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BlackBerry 10 Now Offers More Than 100,000 Applications – Meet Some of Our Awesome Enterprise Developers

Steph F. — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 15:45:47 +0000

Earlier this month, I travelled to London, England for the BlackBerry Experience Forum. This enterprise-focused roadshow has been travelling around the globe, with recent stops in Dubai, Paris, Australia and Frankfurt. I interviewed some of our enterprise developers and partners who have been showcasing their incredible apps at these events. Throughout my time talking to the developers and partners, I learned that many felt the chance to connect with so many global customers in the partner showcase was a very unique opportunity. Many of the developers and partners travelled together to each location which provided them an opportunity to not only see the world through the eyes of BlackBerry customers, but also network with other global developers and partners to share their BlackBerry success stories.

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

Enterprise developers have embraced the new BlackBerry 10 platform – in fact, we recently announced that BlackBerry 10 now offers more than 100,000 applications. Amazon Kindle, OpenTable and The Wall Street Journal are available to BlackBerry 10 customers and in the coming weeks CNN, The Daily Show Headlines, eBay, eMusic, Maxim, MLB at Bat, MTV News, Pageonce, PGA, Rdio, Skype, SoundHound and Viber will be available for download or purchase.

At the BlackBerry Experience Forum, companies like SAP, Citrix, IBM and CISCO and many more, were in attendance to connect with many of the enterprise business leaders and IT decision-makers to showcase how their powerful apps can enable business innovations and empower mobile employees.

According to Adam Linford from Truphone, “If you are a mobile application developer and you’re looking to bring BlackBerry 10 into your existing portfolio, it’s so cheap and easy to add.” Adam also remarked that, “BlackBerry made some very sensible decisions in adopting technologies that are known – you are building on the shoulder of giants, a lot of the work is already done.”

Howard Travers from the Formicary Collaboration Group commented, “We’re pleased to work with the BlackBerry 10 application – we see it as a next step and evolution of mobile collaboration.” When asked about how the BlackBerry 10 platform enables enterprise customers to balance both work and personal data, Howard stated, “One of the biggest asks of all our top customers around the globe is the separation of personal and business. The fact that BlackBerry has now been able to merge the two is a great step forward.”

The BlackBerry 10 platform has empowered global businesses to embrace enterprise applications that enhance productivity, increase collaboration and connect their mobile employees with the important resources they need on the road.

Have you personally tried any of the apps mentioned in this blog post? Any app developers or partners you would like to see us connect with in the future? Let us know by commenting below!

Enterprise Developers Take Over Times Square in New York City at the BlackBerry Experience Forum

Steph F. — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 15:33:22 +0000

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

The recent BlackBerry Experience Forum in New York City hosted a number of well-known app developers who showcased their innovations to a crowded room of attendees. “We have a number of developers in attendance who have blended together the enterprise and consumer sides of their applications to give our BlackBerry customers a great experience on the new BlackBerry 10 platform,” said John Mutter, Senior Manager of Enterprise Developer Partnerships.

Well-known enterprise developers shared the keynote stage with the BlackBerry leadership team to show the audience how their apps can help enhance business productivity, cost-savings, and organizational efficiencies. One of the keynote speakers was Meaghan Reinecke from Macadamian Technologies. Meaghan mentioned that “the BlackBerry Experience Forum is an excellent opportunity for Macadamian to be able to talk about the different services we can provide. We help our customers make excellent products by understanding that beautiful spot where business requirements meet the user experience, and where design meets powerful technology…right in the middle is where the magic happens!”

A number of partners also made announcements at the BlackBerry Experience Forum in New York City. NoteSmartly, a productivity platform, unveiled their official app on the BlackBerry Z10. CEO of NoteSmartly, Amit Kanodia commented, “We got an awesome integration experience with the BlackBerry 10 OS. The teams at BlackBerry were so helpful in getting our app up and running.” Similarly, Vishal Patel from IBM Mobile Technical Sales noted, “Working with BlackBerry has been excellent. IBM is now selling a new mobility platform which helps developers build and target applications for the BlackBerry platform.”

The app developer ecosystem is thriving at BlackBerry. Come and see for yourself as the BlackBerry Experience Forum continues its world tour. Register for an event near you today.

BlackBerry World 2012 – Introducing this Year’s Sponsors

Luke Reimer — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 19:30:26 +0000

We’ve all heard about the BlackBerry® ecosystem and how it aids the BlackBerry services and tools we rely on. From network providers to app developers to channel partners, this vibrant ecosystem makes the BlackBerry experience so much better. But until you meet a BlackBerry partner face to face, you don’t really get a sense of the enthusiasm and talent that drives this group of people.

At this year’s BlackBerry World™, you’ll find many of these partners are our sponsors, which is a great way for our customers to see why we feel so fortunate to work with them.

