It has been an important year for smartphone OS developers. With fierce competition from the iPhone and Google’s Android, the traditional players in the market have held conferences in an attempt to retain and attract developers to their platforms. BlackBerry was one of the pioneering companies with regards to smartphone becoming an essential need for business users. However, the primary concern for most developers during this conference was the direction that RIM was taking to promote the BlackBerry conference.
A majority of the talks held by senior developers focused on the overall experience of BlackBerry’s App World and the ability to successfully publish apps on the BlackBerry platform. Alongside the overall app development process, many experts were specifically focusing on the relevant technologies that were needed for developing and coding apps.
BlackBerry’s platform is meant to be cross-platform compatible; however, issues with the Java focus do occur. Java’s inherent problem is that the number of versions available means that the coding must reflect each version. Resultantly, some apps may not work on selected hardware; this means that developers have to re-code for older sets, etc.
RIM is a company known for its BlackBerry product and service that business professionals all over the world rely on to keep in touch with their business operations. However, the attitude taken towards the development of its OS is rather restrictive in nature. RIM does not let developers easily access their SDK while most of the app development for BlackBerry happens in a J2E environment. This situation does not assist in specific app development since there are significant problems porting apps to phones that have varying screen sizes and require changes in icons, etc. Considering that many platforms encourage and support porting of apps; BlackBerry has been limiting the development of apps in this dimension.
This limited growth potential for app development is what has been holding the BlackBerry app development from gaining significant impetus in comparison to the unbridled growth in the iPhone and Android platforms. Resultantly, BlackBerry has realized the growth potential of both these platforms will overshadow their own platform. In response to the looming threat of the iPhone and Android platforms, BlackBerry is hosting a developer’s conference in November in an effort to generate interest in the platform.
The nature of J2E is focused and touted as being cross-platform friendly; the BlackBerry OS is not cross-platform friendly and has caused numerous developers to shift to other app development platforms.
RIM’s BlackBerry product and service is well known amongst business professionals all over the world. The limited growth potential for app development is what has been holding the BlackBerry app development from gaining significant impetus in comparison to the unbridled growth in the iPhone and Android platforms. Resultantly, BlackBerry has realized the growth potential of both these platforms will overshadow their own platform. In response to the looming threat of the iPhone and Android platforms, BlackBerry is hosting a developer’s conference in November in an effort to generate interest in the platform.
The primary areas of focus for BlackBerry will be to provide a unified cohesive development experience. They are pushing for various developers – ranging from .Net to Java – to attend the conference in November and encouraging app development firms to actively participate in the conference. Considering the massive potential growth of Android, the iPhone’s current success along with Palm’s webOS also beginning to show signs of life, BlackBerry seems to have realized that they need to generate interest in their platform to ensure sustainable competiveness amongst other platforms.
One of the many things that BlackBerry plans on releasing to the developers is improved support for BlackBerry Widgets that will be HTML and CSS enabled. This allows developers to create improved social media networking tools along with business productivity apps to help users fully utilize their BlackBerry devices. The improved access to the BlackBerry OS along with deeper access to device functionality will help developers improve the overall app integration for users.
In addition to this, the conference also plans on focusing on the BlackBerry Storm 2 release – a device touted as being a potential iPhone challenger – and its related development. The BlackBerry Storm 2 addresses issues that were present in the original device through improved support and software functionality. With serious app development beginning on the BlackBerry OS, the Storm 2’s improved Wi-Fi connectivity is what will drive improved app development. However, the key focus will remain on the BlackBerry OS and providing a more integrated and user-friendly experience for developers.
Blackberrys’ have been the preferred choice of cell phone for business professionals who are constantly on the move yet need to stay connected to their offices virtually. Considering the sensitivity of business information that is transferred via BlackBerry email and instant messages, the assumption is that security would be of paramount importance to RIM.
Unfortunately, a recent security flaw in the Web browser dialog box of BlackBerry’s Internet browser left many users with clashing security certificates when accessing websites. The inability to correctly verify that the security certificates were clever fakes meant that phishers could easily fool BlackBerry customers into believing they were logging into authenticated and secure websites. Although RIM immediately pushed a security update to all carriers to ensure customers were protected; it is a very compromising situation for RIM and their products.
Regardless of the effectiveness of the update, an inherent question remains is that cell phone manufacturers and providers are now moving into a realm similar to software developers. Cell phones are now becoming small powerful devices with processing power akin to that of netbooks and low-end laptops. There is a strong need to test and verify all software being launched on cell phones matches the standards as imposed by mainstream software developers.
Considering that many consumers now are unable to live without their cell phones and Internet connections, patches and security updates can be easily delivered to consumers without significant cost. Most cell phone manufacturers and providers still continue to ignore the need to protect their customers via proper testing and monitoring security threats. Actions are taken retrospectively rather than actively which could mean millions of customers manipulated before companies realize that they have a security flaw in their software.
With a mushrooming apps industry for all platforms, a unifying set of testing procedures should be adopted by developers, cell phone manufacturers and service providers alike to ensure that customers remain protected from serious threats. What do you think? Should the relevant parties take notice or should the responsibility lie with the user to protect themselves from threats? Leave your comments or thoughts below.
