RIM Launches New BlackBerry Web App Platform

To top it off, RIM is working with the open-source developer community to allow developers to access and contribute to the BlackBerry open Web application platform and tooling components and share in the evolution of the Web platform. In addition to sharing source code for the BlackBerry Web platform, RIM is working with leading open-source JavaScript framework projects/companies such as Dojo, GitHub, JQuery, Nitobi and Sencha to encourage developers to create Web applications with advanced Web and AJAX functionality.

The BlackBerry open Web application platform offers ease of development and seamless integration with the BlackBerry platform. Developers will be able to quickly package Web assets (HTML, CSS3, JavaScript and access to local resources) into easily deployable applications that take advantage of the BlackBerry platform's unique value and Super App qualities such as access to hardware functionality, access to Push, access to contextual location services, access to native applications and integration with BlackBerry services for advertising, analytics and payment services.

"RIM has always firmly supported industry standards and believes in embracing the needs of the developer community," said Alan Brenner, senior vice president of the BlackBerry Platform at RIM, in a statement. "We started supporting open-source communities through our work on the BlackBerry 6 WebKit browser, and the response from the open-source community has already been very positive. We are tremendously excited to see where the developer community will take this initiative and the code that we are presenting."

"The Dojo Foundation is ecstatic about RIM's open-source initiative," said Dylan Schiemann, CEO at SitePen and vice president of the Dojo Foundation. "BlackBerry 6, integrated with our mobile strategy (dojofoundation.org/mobile/), is a platform that will give Web application developers extreme control over developing mobile Web applications. We are thrilled to be working with RIM to build mobile platform support into several Dojo Foundation projects."

"New innovations in BlackBerry 6 have made it possible for PhoneGap developers to build engaging and sophisticated BlackBerry apps," said Andre Charland, CEO at Nitobi, maker of PhoneGap, in a statement. "The new BlackBerry open Web application platform will further encourage developers in the growing PhoneGap community to write more apps for BlackBerry smartphones."

"We're very excited that the full power of the BlackBerry platform will now become easily accessible to Sencha developers," said Abe Elias, CEO of Sencha, also in a statement. "HTML5 is the new lingua franca of mobile, and as the first framework to fully leverage it, we're looking forward to putting it to work for BlackBerry developers."