Following up on the announcement earlier this week of RIM's new Built for BlackBerry program, I stopped by the Built for BlackBerry section of the BlackBerry booth where some of the new 3rd party accessories from Built for BlackBerry vendors were on display. Check out the video above for a quick look!

I have to say, I'm really excited for the Built for BlackBerry program. Historically, when a new BlackBerry device model hits the market -- especially one with a new form factor -- we often have to wait several weeks or even months before we see cases and accessories become available from our favorite 3rd party manufaucturers. With third party manufacturers getting new devices at the same time as consumers do, this delay in availability is inevitable. With the new Built for BlackBerry program, RIM is working with select partners to provide early access to new devices. So when the BlackBerry PlayBook hits the market for example, in addition to OEM BlackBerry brand accessories being available, you'll also be able to pick up products from other BFB partners including Case-mate, Speck, Incipio, Otterbox, Tru Protection, iGrip, Vaja, Dicota and Trexta. There are lots of good names here and I'm sure we'll see more companies join the program with time.

Of course, we already stock a number of products from these companies in our ShopCrackBerry.com store, and we're going to work hard to get any missing ones in stock asap. Now we just need the PlayBook to get released!

Read more