RIM held a cozy little developer panel at Mobile World Congress, where VP of Developer Relations, Alec Saunders, got folks from Zinio, Marmalade and Pacemaker to talk about precisely how awesome it was developing for BlackBerry. While most of the conversation was predictably positive, the Q&A with press was a bit more critical. I made sure to voice a few questions that were raised by you guys and fellow CB staffers. 

The biggest issue raised on the developer front, especially since support for Android apps launched in the BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0, is how RIM intends to attract, promote and retain quality developers. Supporting Android introduces a few problems; one that was brought up in the Q&A is piracy. There have apparently been many attempts to submit apps that have been blatantly stolen from other developers.  Luckily, RIM is committing to diligence on this front, and has already caught a couple of shady dealers. Alec said "We don't want the 'wild west' of the Android Market in App World"-- which is reassuring. 

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Remember the new Porsche concept car QNX was showing off at CES? You might have heard that they added some cloud integration, and were showing it off at Mobile World Congress 2012. Of course, we had to check this out for ourselves. 

NewBay is an online content locker where you can store your music, pictures, video, and other files in the cloud for access just about anywhere. RIM acquired them in October, so we're still waiting to see the service bundled in with BlackBerry devices like iCloud. In the meantime, NewBay has partnered up with fellow acquiree, QNX, so that the car could access that content through the primary dash and the rear-mounted BlackBerry PlayBooks. Of course, this is just a tech demo, but it gives a very clear idea of the kinds of products RIM has coming down the pipe. 

Unfortunately, Wi-Fi at the show was pretty rough, nevermind attempting to use the QNX Porsche's integrated cellular connection, so they had to hook up the car with an ethernet cable to get everything running. The guys at NewBay and QNX apparently only took a week or two to pull off this partnership, so it's understandable that video sharing wasn't fully implemented yet.

Considering how many companies RIM has been snatching up over the last couple of years, I'm interested to see other partnerships between RIM subsidiaries pan out into real products, and not just neat concepts. 

We've seen quite a few demos from RIM this week at Mobile World Congress and while some of the stuff we saw was just concept ideas, one thing they've been showing off is already available and that is the media server capability built into BlackBerry 7.1. We're not entirely too sure that what RIM's angle is here. They've never officially announced the media server capability in 7.1, in fact -- it's not even in the currently available carrier releases. We only caught wind of it thanks to a heavy set of OS leaks that showed up previously. Either way, RIM has been showing it off at Mobile World Congress and if you want that capability now, you'll have to install a leaked OS.

The second concept demo from RIM's Sweden branch at Mobile World Congress 2012 is PitchRocket. This is both a PlayBook and smartphone app that help you quickly create visually-impressive presentations. Through the phone, you can create slide text and insert images, while the slide itself is dynamically created on the PlayBook based on whichever preset style you've selected. There would also be the possibility of user-created, and maybe even sellable presets to expand the core imagery. 

While PitchRocket is certainly closer to the realm of reality than Confetti, it's easy to see these features folded into the BlackBerry Presenter and Slideshow to Go. The graphics are very snazzy, but I have a feeling that unless these are exportable into the PPT format, you might have some issues down the line if you need to share materials with anyone. As the name implies, I could see something like this getting a lot of use from hurried salespeople who get thrust into meetings at the last second.

PitchRocket is a neat concept, and not entirely in the realm of fanciful tech demos that never become a reality. Anyone interested?  

RIM's Sweden branch, previously known as The Astonishing Tribe, has made a big splash at Mobile World Congress 2012. One of two new concepts that they're showing off is called Confetti. It's a simple collaboration app that lets you easily transfer files between BlackBerry PlayBooks with a lot more flair than you'd expect. By mounting a webcam on the cieling, the PlayBooks are recognized, assigned a color, and positioned in relation to one another. Before a meeting starts, there's a casual game of virtual catch that you play by tapping your screen's dot. It shoots a streaming of jagged, funky pixels over to another member, and you keep bumping it around until the meeting is ready to start.

