RIM’s first conference exclusively for the developers of the BlackBerry platform begins tomorrow, and yours truly is on scene getting ready for the big day. The show will run until Wednesday night, and we’ll be having an extra-special BB DevCon edition of The Signal podcast at the end of the week. So, what’s the big deal about the BlackBerry Developer Conference? I mean, it’s just a bunch of hackers getting together, right? Well, here are a few things that might be worth your attention, even if you’re not among the BlackBerry hardcore.
- Hands-on BlackBerry Storm coverage: Yep, the Storm is getting into our grubby fingertips once the Mobility Pavillion opens on Tuesday, and we’ll be showing you if this whole ClickThru business is just a gimmick to set the BlackBerry 9500 apart from your average full-touchscreen device, or if it is, in fact, a new step in the right direction.
- Mike Lazaridis keynote: With Apple and Google both horning in on the preloaded app store strategy, you have to wonder how RIM’s co-CEO will be changing his game to meet the demands of developers. Maybe the Storm will have one…?
- Contests: Not only will the BlackBerry Partners Fund be making their picks from the top submissions of their contest, but there’s also the BlackBerry Cool 15 competition happening as well. Lots of great new applications will be getting their time in the spotlight, and may just decide to swing over to your platform if there’s the demand…
- Developers: Wouldn’t be much of a devcon without ’em, eh? It’ll be great to see not only what exactly third-party BlackBerry developers are working on (especially on that new touchscreen), but also get their impressions of the show, about the platform, and maybe hear a thing or two about what they would like to change.
- Tomfoolery/shananigans: We all know programmers are a raucous lot – hopefully we’ll have a few fun nights that are just as good as the ones from the Wireless Enterprise Symposium. Those dancers might be hard to find, though…