There are few products in the market that have redefined perceptions and language so drastically. As soon as we say Blackberry', the image that pops is not of a lush black, juicy fruit but that of a shining smart phone that promises to do everything sophisticated and stylish, with utmost sophistication and style. These perceptions owe a lot to the 28 million strong customer-bases of BlackBerry smart phones, a number which is increasing rapidly with every passing day. The utility, functionality, state-of-the-art features of these phones are a major reason of this cult following. Also, the blackberry application programming also contributes to this phenomenon with more and more customers using them to constantly redefine and reinvent these phones. These applications ensure that the BlackBerry handset never ceases to be interesting and always remain relevant to their users. And, the modern day BlackBerry web applications provide them access to an unlimited repository of information and entertainment on Internet.
Things to be kept in mind for BlackBerry application development
As far as BlackBerry applications are concerned JAVA is the way to go. This is because the modern day BlackBerry handsets only supports non-browser applications developed on JAVA platform. Other programming languages like C, C++ are redundant because they are not compatible with BlackBerry phones.
For BlackBerry application development, developers have to rely on JAVA Micro Edition, also known as JAVA ME. This is a stripped down version of the programming language albeit with different class libraries. These class libraries are redesigned so that their excess flab can be cut down and the class libraries of reduced size can become device compatible.
However, Blackberries provide various APIs to increase the functionality of JAVA ME. Various applications are developed using these APIs and JAVA ME.
The significance of a BlackBerry phone is that the users are not just stuck with their handsets without any backend support. Blackberry phones are also famous for the services provided through BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) and BlackBerry Internet Services (BIS) that support email access and browsing experiences. For developing applications it is important to understand their capabilities and how they interact with the whole BlackBerry infrastructure.
