According to RIM, Venezuela’s per- capita use of smartphones outpaces Europe’s. Under Chavez’s currency controls, Venezuelans are allowed $400 annually for online purchases. It seems that they are spending this $400 on a new BlackBerry because it’s a status symbol.
The official Craigslist app by Movela will be hitting App World any day and it looks really great. Even though the above video is a little old and we’ve known the BlackBerry client was coming soon, it should only be a matter of days until it hits App World so stay tuned.
The client features the ability to browse and search craigslist postings, bookmark and reply to posts, save searches and more. The app also supports all categories and all countries you would find on Craigslist.org. The app was developed by Movela with technology from Pyxis Mobile.
So if you’re an avid Craigslist fan, or you just want to read Missed Connections while on the go, this app should be great.
The Xobni BlackBerry app does an excellent job of organizing your contacts and saving you time finding and sending emails. The app seamlessly integrates with your email and the above video demonstrates a typical time-saving task with their application.
Here at the BlackBerry Developer Conference we got a sneak peek at the upcoming Xobni app for BlackBerry. The app features a ubiquitous search bar that is seamlessly integrated into your mail, contacts and social networks. The app gives you a great deal of data about each contact including basic contact information as well as updates from that contact’s social networks. The app will also show you possible connections from within these networks.
One of the most impressions features is the way Xobni organizes your contacts across all your email services. The Xobni demo showed how easy it is to take a common name, for which there could be tens of entries, and efficiently move between the Xobni app and your email. Also, for those names which could have multiple entries, Xobni uses a ranking system that means your most interacted with contacts are at the top.
Xobni isn’t currently available but it looks like they are very close to a launch. Stay tuned because this app looks great.
The BlackBerry Developer Conference kicked off with Jim Balsillie announcing a wide range of new tools available to BlackBerry developers that are going to redefine what we think of as a BlackBerry app.
The latest set of APIs available to BlackBerry developers are focused on making ad-supported apps easier to develop, and help to more easily monetize the developer’s hard work. The new BlackBerry Advertising Service will allow developers to integrate ads from networks such as Jumptap, Millennial Media, Navteq, 1020 Placecast, Quattro Wireless and Sympatico.ca. The Advertising Service and SDK will be available in the first half of 2010.
At the BlackBerry Developer conference we got a sneak peek at the upcoming ebay app for BlackBerry.
The app features a deal of the day where you can bid on the day’s hot item. Another great feature of the app is the ability to add a reminder to bid on an item, with a fully integrated calendar alert system.
If you’re an ebay fan, be sure to pick up this app when it goes live. We’ll keep you posted on pricing and release date, but so far all we know is it will be available in App World later this month.
BlackBerry apps are going to get very consumer friendly, very fast as RIM keep making announcements about new features and services for developers that appeal to the consumer market.
Today, at the BlackBerry Developer Conference, RIM and Adobe announced that creative professionals and application developers will be able to use the Adobe Flash Platform and Adobe Creative Suite content development and authoring tools, to easily create rich content and application experiences for BlackBerry.
With Flash, OpenGL support and the new GUI builder, BlackBerry apps in 2010 are going to look very different than in 2009.
RIM have a great new initiative called the BlackBerry Academic Program that will provide colleges and universities around the world with a curriculum and course content to offer courses in administering and supporting the BlackBerry solution and developing for the BlackBerry platform.
These courses are going to be good for helping boost not only the BlackBerry developer community, but the smartphone industry. The more young, bright students that are interested in these technologies, the better.
Course content is currently available for mobile application development for BlackBerry, administration of BlackBerry Enterprise Server, and support for BlackBerry.
Wireless data revenue jumped 46%, to $372 million. Year-to-date, wireless data revenue has increased 42% to $982 million. Rogers Wireless posted overall revenue of $1.76 billion, a 2% increase from a year ago.
This surge in wireless data usage and revenues is a direct result of selling so many BlackBerry devices. Rogers sold more than 370,000 smartphones, the majority of which were BlackBerry, followed by iPhone with a smattering of Android.