We’d like to thank everyone who’s already a sponsor this year. The entire event team knows you’ll make it a great show for our attendees and we’re looking forward to seeing you onsite. We also want to let our other partners know that there are still some sponsorship opportunities available for BlackBerry World 2012 – please let us know if you’re interested in building your business with BlackBerry.

Here are some of the sponsors that you can expect to see at BlackBerry World 2012:

Make sure you check out the full list of sponsors at the show. All of our sponsors will be featured in the Solutions Showcase, and you can meet representatives from these companies for the first time at the Welcome Reception on Monday, April 30th from 6-8 PM. Then, throughout the show, visit the showcase to see their solutions, get a demo, ask questions and get to know why they’re so intent on offering even more capabilities with the BlackBerry ecosystem.

BlackBerry World is the best place to explore your options and learn how to effectively manage your BlackBerry deployment. Our sponsors are ready to meet you and offer solutions to your challenges. Make sure you register now so you don’t miss out!

Have you discovered a solution at BlackBerry World that helped your organization? Let us know in the comments!

Accessing web-based enterprise apps from your BlackBerry PlayBook

Luke Reimer — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 18:57:01 +0000

The BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet browser is far more than a simple application for viewing web pages. It has been carefully designed to provide an enhanced tablet experience, complete with options for customizing the browsing experience, private browsing, bookmarks management, HTML 5.0, Adobe® Flash® and JavaScript® capabilities, location-aware features, and so much more. Consider this powerful tool to be a window into not only viewing and interacting with a variety of web sites, but to also access powerful enterprise web applications.

There are a number of complete and secure web app solutions that you and your business can take advantage of – apps that are designed to offer new ways to collaborate in real time. Access to your internal enterprise network may also be possible from your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet through supported VPN suppliers.

Research In Motion® (RIM®) has a large number of enterprise software partners in the mobile industry, and we are constantly working with them to deliver apps and access to web-based hosted solutions optimized for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. This means that employees will be able to use existing tools while on the go.

I’m sure at this point you’re looking for examples. Well, here are seven of our favorite enterprise apps that are BlackBerry PlayBook tablet browser-ready!

IBM® Connections (IBM®)

IBM Connections is social software for business that is designed to allow you to “access everyone in your professional network, including your colleagues, customers, and partners” (via IBM Connections overview). IBM Connections was designed to be supported on a wide variety of platforms, including the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet browser. Through this interface, you can engage with communities, files, wikis, profiles, bookmarks, forums, and much more. It’s as good as it sounds, especially through the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet experience.

BusinessObjects Dashboard (SAP®)

SAP offers a web tool called BusinessObjects Dashboard, which is designed to allow you to create interactive analytics and dashboards with connections to SAP backend data sources among others. These interactive dashboards can be shared via Microsoft® Office, Adobe® PDF, web sharing, and SAP sharing solutions. You can then create, view, and share these dashboards using the the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet browser with Adobe Flash support.

Chatter® (Salesforce®)

Salesforce.com offers a private, and secure social network for your business called Chatter. This service allows you to increase collaboration within your organization as well as assist with planning and project management. Not only did I test this service using my BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, I actually completed the entire registration process using my BlackBerry® 7 OS smartphone.

Basecamp®, Highrise®, Backpack®, and Campfire® (37signals®, LLC)

Back when I was running my own small business, the 37signals services were a huge relief to find. This suite of HTML5 web apps allows you to manage projects, contacts, communications, and collaboration – all through extremely user-friendly web apps. While testing this one on my BlackBerry PlayBook tablet this morning, it was hard to put it down. Check out an overview of the suite on the 37signals web site.

Zoho®

On-demand CRM software is available from Zoho, among other services, and is widely used by businesses large and small. The entire Zoho Suite, interacted with via the dashboard, is available as a mobile web application designed for tablet use and is easily accessible using the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet browser.

Confluence® (Atlassian®)

The tagline for Atlassian’s flagship product is “More Than Just a Wiki”. This statement is true, as I’ve had personal experience working with the Confluence product, which allows for contribution, discussion, collaboration, and indexing of a wide variety of content within an organization (among other great features). Want an efficient workforce? Pool the knowledge and make it accessible. Speaking of accessibility, this one is also available via web interface using the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet browser. Have Confluence set up on internal corporate servers? No problem – use the BlackBerry® Bridge™ browser.

So as you explore all that the BlackBerry App World™ storefront has to offer, don’t forget to take advantage of the wonderful world of web apps. As you can see, the sky’s the limit with the award-winning BlackBerry PlayBook tablet and its unique browsing experience, which opens up a whole world of possibility for engaging in enterprise apps online.

Are you using enterprise apps, either native or web-based, on your BlackBerry PlayBook? What apps do you find particularly useful?

Salesforce.com, Chatter and all associated logos are trademarks of salesforce.com, inc. Other names and logos used herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.