After David Meyer’s recent Q&A on ZDNet.co.uk with Mike Kirkup, RIM's head of developer relations, there is news today that the company has officially named its app store as BlackBerry App World.
Developers with an interest in trying to trying to match RIM’s bandwidth expectations for new apps and reaching the 21 million plus BlackBerry users can find out more using both of the links above.
In line with a busy news week then at BlackBerry Towers, the handset manufacturer also put out various tips for mobile application specialists in an attempt to “advise” developers how best to match their applications to the comparatively closed RIM environment.
Aside from obviously just working, RIM says a user should be able to employ an application’s features in the time it takes for a traffic light to turn from red to green. But we’re not supposed to be BlackBerrying at the traffic lights are we? Oh I get it – it’s just an example.
I was asked for my top DO NOT USE buzzwords yesterday inside Twitter and I chose INTUITIVE. So I can’t mention RIM’s theory on icon placement inside BlackBerry apps. But you can guess what they how they think it should be done I hope.
In short, other advice (neatly shrouded in the form of a Top Ten Tips list of course) touches on integrated apps that work with other BlackBerry features such as the camera, apps that cause minimal battery drain and feature ‘push’ content delivery where appropriate.
Without starting the whole Google Android debate again, RIM seems pretty unphased by the rest of the market including the iPhone. But then they’re not hurting too much right now are they? Let’s hope the recent news drives development innovation positively.