Research In Motion has its work cut out for it. Apple and Samsung went from dominating the smartphone industry to completely owning it in the first quarter this year, and RIM’s struggles continued as its BlackBerry 7 smartphone lineup really started showing its age. All eyes are on BlackBerry 10 as industry watchers try to determine whether or not RIM has a real shot at a comeback, and RIM has to be especially impressive at this year’s BlackBerry World conference since its first BlackBerry 10 smartphone likely won’t even launch until some time in October. RIM president and CEO Thorsten Heins will take the stage in just a few minutes when RIM’s BlackBerry World keynote kicks off at 9:00 a.m. EDT / 6:00 a.m. PDT, so hit the break to follow all the action as it unfolds and don’t forget to refresh the page for the latest updates.
10:44AM:And we’re done, thanks!
10:44AM:Panezic says that securing enterprise data on at-rest for third-party devices is on the roadmap. For those of you keeping score, that’s a shot at Visto, owners of the NTP patents, and Good Technologies who offer a secure email and PIM client for iOS and Android.
10:37AM:Mobile Fusion has been out for about three weeks, and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia have had it fully in production for over a week.
10:36AM:Martha Stewart has two BlackBerry devices – one for email, and one for a phone. That’s different.
10:35AM:Alan Panezic, VP of Product Management at RIM is introducing Stephen Rollins, VP of IT at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.
10:33AM:Mobile Fusion will be available on-premise, hosted and managed, or fully in the cloud. In about a year. What was it Thorsten said about delivering in a timely fashion?
10:32AM:“By next time this year for BlackBerry World, we will offer three solutions for Mobile Fusion”
10:31AM:Robin Bienfait, RIM CIO is taking the stage. I’ve had the honor of walking in late to a briefing she was running and having her interrupt her presentation to call me out for it.
10:28AM:RIM is looking to the partner community to make the platform a success. Developers, developers, developers?
10:28AM:“It’s really important that we don’t focus too much on consumer or just enterprise. We’re seeing the industry beging to focus on enterprise, and we welcome that…”
10:26AM:App submissions are up 226% in the past year, and PlayBook app growth is up 240%.
10:26AM:Embracing the cross-platform application generation tools is a giant shift for RIM. Several years ago there was a marked distaste for them, with RIM Developer Relations members being quite cold to developers using those tools.
10:24AM:Haynie, “After talking with customers it’s clear that they want BlackBerry. BlackBerry is definitely one of the top three platforms we support”. So you’re saying it’s #3?
10:23AM:Jeff Haynie, Co-Founder and single CEO of Appcelerator is on stage to talk about their Titanium development tool.
10:21AM:Whoops, Titanium just showed an iPad in their demo.
10:19AM:Mippen allows anyone to build a native app in less than 10 minutes. I’m glad to see the focus on quality apps remains.
10:18AM:Mippen is releasing a BlackBerry App Generator in beta today, you can sign up at http://www.blackberryappgenerator.com
10:17AM:Nick Barnett from mippen is on stage, touting the performance of the BlackBerry app platform. BlackBerry downloads account for 70% of all downloads of apps created with the mippen application generator.
10:15AM:Users can upgrade to unlimited viewing for $9.99 per month whenever a data connection is active, or a mobile offline plan for $14.99 per month.
10:13AM:Pixelmags is releasing a News Stand application on BlackBerry 10. Every BlackBerry 10 will get 10 free minutes every month to read anything they want on the News Stand.
10:13AM:Pixelmags is focusing on branded applications, so if a user downloads the Esquire application, it’s actually a pixelmags app.
10:12AM:The pixelmags ethos is “You create, we deliver”. Publishers upload content to the CDS – Content Delivery System – and pixelmags handles the distribution to the desired channels.
10:11AM:Brian and Mark from pixelmags are on stage to talk digital publishing.
10:10AM:This is the most high-definition version of the game available. It actually looks like it’d be fun to play.
10:09AM:Schade is demoing Galaxy on Fire 2 HD. I think he might have inadvertently leaked the next Samsung Android phone.