You launch the meeting with the top-down swipe, and now you can get to work. Little bubbles show up around the edge of your screen, each representing someone in the meeting, and they change position as the owner moves around. You can use the system menu to pull in images and documents, which can then be dragged to one of these edge bubbles to transfer the file over the local Wi-Fi network. You can also broadcast the file to the other users by pinch-zooming, or using a special gesture, shunt the image out to a projector. You can still share files directly with other users during this exposition mode by moving two BlackBerry PlayBooks close to one another.

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We know you love to keep up to date on all the latest and greatest BlackBerry news, and that is why you are here, right? Some of the fine folks of the Mobile Nations team have made the journey over to Barcelona to bring us the very best of the Mobile World Congress news, live! While we will be posting as much as we possibly can on the blogs, following them on other social networks can give you a sneak peak of what's to come, and some extra behind the scenes action. Whether you prefer Twitter or Google+, give these guys a follow, or a circle, and let's get ready for the mayhem to take place.

• Phil Nickinson - Twitter | Google+
• Alex Dobie - Twitter | Google+
• Simon Sage - Twitter | Google+
• Daniel Rubino - Twitter | Google+
• CrackBerry - Twitter | Google+

Of course, keep it locked here for all of our coverage of MWC 2012. Let the madness begin.

CrackBerry is alive and well in Barcelona! I'm here at Mobile World Congress 2012 to see what RIM is up to, particularly following up on the recent launch of BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0. Tomorrow will have a bunch of news (be sure to follow Android Central for the bulk of it), but we aren't expecting anything explosive from RIM; we already got our treat with the PlayBook update. 

Regardless, I'll be talking with a bunch of RIM folks at MWC, not only about the latest version of their operating system and its implications for BB10, but also RIM's progress in international markets, and what they're doing to win over the hearts of developers.  Have any thoughts for our glorious creators of BlackBerry? Leave a comment, and I'll pass on your questions, concerns, and praise! You can follow our coverage at this handy tag. 

Yesterday, as Mobile World Congress was winding down Erik Huggers, BBC Director of Future Media & Technology held a keynote speech declaring the BBC was taking it's content to the smartphone market. Indicating that BBC users were also smartphone users and the BBC was dedicated to providing those users with the content they wanted on their mobile devices. Starting with the iPhone, the BBC will be releasing multiple applications including BBC News and BBC Sport among others.

The demo shown off was for the iPhone and will arrive in early April with the BlackBerry and Android versions to come later in the year. Huggers also sated that the BBC was also working on dedicated iPlayer applications as well which could deliver great video content but also made metnion that the iPlayer services are currently available now in a mobile optimized fashion of which, the BlackBerry 9700 and Storm 2 are supported for those in the UK. Great to see the BBC recognize the simple fact that mobile subscribers is massive I just hope they also realize that market lives beyond the UK and considers widespread releases.

• Read The Full Press Release Via The BBC Press Office Website>>

Shortly after RIM's Co-Founder and Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis gave his general assembly keynote at Mobile World Congress yesterday (view that video), he jumped over to App Planet to talk to the developers in attendance at BlackBerry Developer day.

In addition to rallying the BlackBerry developer troops with some BlackBerry facts and figures, Mike gave some advice to developers about remembering to look for opportunities in enterprise in addition to embracing the growing demand for consumer apps. Makes sense. Whereas consumers are looking for apps to be cheap (and preferably free) businesses are willing to pay for apps that add value to their organizations. In fact, just a little while ago at MWC here I ran into an individual from the IMGA (International Mobile Gaming Awards) team who gave me the stat that apparently only 9% of iPhone App developers are actually making money right now. The vast majority are still looking at iPhone apps as an investment vs. as a money maker, which adds some validation to this notion.

