Press Release

BlackBerry Partners Fund Announces BlackBerry Developer Challenge "Adobe Flash/AIR" Winners

Award recognizes Best Adobe AIR Apps for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet

TORONTO - October 3, 2011 - BlackBerry Partners Fund™ today announced the winners of the "Adobe Flash/AIR" competition in the fourth annual BlackBerry Partners Fund Developer Challenge. Winners of the best Adobe® AIR® app built with Adobe® Flash® technology for the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet were selected on a regional basis. Apps were judged based on quality and use of development best practices, level of visual appeal, user experience, and creativity and innovation.

North America:

• Grand Prize Winner: Papa's Burgeria (Vendor: Flipline IDS LLC)
• First Runners-up: News Catcher (Vendor: XIMAD Inc)
• Second Runners-up: iSpeech Translator (Vendor: iSpeech.org)

Latin America:

• Grand Prize Winner: PaginasAmarillas (Vendor: Carvajal)
• First Runners-up: El Financiero para BlackBerry PlayBook (Vendor: Ironbit SA de CV)
• Second Runners-up: Bubbler! (Vendor: Juan Ignacio Albanesi)

Europe, Middle East, Africa:

• Grand Prize Winner: n-tv Nachrichten PlayBook (Vendor: LINEAS Informationstechnik GmbH)
• First Runners-up: Doodle Blast (Vendor: FlexibleAIR)
• Second Runners-up: SVIT - Ebook Reader with EPUB Support (Vendor: Pronic, Meselina Ponikvar Verhovsek s.p.)

Asia Pacific:

• Grand Prize Winner: Love Indonesia for BlackBerry PlayBook (Vendor: Love Indonesia)
• First Runners-up: StockPulse - Stock and Equity Tracker for BlackBerry PlayBook (Vendor: XLabz Technologies Pvt Ltd)
• Second Runners-up: Abcday (Vendor: Vostrix)

AIR, a superset of Flash Player, enables developers to leverage existing code to create and deliver standalone applications across devices and platforms. Thousands of applications built with Flash technology have already been created and made available on BlackBerry App World™.

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This past April, the BlackBerry Partners Fund announced the 2011 BlackBerry Developer Challenge with three competitions developers could participate in:

• Best Adobe Flash®/AIR app
• Most Innovative BlackBerry WebWorks™ app on the BlackBerry PlayBook and BlackBerry 6
• Most Addictive social app using the BBM™ Social Platform

Participants in the competitions have the chance to win $3 million worth of prizes such as; BlackBerry Smartphones, BlackBerry PlayBook, BlackBerry Alliance Program membership and more. Today, the BlackBerry Partners Fund announced the winners of the “Most Innovative BlackBerry WebWorks app on the BlackBerry PlayBook and BlackBerry 6” competition (or just WebWorks for short). The winners were chosen from four global regions, which are; North America, Asia Pacific and Europe/MiddleEast/Africa. Let’s check out the winners:

North America:

• Grand Prize Winner – Guitarist's Reference and Guitarist's Reference Torch (vendor: My App Catalog LLC)
• First Runners-up – Meeting Cost (vendor: Hindam Innovation Corp.)
• Second Runners-up – Light 'Em Up (vendor: Thomas Kiefer)

Europe, Middle East, Africa:

• Grand Prize Winner – Daily Express UK (vendor: Refresh Mobile Ltd)
• First Runners-up – Twinoo Lite (vendor: Razum d.o.o.)
• Second Runners-up – Interlecta (vendor: Interlecta OOD)

Asia Pacific:

• Grand Prize Winner – Shogomo (vendor: Quintell Business Intelligence Pte Ltd)
• First Runners-up – Chatmosphere IRC Chat Finder (vendor: Mobile Ventures Pty Ltd)
• Second Runners-up – Rock Paper Scissors (vendor: MMMOOO)

Congratulations to the winners! Just a friendly reminder that those who wish to participate in the competition for Most Addictive social app using BBM Social Platform, you have until September 23rd to submit your entry.

More details available at the BlackBerry Partners Fund website
Read the official announcement

The BlackBerry Partners Fund has officially announced this years BlackBerry Developer Challenge. Although the event doesn't take place until the 2011 BlackBerry Developer Conference gets under way in October, in San Francisco the prizes and timelines have all been outlined.

This year's Challenge includes the following three competitions:

• Best Adobe Flash®/AIR app
• Most Innovative BlackBerry WebWorks™ app on the BlackBerry PlayBook and BlackBerry 6
• Most Addictive social app using the  BBM™ Social Platform

This year, both BlackBerry smartphone and BlackBerry PlayBook developers can enter their applications for a chance to win US$3 million in prizes. As always, winners will be chosen across four global regions - North America, Latin America, Europe/Middle East/Africa and Asia Pacific. If you're a developer and looking to learn more about the prize packs and how to enter, you can check out the BlackBerry Partners Fund website for the full details.

More info available at the BlackBerry Partners Fund website

Last night I ventured into New York City to check out an event being held for the BlackBerry Developers Challenge. There they announced all the regional winners (four in total) that will be moving on. The participants competed for over $1.5 million in prizes. The regional winners are:

• North America: Poynt
• Latin America: Vlingo Plus
  
• Asia Pacific: Love Indonesia
  
• EMEA: UbiNav EU

You can check out a video from the event above. All in all some great stuff from all of these super apps. Congrats to all the winners! Keep reading for the full press release.

