The past year for RIM has been clouded by investor backlash, reduced stock price, executive departures and “iconic” BlackBerry smartphone releases, but underneath it all there’s excitement happening. The company is prepping to showcase the upcoming BlackBerry 10 OS at BlackBerry World 2012, and hopefully will announce new products – possibly the London, Milan and the PlayBook LTE.
RIM has grown the BlackBerry App World, too. Now into its 3rd year they’re still trailing other app stores with 70,000 available apps, but they’ve always said they want quality vs. quantity. On the company blog today Alec Saunders, RIM’s VP of Developer Relations, revealed some new stats – something he’s “bragging about.” Saunders noted that the “last few months has been phenomenal” as they seen a 68% increase in the number of registered vendors in BlackBerry App World (now over 35,000 registered or pending approval vendors in BlackBerry App World), plus witnessed 21% increase in BlackBerry smartphone apps; 89% increase in BBM connected apps; and a 240% increase in BlackBerry PlayBook tablet apps submitted to BlackBerry App World.
Much of this was caused by a promo that gave developers a free 16GB PlayBook for every new app they submitted. RIM is now back with another developer promo, this is “to keep driving that momentum and building that excitement.” This time it’s to attend the upcoming BlackBerry 10 Jam in Orlando. Saunders wrote that starting today until until May 1st for “every 100th new app submitted to BlackBerry App World is eligible for a prize package that will bring you to BlackBerry 10 Jam in Orlando.”
Reading over the terms and conditions it states that there’s “a maximum of one hundred (100) prizes available to be won” and the actual prize pack includes $500 cash (USD), a voucher for an airline ticket, a pass to BlackBerry 10 Jam and four nights at a hotel.
RIM also made it known that any developer who attends BlackBerry 10 Jam will receive a developer device loaded with BlackBerry 10 OS. Pretty good incentives if you’re a developer… check it out here at RIM.
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