Research In Motion has unveiled a new services platform for developers that will enable them to streamline business processes and build highly responsive, location-aware, revenue-generating applications for BlackBerry smartphones. The new services platform will offer advertising, payment, content push and new location services. The new BlackBerry Advertising Service will enable developers to integrate advertising into their BlackBerry applications, helping them generate revenue and simplifying the business of mobile advertising. With the BlackBerry Advertising Service, RIM plans to provide developers with access to a large pool of quality and innovative ad units from Jumptap, Lat49, Millennial Media, Navteq, 1020 Placecast, Quattro Wireless and Sympatico.ca. Examples of this deep integration between ads and applications will include the ability to initiate a call from an ad, add a calendar entry or contact entry from an ad, and directly link to an application in BlackBerry App World from an ad. The service will also include real-time, detailed, consolidated reporting of advertising across ad networks, including ad impressions, clicks, conversions and earnings, as well as integration into the Omniture Online Marketing Suite for more advanced analytics. BlackBerry Advertising Service and a software development kit are planned to be available in the first half of 2010.
A new BlackBerry Payment Service from RIM will present BlackBerry developers with new opportunities to monetise applications by selling digital content such as premium content, monthly or annual subscriptions, and additional levels or upgrades for games and other entertainment applications from within their applications. BlackBerry Payment Service and an SDK are expected to be available in mid 2010. BlackBerry Push Service, which was first made exclusively available to BlackBerry Alliance Programme members earlier this year, will be made generally available to registered developers in the first half of 2010. Adding to the GPS capabilities already supported on the BlackBerry Application Platform today, RIM will introduce three new location-based services for developers to build location-aware applications for BlackBerry smartphones. The three new location-based services include cell site geolocation, reverse geocoding and travel time. The geolocation service is planned to be available in the first half of 2010. RIM is introducing a new reverse geocoding service that converts geolocation coordinates to a specific address for use in BlackBerry applications. Reverse geocoding is available with BlackBerry smartphones running BlackBerry OS 5.0 or higher. A reverse geocoding API is available with the BlackBerry Java Software Development Kit 5.0 which is available in beta. RIM will also launch a new travel time service. Using a API call, developers will be able to incorporate estimated travel time within their applications for almost any destination in the US and Canada. The travel time calculations will be based on distance, speed limits and aggregated traffic conditions. The travel time service is expected to be available in the first half of 2010.