Research In Motion (RIM) has opened a submission portal for independent developers to submit applications, ahead of the launch of BlackBerry App World V1.1. The new version of BlackBerry App World ver1.1 will be available to BlackBerry customers in France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Austria, Luxembourg, Republic of Ireland, Belgium, Portugal, the Netherlands and the Channel Islands from this Friday, 31 July 2009.
BlackBerry App World V1.1 will be accessible in a number of different languages, including English, German, French, Italian and Spanish. Customers will be able to use BlackBerry App World to discover, search and find third-party applications written in their chosen language and relevant to their BlackBerry before downloading onto their device.
To submit an app for inclusion in the BlackBerry App World, developers need to log on to the submission site and follow the step-by-step process. The new vendor portal enables developers to upload multiple versions of their applications in different languages and for different devices; enter localized descriptions; select country and carrier availability; and report results on a country-by-country basis. Registered developers can submit their applications directly, and when approved, choose when to have their application(s) posted in BlackBerry App World. Once an application is uploaded, developers will also be able to access a link that goes directly to their own App World page, which will provide details of the apps they have published.
The BlackBerry platform provides developers with access to a user base of over 28.5 million BlackBerry subscribers worldwide, and also offers a revenue-share model that gives 80% of any application sales back to the developer.
Additionally, applications submitted to BlackBerry App World by the end of September 2009 are in with the chance of winning a prize worth $100,000 (indlusing a cash prize of $75,000). In the run up to the BlackBerry Developer Conference, which takes place from 9 – 12 November in San Francisco, the BlackBerry Partners Fund is running a competition to find the most innovative applications created for BlackBerry. Each month four applications will be shortlisted to be showcased in the BlackBerry App World carousel for one week each as well at the BlackBerry Developer Conference.
You can find information, tutorials and Software Development Kits (SDKs) to help developers create applications for BlackBerry here.