at BlackBerry World 2012 is exactly the place to get that focused and highly valuable information.

I talked to John B., who’s the track leader and Senior Marketing Manager for US Regional Marketing at Research In Motion® (RIM®), to hear what’s being offered this year. His comments should help you plan a diverse agenda for the conference.

BIZ BLOG: What is your goal for channel partners attending BlackBerry World this year?

John B.: We really want to inspire our channel partners to understand how to leverage BlackBerry as a complete ecosystem. Beyond the devices, BlackBerry has a rich platform with built-in tools, features and enviable security. If you’re a channel partner, we want to show you how to leverage our newest offerings for everything from mobile payments to applications and marketing analytics. RIM has specialized knowledge in these areas and we want our channel partners to benefit from our expertise in the sessions.

BIZ BLOG: Channel partners often want to know how they can profit best from BlackBerry – what are you covering along these lines?

John B.: What we have now are tools and resources that help build a complete mobile solution for their customers. If you look at sessions like The New BlackBerry Repair Service for Greater Customer Engagement and Satisfaction, we’re showing how offering customers added value services can help build new revenue streams. We also have sessions that focus on smaller businesses, since this market is a vibrant one for the partners who know how to market to these customers. Niche Doesn’t Have to Mean Small: Finding and Developing New Small Business Opportunities looks at opportunities across various verticals and how to help build a solid value proposition.

BIZ BLOG: Are there any hot topics you want to highlight?

John B.: For the carrier audience, New Revenue Opportunities with BlackBerry Monetized Services is an important session. I think everyone understands how to market handsets, regardless of the device maker. But what isn’t as clear is how a carrier can partner to create a steady stream of revenue-generating services, whether it’s custom billing or purchased services that are billed to the carrier. All those things are taking a quantum leap forward this year at BlackBerry World, so you’ll definitely want to register for these kinds of sessions.

BIZ BLOG: Are there any sessions that are more broadly focused on BlackBerry technology that Channel partners will want to attend?

John B.: One of the big things that anyone marketing BlackBerry is going to want to know about is our focus on Mobile Device Management with BlackBerry® Mobile Fusion, which offers IT managers a way to manage a mix of mobile devices, not just BlackBerry. Few vendors on the handset side have done that. There’s an enormous value in letting enterprise customers know that BlackBerry offers this kind of trusted, secure functionality. I’d recommend attending any of the BlackBerry Mobile Fusion sessions, and specifically Balance Technology: Supporting IT and User Needs, Support iOS and Android™ Devices with the New BlackBerry® Universal Device Service, Introduction to BlackBerry Mobile Fusion and The New BlackBerry Device Service: Overview and Features.

BIZ BLOG: What really excites you about BlackBerry World?

John B.: When our Channel partners come to BlackBerry World, it’s a complete 360-degree view – not just hardware, software or services, and not just infrastructure. It’s all four areas covered in one place, so our partners can see how everything ties together to offer one undisputable value proposition. A lot of this information is not publicly available, so it’s essential to register for BlackBerry World to access it. Also, our product and service managers are onsite at the show so it’s easy to meet with them to ask questions.

But I think my favorite part of the show is the evenings, when you’re interacting with partners and customers, and they’re brainstorming and dreaming about what’s possible with BlackBerry. I really like hearing how people take the information from the show and develop their own vision for using it to build a business.

Have you made business contacts at BlackBerry World before? Let us know in the comments.