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The BlackBerry Partners Fund has announced the 12 reginal finalists for the BlackBerry Developers Challenge. The apps were judged on how well they incorporated "super app" capabilities as well as quality and user experience. Participants are competing for prizes totalling over $1.5 million. The 12 finalists include:

• North American Finalists:
  • Dictionary and Thesaurus - Dictionary.com
  • Poynt
  • Vayyoo
• Latin America Finalists:
  • Navita Sports
  • Vlingo Plus - Voice App
  • Waze (LATAM)
• Europe / Middle East / Africa Finalists
  • CamCard(Business Card Reader)
  • n-tv mobil
  • UbiNav EU
• Asia Pacific Finalists
  • Forum for BlackBerry
  • Love Indonesia
  • Ramadhan Pocket Guide

The 4th round of judging takes place today so we'll be winding down the apps once again. Soon a champion will be crowned and we'll know which Super App stands above the others. Hit the link below for more on the Super Apps Challenge.

• More information on the BlackBerry Developers Challenge >>

The BlackBerry Partners Fund has selected the regional winners of the 2010 BlackBerry Super Apps Challenge. This years challenge brought forth hundreds of applications and has now been broken down for everyone to view.

"The response we received in this year's Challenge has been tremendous, and demonstrates the high level of interest by the developer community in the BlackBerry platform," said Kevin Talbot, Co-Managing Partner, BlackBerry Partners Fund. "We were also very impressed with how well the applications that were submitted incorporate 'Super App' characteristics, or the ability to seamlessly share information and interact with both native BlackBerry and third party applications."

With all the applications that have been submitted, the list is rather large and certainly worth a look through. A lot of great applications are highlighted there and some of which, you may never heard of. Be sure to check out the full list and press release via the BlackBerry Partners Fund website.

• Click Here To View The Full List Of Apps And Press Release>>

Back during Mobile World Congress, Research In Motion launched quite a few community orientated programs. One of those programs was the BlackBerry Developer Groups which has been gaining members at quite a steady pace. With the BlackBerry Developers Conference coming up soon, we figured we'd remind you all of some of the benefits related to being a part of a BlackBerry Developer Group.

By becoming a member of a BlackBerry Developer Group, you can:

• Meet a local community with shared interests in learning, networking and support for BlackBerry development platforms.
• Receive platform and program updates from Research In Motion® (RIM®).
• Get access to exclusive discounts for Developer Certification Exams.
• Receive exclusive discounts to select BlackBerry® Developer Events and Conferences.

Research In Motion is looking to establish developer groups all across the world. So, if you are interested in any way with BlackBerry development and want to help start a group with in your local area, you can find all the details over to the BlackBerry Developers Group page. To find groups that may already exist in your area, you can also check out the Developer Community page on Facebook. If you're already part of a group then we look forward to meeting you all in San Francisco on Sept 27th-30 as we'll be there for DevCon 2010.

2010 BlackBerry Developer Super Apps Challenge - September 6th Deadline is Approaching! This year the BlackBerry Partners Fund is looking for anyone who is building super apps. Be it an application which you feel is already a super app or a new app you are currently working on. They want to see it. The challenge is set. The stakes are over $1.5 Million worth of prizes and includes developer services from leading industry partners, featured placements on BlackBerry App World, marketing programs from Research In Motion and much more. So what are you waiting for? If you are a BlackBerry developer who is delivering super apps, you'll want to take on the BlackBerry Developer Fund's 2010 Super Apps Developer Challenge. The full list of contest prizes, eligibility and requirements are available on the BlackBerry Partners Fund website, just click the link.

• Learn More About The 2010 Super Apps Developer Challenge >>

We're just under three months away from the start of the 2010 BlackBerry Developer Conference, so I figured the timing was right to get a little reminder up here. If you're thinking about going, you can jump over to the dev con website to learn more about all the fun and games and parties  (and developer sessions that'll help take your apps to the next level of course!) that are planned for this year's event.

2010 BlackBerry Developer Super Apps Challenge: This year the BlackBerry Partners Fund is looking for anyone who is building super apps. Be it an application which you feel is already a super app or a new app you are currently working on. They want to see it. The challenge is set. The stakes are over $1.5 Million worth of prizes and includes developer services from leading industry partners, featured placements on BlackBerry App World, marketing programs from Research In Motion and much more. So what are you waiting for? If you are a BlackBerry developer who is delivering super apps, you'll want to take on the BlackBerry Developer Fund's 2010 Super Apps Developer Challenge. The full list of contest prizes, eligibility and requirements are available on the BlackBerry Partners Fund website, just click the link.

• Learn More About The 2010 Super Apps Developer Challenge >>

While at the BlackBerry Developer Conference last month we all got a look at a new BlackBerry music app that is forthcoming called Kik from the folks who released Unsynced. Kik was part of the BlackBerry Developer Challenge at DevCon where they announced they will be launching their application offering up DRM-Free MP3 downloads right to your BlackBerry smartphone. In addition to being DRM free, Kik will also include three free plays of any song which you download, so if you just want to quickly listen to a song you can get it out of your system and move on if you do so wish with no purchase obligation or if you wanted to keep the song, you can listen to ad's and it's yours for free. 

Yesterday, those who signed up to be notified of Kiks release were emailed a newsletter outlining the details of the Kik launch. The newsletter, confirmed a launch timeframe of January for Canada and the US to follow not long after the Canadian release. And it looks as though we'll be getting some sort of desktop application to go a long with our BlackBerry version as well. Excited to see what Kik has in store for us all.

• Sign Up For More Notifications Of Kik's Release Via Their Site>>