BlackBerry World: RIM woos developers with revenue guarantee

ORLANDO: Research in Motion is fighting back against claims that it is losing developer support, citing a growing number of applications submitted to its online store, while asserting that BlackBerry 10 provides the broadest support for developers to build applications and even offering them a revenue guarantee for BlackBerry 10 apps.

During a special session for developers at the Blackberry World conference, RIM vice president of developer relations Alec Saunders claimed that interest in BlackBerry is "skyrocketing", as developers look to the potential of the upcoming BlackBerry 10 platform.

"BlackBerry 10 is the most open platform today. You don't have to be one of the hordes of Android developers eking out a living from Adsense anymore," he commented, promising that RIM was committed to investing $100 million in building up the BlackBerry 10 ecosystem.

RIM's promise on openness is being delivered in a wide range of development choices that the new platform will support. The firm announced a beta toolkit today containing the native software development kit (SDK) for C/C++, along with the WebWorks SDK for HTML5, and another for development using Adobe's AIR.

RIM's development support is similar to that of Microsoft, which is offering developers a choice of programming languages with which to build Metro apps for Windows 8.

Coincidentally, RIM also announced today a plug-in for Microsoft's Visual Studio developer suite, which will enable users to target BlackBerry 10 and is set to be available as a closed beta within a few weeks.

As part of its incentives for developers to get building BlackBerry 10 apps, RIM also promised that each developer who publishes a quality application on BlackBerry App World would earn at least $10,000 via a revenue guarantee scheme.

"We will write you a cheque for the difference if your app doesn't earn $10,000 in the first year," Saunders said, although there is the proviso that it must be certified and earn at least $1,000 through the author's own efforts.

RIM also said it is creating a certification programme that will enable developers to demonstrate to potential clients that they are qualified to get the job done when bidding for contracts, and is also building up a core of developer relations staff to support developers around the globe