Another Boost for RIM

It has been announced this week that Research In Motion (RIM) has received new apps, totaling 15,000 in anticipation of the launch of its Blackberry 10 platform; all this in the space of three days. This seems to suggest that the company has been successful in encouraging developers to build apps for the new mobile OS.

RIM's "Port-a-Thon" events requested that developers take applications not readily compatible with Blackberry 10 and "port" them to the new platform. Over the space of 37 hours, legacy Blackberry apps or apps developed for Google's Android OS were ported over.

The company wrote: "When we decided to hold a series of Port-A-Thons to help our developer community port their apps over to BlackBerry 10, we had no idea how wildly successful they would be. This past weekend's Port-A-Thons brought in more than 15,000 apps! It has been truly inspiring to see so much excitement and support for BlackBerry 10."

Developers will be offered at least $100 for each ported app approved by the RIM team, and will be posted on the Blackberry App World storefront. RIM has not yet decided on the number of approved apps.

The Blackberry 10 will launch at the end of this month, and will bring in a new line of Blackberry smartphones. This has been termed a "make-or-break" move for RIM who have recently been finding it difficult to compete against incumbent market players Apple and Google.

The RIM user base has fallen rapidly over the last few years; this is the result, most specifically, of the increase in iPhone and devices running Google Android OS. Around 5.3 percent of the worldwide smartphone market in the third quarter was accounted for by the Blackberry platform, according to Gartner; a great contrast compared to Apple's 13.9 percent and Android's 72.4 percent.

Despite RIM's troubles, some partners and investors are certain that Blackberry 10 can turn things around for the company.

The Connecticut-based RIM partner and owner of solution provider Canaan Technology, David Felton, wrote: "The BlackBerry 10 [platform] is innovative, and while I don't think you will see folks waiting on line at midnight for its release, I do think you will see a lot of people jumping ship."

There was a 10 percent rise on RIM's stock this week to $14.95, the highest in 11 months.

Additionally, RIM was received approval from Visa to continue with its Secure Element Manager solution; mobile payments can be made on Blackberry smartphones via near-field communication technology. (CY) Link