10:07AM:We’re joined by Michael Schade, Co-Founder and CEO of Fishlabs. 70 million downloads of Fish Labs games to date. Another successful company with two founders, and only a single CEO.
10:06AM:Gameloft is bringing 11 games to BlackBerry 10. Perhaps former Senior Director of Global Developer Relations Mike Kirkup didn’t fully kill the platform by pushing game development for the PlayBook over everything else.
10:04AM:An enthused developer from Gameloft is taking the stage to discuss developing games for BlackBerry 10.
10:03AM:“Rovio launched Angry Birds Space a few weeks after it came out for iOS”. Great, but why did it take them about 10 months to launch Angry Birds for PlayBook after Mike Lazaridis announced at BlackBerry World in 2011?
10:02AM:For anyone wondering if the 360 Pano app for BlackBerry 10 uses the still camera or the video camera, it’s the still camera. The entire audience was treated to a slew of shutter sounds as Candemir took the panoramic picture.
10:00AM:Candemir says his team was able to build a demo of 360 Pano for BlackBerry 10 in only 7 days.
9:59AM:Candemir Orsan from Occipital is on the stage. Occipital created the Red Laser app for iOS, as well as 360 Pano, my personal favorite app for creating panoramic photos on my iPhone.
9:58AM:The Pacemaker DJ application will be available tomorrow at their booth on Wednesday between 1:00 PM and 2:30 PM EDT, for free. Attendees of BlackBerry World will be among the first in the world to have this app before it launches in June.
9:56AM:Cascades allowed Pacemaker to easily connect their new interface to an incredible amount of legacy C++ code.
9:55AM:Jonas Norberg, Co-Founder and CEO of Pacemaker is joining Martyn on stage to discuss using Cascades to develop an application for the PlayBook.
9:54AM:It should be obvious by now the themes of the conference – Enterprise and Developers.
9:53AM:App World also allows enterprises to have their own tab in the store, similar to the carrier tabs found in Android Market.
9:53AM:Distribution – applications can be distributed in multiple ways. Mobile Fusion (formerly BES) allows direct distribution within the enterprise. App World allows global distribution, and supports multiple payment methods including credit cards, PayPal and carrier billing.
9:52AM:RIM is building a set of core tools for native development and HTML5 and making them available to partners. Who are the partners though? Developers? Carriers? Alliance members?
9:51AM:Performance, security, integration. The platform excels on tablets, smartphones and in cars.
9:50AM:Platform, Tools, Distribution.
9:50AM:More emphasis on BlackBerry 10 as a platform. This is in line with their emphasis on developers and developer relations.
9:49AM:“RIM is 100% committed to application partners on [RIM’s] platform”. BlackBerry 10 is meant to be seen as proof of that commitment.
9:48AM:We’re welcoming VP of Global Alliances and Business Development Martyn Mallick to the stage.
9:47AM:“Have a great BlackBerry World and let’s rock and roll this!”
9:45AM:Another quick peek at BlackBerry 10.
9:45AM:The entire company is laser focused on delivering BlackBerry 10 on time, and exceeding customer expectations. And Thorsten is committed to keeping everyone up to date on the progress of BlackBerry 10 development.
9:43AM:Reliability and security are definitely important if my car’s OS can be updated remotely.
9:43AM:60% of cars on the road are running QNX. Marketshare calculations will get very interesting in a few years.
9:42AM:Thorsten is showing off the connected QNX car with TVs, telemetrics and two other things I didn’t catch.
9:41AM:The intent and objective of BlackBerry 10 is to build the next mobile computing platform. It’s an engine, not just a smartphone OS.
9:40AM:The keypad is adapting, and will adapt to your fingers, your style of typing. Just another reminder that the iOS autocorrect is utter shot.
9:39AM:“It’s all about agility and being nimble” – Thorsten is reminding everyone that this is just a preview and there is more to come.
9:38AM:“Never miss a magic moment” – the camera allows you to go back in time!
9:36AM:As you’re typing the autocomplete words pop-up on the keyboard, and you can flick them up into the main screen.
9:36AM:Two-thumb typing is key, but what if you need to type with one hand? A not so subtle shot at massive Android devices like the Galaxy Note.
