Posted on November 19, 2010, at 12:48 PM .
We recently heard about the Sun Life Financial using the PlayBook to sign up members for group insurance plans and more companies have been discussing the benefits of a BlackBerry PlayBook. RIM’s security is a huge advantage in the enterprise tablet market and according to Sun Life Financial VP Tom Reid, “When you’re transmitting sensitive member information that was our number one priority — to make sure we had the best security protocols.”
It seems insurance and finance sectors are jumping on the PlayBook with ING Groep’s Canadian unit developing a consumer-facing banking application for the PlayBook and considering using the device to replace laptops.
“If RIM lives up to what it has promised — seamless, out of the box connectively to the existing infrastructure — we can address a business need very, very quickly without making major investments,” said Charaka Kithulegoda, chief information officer for the unit.
It should be interesting to see what other companies and sectors adopt the PlayBook.
Posted on November 18, 2010, at 7:17 PM .
ScreamingToaster has made a few BlackBerry apps that are available in App World they have an interesting blog post on the cost of mobile app development. The post attempts to dispel some myths about the development process as well as shine some light on the costs of developing a smartphone app. One of the more interesting parts of the analysis is a breakdown of the three types of people you will meet as a mobile development shop for hire:
1. People who think that mobile development should cost no more than $5-10K, regardless of what their requirements are (because their requirements are always ‘simple’, so they claim).
2. People who think that web views that pass for mobile apps should cost between $10-20K. These people are being taken for rides by a lot of ‘consulting’ companies.
3. People who think that mobile development should cost over $250K for any mobile project. Some lucky consulting companies (who have very few customers) are getting very lucky from this group of people.
Figuring out what to pay to have your mobile app developed depends on a lot of factors and determining what to charge is equally difficult. Read the post for the full analysis of app development costs and factors.
Posted on November 18, 2010, at 3:45 PM .
Wikinvest has launched a BlackBerry app that lets you track your portfolios across multiple brokerage accounts. The downside of the app is that you can’t trade from within the application – a feature that many mobile websites offer. The Wikinvest service you to seamlessly import your data from your brokerage and other investment accounts and get pushed, real-time market data.
Something to consider with this app, is whether you want to share your portfolio information with the company in exchange for the mobile convenience. Overall, Wikinvest is doing well with over $16 billion in assets being tracked across 62,000 Wikinvest members. So there is some comfort in knowing that it’s a service trusted by many.
To download the Wikinvest app, point your browser to wikinvest.com/bb.
Posted on November 18, 2010, at 3:10 PM .
MovieTickets.com has released their BlackBerry app and it allows you to purchase tickets, browse movies and showtimes and find theaters. One of the downsides to many of these applications is the inability to select particular seats for movie premiers which can be really frustrating when you arrive at the theater and get stuck with whatever seats are left. It’s for this reason that you often have to go to the theater’s site to purchase your tickets. So while using these apps can be very convenient, it’s always important to double check.
To download the app point your browser to getbb.movietickets.com.
Posted on November 18, 2010, at 2:32 PM .
RIM’s BlackBerry Traffic app provides you with an ETA as well as crowd-sourced real-time data and/or historical traffic information to accurately predict the duration of the journey for all users. For areas where no data has been captured through crowd-sourcing, historical traffic data is used to predict the ETA. The Traffic app will also let you check alternate routes, get more information on incidents and check out local promotions while en route.
Continue reading ‘BlackBerry Traffic App Out of Beta and Available in App World’
