BlackBerry DevCon Asia Live Coverage


DevCon Asia Singapore has finally started and we are here live at DevCon. I will be reporting live to you guys via the BlackBerry PlayBook right here. Stay tuned for updates coming your way!

So right now, we are hearing that the next Generation BlackBerry devices will be known as BlackBerry 10. It will run on tablets, smartphones and automobiles, with full access to the BlackBerry cloud. It seems like they will showing heavy support towards HMTL5 as well as open-source platforms and gaming engines including Jquery, Dojo and more (future proof across BlackBerry 7, BlackBerry Playbook and BlackBerry 10).

BlackBerry developers will now be known as BlackBerry Jam, with sessions, community, zone and also, recognition program. BlackBerry Jam members (developers) would be known as jammers.

Also, no more fees for code signing or to upload your apps to BlackBerry Appworld. They are looking to streamline the whole application development process for developer with this, under BlackBerry Jam Zone.

The BlackBerry Jam community will have the Open Source initiative (such as WebWorks) which will open up more programming tools for developers to use. The BlackBerry Jam Sessions (such as the Hackathon)

the winners of the BlackBerry Jam Developer Challenge are as follows:
The Most Addictive Social App : Cricket with Friends from Mumbai, India
The Best Adobe Flash/Air app: Love Indonesia or BlackBerry From Indonesia.
The Most Innovative BlackBerry WebWorks App on the BlackBerry Playbook and BlackBerry 6: Shogomo from Singapore

The Top Application makers highlighted is:
For the Free Apps – MMMOOO from China
For the Top revenue – S4BB from Hong Kong

The Top Developer groups include BBDEV#ID, DevGroup Vietnam and PinoyBBdev.

The new appworld 3.1 will introduce east asian language suport for asian markets.

BlackBerry 7.1 SDK gold release will be released today with the main highlight of integration with NFC.

Wikitude will now support os 6 devices, including Bold 9700, 9780, 9788, Curve 9300 and torch 9800 smartphones. (Augemented Reality will not be available, however)

Myths and Facts presented include:
Myth:
1) The BlackBerry Market is shrinking
2) BlackBerry users do not use app
3) BlackBerry Developers do not earn money
4) BlackBerry is just for business.
Fact:
1) There are 70 Million active BlackBerry subscribers today, with addition of 20 million over the past year.
2) Most users use apps, with Indonesian users downloading twice the amount of apps the average mobile user downloads.
3) BlackBerry App World has more paid app downloads than android and is the second most profitable app store after Apple. AppWorld apps generate more revenue than Android market apps. In addition, 13% of BlackBerry developers has made $100,000 and more from BlackBerry App World apps.
4) 6 in 10 users in Thailand use their devices for personal use. In Indonesia, its 7 in 10. Besides, top 5 downloaded apps are social networking apps.

Some overall notes:
1300+ registrants (One of the highest registration rate)
Shift of focus towards academic students for now and even more in the future
From 28 million users, over 12 months, it now stands at 50 million users.
The top 5 bbm connected apps received over 60 million downloads. (FourSquare received 200, 000 downloads in one day the moment it was bbm-connected)

As you see, the supporters from Thailand have been well taken care of with translation devices provided

Using the NFC:

Showcasing the success of Hackathons:

5 total comments on this postSubmit your comment!