RIM Opens New BlackBerry API’s to Support Growth

Manufacturing News, Source : The Manufacturer US
Published : 29 Mar 2007 20:48

Waterloo ON – March 27, 2007 – Research In Motion (RIM) today announced it is adding additional Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to the BlackBerry® Java Development Environment (BlackBerry JDE) to enable the next wave in mobile application development.

With a large and rapidly growing customer base, including approximately 8 million subscriber accounts and 100,000 BlackBerry Enterprise Server installations, and broad availability on over 225 networks in over 100 countries around the world, BlackBerry has become an attractive platform for software developers.

Fueling the development of third party applications for BlackBerry smartphones is the robust BlackBerry Java Development Environment (JDE). More than 125,000 registered developers have downloaded the BlackBerry JDE, which exposes thousands of Java APIs that developers can utilize to create powerful and innovative applications on the BlackBerry platform. The Java APIs are a rich collection of programming controls based on the industry standard Java Micro Edition along with an extensive set of Java APIs for BlackBerry that enable tighter integration with the unique features of BlackBerry smartphones and applications. With access to almost every functional component and application on a BlackBerry smartphone, developers are now building robust wireless applications that leverage the inherent capabilities of the BlackBerry platform, including secure access to the Internet and corporate intranet, rich multimedia features, access to personal content, location and mapping services, alerting and notification and device personalization.

“Push-email paved the way for the early success of this market, but mobile applications will drive the next phase,” said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO at Research In Motion. “The BlackBerry JDE has already enabled the development of hundreds of horizontal and vertical business applications and thousands of lifestyle applications on BlackBerry smartphones. We are now opening the BlackBerry platform further with the release of additional APIs that can help fuel the next wave of mobile applications in areas such as Social Networking, Multi-Media, eCommerce, News and Information Services, and Location-Based Services.”

Among the new APIs available for BlackBerry smartphones are:

Mobile Multi-Media API for Java (JSR 135) allowing developers to embed custom audio and video content into applications; invoke the BlackBerry Media Player to play video or audio content; record audio or voice and save recorded files to the handset or send it over the Internet

Camera APIs that allow developers to invoke the camera application and access pictures taken with the camera; support for registering listeners with the Camera application that enable an application to be notified when a new picture is taken

Support for MP3, WAV, WMA, AAC and AMR audio formats with support for routing audio playback to the external speaker, connected headset and Bluetooth® headset

XML and Web Services support to help simplify communications with existing Internet applications

BlackBerry Messenger APIs allowing access to presence and contact information and the ability to send peer-to-peer messages

File System Access APIs (JSR 75) to provide access to documents and other files stored locally on the smartphone or on the microSD expansion memory; support for registering listeners with the file system that enable an application to be notified when a new files are added or removed

GPS APIs (JSR 179) that provide access to location information from local GPS chip or external GPS receiver connected over Bluetooth

BlackBerry Maps API providing access to the map application to display an address or a route with BlackBerry Maps providing all of the geo-coding and mapping data for free

Wallpaper and Ringtone Customization Java APIs to enable custom applications to add new wallpapers and ringtones to the smartphone

Planned support for 3D Graphics API (JSR 184) and SVG API (JSR 226) to enable more powerful gaming and rich-media content

Planned support for MMS Java APIs (JSR 205) to complement the existing SMS and Phone APIs which enable third party applications to listen for incoming phone calls and SMS messages, invoke the phone application to place a call, and compose SMS messages for peer-to-peer messaging

The BlackBerry platform is also designed to extend its inherent security, network efficiency, reliability and push capabilities to any application, so developers can focus on their core application offerings rather than the underlying infrastructure that enables wireless connectivity.

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