9:34AM:We’re about to get a demo of the new keyboard in BlackBerry 10. Spoiler, flick gestures.
9:33AM:“This is why we invented push, and this is why we all love BBM”. Someone is still a little bitter about the NTP patent lawsuit.
9:32AM:Active and agile.
9:32AM:“You just flow through [the feeds]. You have a flow across all of your applications”.
9:31AM:Emphasis on full, true, background multitasking.
9:31AM:Vivek is showing off the the new Glance gestures that will be part of BlackBerry 10.
9:29AM:Vivek Bhardwaj, Head of Software Portfolio at RIM is taking the stage with Thorsten.
9:28AM:This is definitely a new RIM. I can’t say that anyone is missing the old familiar faces.
9:27AM:RIM is doing a great job of reaching out to developers, and pre-release alpha hardware is a great way to generate excitement and enthusiasm.
9:27AM:“It’s critical that we get this into the hands of developers around the world so they can begin getting their content and applications to you”.
9:26AM:Thorsten is emphasizing that the BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha device is not final hardware, it’s a vehicle to get BlackBerry 10 into the hands of developers.
9:26AM:BGR will have an extensive hands-on with the BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha device shortly
9:25AM:He’s introducing the BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha device. It looks familiar.
9:24AM:“We’re making incredible progress on BlackBerry 10”, fueled by acquisitions such as RIM TAT, Gist, Tungle, and QNX.
9:24AM:“We’re taking our time to be sure we get this right” – Thorsten is asking what the platform for BlackBerry 10 should be.
9:23AM:Cisco is working on several applications for BlackBerry 10 including WebEx and AnyConnect, Cisco’s SSL-enabled VPN. This is huge for enterprise users, the PlayBook has relatively poor VPN options.
9:22AM:Chuck is giving a rundown of the Cisco applications that are running on the BlackBerry including WebEx, Jabber and MVS. His developers are excited to begin working with BlackBerry 10.
9:21AM:Welcome Chuck Robbins, Senior Vice President, The Americas, Cisco.
9:19AM:Clarence is referring to the “social enterprise” as a way to encompass the various channels of communication used by customers.
9:18AM:salesforce.com has been using BlackBerry since 1999 with the pager models, and continues to run their company on BlackBerry today.
9:17AM:Thorsten is welcoming Clarence So, Senior VP, Strateg of salesforce.com
9:16AM:“Everything we do now with the PlayBook and BlackBerry 10 is to help simplify your life and leverage this infrastructure”.
9:16AM:Thorsten is emphasizing the simple interface, data efficiency for manageable bills, battery life and security. Cloud Computing is hot, and he’s justly describing the BlackBerry as the BlackBerry Cloud.
9:15AM:“77 Million BlackBerry People. BlackBerry helps people save time.”
9:14AM:“BlackBerry is all about success. BlackBerry creates their success, BlackBerry empowers their success. [Users] are more productive with a BlackBerry.”
9:13AM:“55 million BBM subscribers, and the best integration of LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook”
9:13AM:Thorsten is claiming that the BlackBerry has a great camera. We’re not off to a great start.
9:12AM:65% of smartphone users access organizational tools daily compared to 91% of BlackBerry People.
9:11AM:Thorsten is discussing his first three months as CEO, and the outreach to customers–business, enterprise, consumer–and his own employees he’s done.
9:09AM:Thorsten Heins is taking the stage and welcoming the audience – the BlackBerry People. You can also watch the conference online at blackberryworld.com.
9:07AM:
9:07AM:We’re about to get started, starting off with some users describing how they use their BlackBerry devices.
9:03AM:It’s a packed house, all of the seats are full and folks are starting to stand at the back of the room. The excitement is palpable as attendees awkwardly rock out to some generic house music.
8:58AM:According to the announcement over the PA the presentation should begin shortly. I’m going to be very disappointed if it doesn’t include everyone’s favorite Futurist, will.i.am.
8:55AM:OK everyone, we’re inside and seated, waiting for the last few seats to fill up before the show starts in a few minutes.