One other stat that Lazaridis made note of that REALLY caught my attention is that RIM makes 2 BlackBerry Smartphones every second. Multiply that out. That's 2 x 60 x 60 x 24 = 172,800 phones manufactured each day. That would equal 15.5 million phones in a quarter. RIM's official stat was that they shipped over 10 million phones in their last quarter. My guess is that Mike Lazaridis rounded up slightly to the two figure (or maybe RIM doesn't manufacturer quite 24/7), but either way, RIM is pumping out phones like crazy. In comparison, Google's CEO Eric Schmidt yesterday during an MWC address made note that 60,000 android-based phones are being sold each day and that number is growing. All in all, it really goes to show that the adoption of smartphones in the marketplace is ramping up as is the competition. It's going to be an interesting couple of years ahead!

We've been hearing for the past week now that Research In Motion was cooking up something good for Mobile World Congress. Alot of information floating around about a BIS and BES "alternative" or something that mixes the both as a free option to users that are already on BIS but still want a BES infrastructure of sorts. Seems, Boy Genius has been hearing the same stuff as well.

Anyone remember BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express? Well, going by some of the info we've been hearing and putting that along with what Boy Genius has heard. It seems as though it may be re-launched as a free and unlimited BlackBerry Enterprise Server for BIS users. Which would of course offer OTA synching, back ups and more while no longer requiring a dedicated BlackBerry Enterprise Server.

Research In Motion has long been thought to not want to offer this sort of thing to its users. Simply based on the fact it could eat into Enterprise sales but I think they simply need to look beyond that and come up with an in between solution now. And maybe, this will be it. Remember nothing about this is 100% confirmed and information surrounding it has been slightly fragmented but, I guess we'll find out soon enough. Good move by RIM? Let us know in the comments what ya think.

Mobile World Congress is set to start in just a mere 5 days in Barcelona. With the event running from February 15th-18th, we're sure to hear lots coming from the mobile industry in general. One thing to note however, is that on February 16th, Mike Lazaridis, Research In Motion Co-CEO will be keynoting at the App Planet event. In addition to that keynote, Mike will also be leading the way for the BlackBerry Developer Day proceedings as well. The BlackBerry Developer Day will be a time for those in attendance to take part in break out sessions, hands on labs and take some time to get information from the experts. Kevin will be on location in Barcelona covering the events so we'll be sure to keep you all updated with the happenings. Here's to hoping we see some cool stuff before WES 2010.

• Click Here For More Information On BlackBerry Developer Day / App Planet>>

10 Event Passes to be won! Valued at €599 each!! Contest Details below...

Mobile World Congress is the biggest mobile show on the planet, and MWC 2010 is coming up fast with the event kicking off on February 15th. RIM is going to have a big presence at this show and are a sponsor of App Planet, a new event held within MWC, that will focus on the mobile app space. Tuesday, February 16th is BlackBerry Developer Day at App Planet. Sort of like a mini-DevCon, it's going to be a unique opportunity to meet and network with the leading solution developers and architects of BlackBerry solutions. The day will combine keynote speakers with high-value breakout sessions covering topics from technical insights to commercial expertise. Be sure to click the links in the above paragraph for more details. 

BlackBerry Developer Day Contest Details

We have TEN Mobile World Congress event passes to give away to ten BlackBerry Developers out there. These are general admittance tickets to MWC, valued at €599 each, that'll get you into MWC and of course BlackBerry Developer day. We want these tickets going to developers who are going to attend the BlackBerry Developer day, so to enter for your chance to win, here's what you have to do:

- Send an email to contests @ crackberry.com. Make the subject "BB Developer Day Contest"
- Tell us who you are: your company, location, apps developed, why you want to attend, etc.
- Deadline is this Sunday at Midnight PST.

That's it. We'll see how the response is and pick ten lucky winners. Keep in mind we're just giving away the MWC event passes here, so travel to and accomodations in Barcelona are on you. However, I personally will be attending MWC, so if you win we'll be sure to have a little meet-up and the drinks are on me! We want to get the winners picked and registered asap, so we're ending this contest this Sunday night at midnight PST. HURRY!! And good luck.  Hope to see you in Barcelona next month!