RIM held an App Master challenge in South Africa where developers competed for an all-expenses paid trip to San Francisco for the BlackBerry Developer Conference as well as a carousel feature for their app. The winner of the challenge was Joe Diedericks‘ “Salon Queen” app for the PlayBook. The app is a sales, scheduling and customer relationship management app for hair salons. It makes it simple for hair stylists to showcase their work and hairstyle ideas to their clients as well as the hairstyles the salon has done for them before. The app also enables salons to track their clients as well as schedule hair appointments for clients on the spot. Salon Queen is a great example of how a tablet app can be used for small business and it’s solutions like Salon Queen that will help jumpstart the industry. We’ll be able to show off more of Salon Queen when the app is live in App World.
While BlackBerry the brand has been getting a lot of flack for not being cool in North America, it’s getting a lot of love from the youth in South Africa. BlackBerry was named as the ‘Coolest Brand Overall’ in the Sunday Times Generation Next 2011 Brand Survey Awards. BlackBerry also took top honours in the ‘Coolest Cellphone’, ‘Coolest High-Tech Gadget’ categories and BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) was named ‘Best Cellphone Application’.
This must be a great boost to company morale considering South Africa has been leading what’s cool in North America recently with music from artists like Die Antwoord (above) and Jack Parow. Apparently the smartphones of choice are in the lower price range including the 8520.
It’s clear that while the mainstream media is focused on a small sample of North America, journalists would do best to go into other regions to get the full story.
The BlackBerry Innovation Forum is an event for Alliance Members and people looking to discover more about what the BlackBerry Platform has to offer. The event is geared towards the business community and it looks like a way of bringing people together to discuss mobile strategy and giving them access to RIM technical people who can help carve the best path to mobilizing their business.
According to @Consnet, an SAP CRM company from South Africa, tomorrow’s South Africa event will feature the new Bold 9780 and Torch integrating to SAP.
Johannesburg, South Africa and Waterloo, ON – Vodacom South Africa and Research In Motion today announced the availability of the BlackBerry Storm smartphone in the South African market. The BlackBerry Storm will be available from Vodacom on January 28.
“The BlackBerry Storm is a next-generation smartphone designed to meet the communication and multimedia needs of the most demanding customers. With its renowned communications capabilities, rich multimedia features and stylish design, the BlackBerry Storm allows customers to make the most of their time on the go with a fashionable and lifestyle-friendly smartphone,” says Shameel Joosub, Managing Director, Vodacom South Africa.
The BlackBerry Storm will be available to both Vodacom’s Prepaid and Contract customers from participating Vodacom outlets, across South Africa. Customers can also call Vodacom Direct 0860 123 123 or go to www.vodacomdirect.co.za for the best deals and have the smartphone delivered to their door. Payments start as low as R59.00 per month for the BlackBerry Internet Service (Prepaid and Contract) and R98.00 for BlackBerry Enterprise Service (excluding device).
Coming straight out of Johannesburg, RIM and MTN jointly announced this morning the availability of the BlackBerry Bold in South Africa. The South African contingent of the BlackBerry Nation will love the Bold’s 3G, Wi-Fi and integrated GPS capabilities.
“The BlackBerry Bold exudes style and accomplishment with its glossy black exterior and satin chrome frame. Its stunning display, sophisticated user interface and newly designed full-QWERTY keyboard all combine to make it a phone that any power user would be proud to carry,” says Pieter Verkade – MTN SA Chief Marketing Officer.
While pricing information is not yet posted on the site, you’ll be able to find it at the link below shortly. Make sure to check out our exhaustive BlackBerry Bold review as well.
A bit of a slower week newswise, though still plenty of interesting Bold-related stuff, including upcoming AT&T availability, OS 4.6 browser speeds, as well as some fresh pricing info on the BlackBerry 8220 and some more confusion on the BlackBerry 9500′s naming scheme. This is Simon’s last podcast on BBCool, so you better soak it all in.
