The most eye-catching of the many sessions at RIM’s Wireless Enterprise Symposium was the introduction of BlackBerry widgets, which are built entirely on web-based languages. This is the horn Palm is busy tooting for WebOS, but RIM’s take will be a little different. They’re essentially working on a hybrid system which will allow developers to write apps entirely in JavaScript (and other web coding languages), but have them packaged in the BlackBerry operating system’s native Java. This makes a lower barrier for entry for developers who wouldn’t otherwise be able to work in Java, and could result in more efficiently-running apps since some of the heavy lifting will be left to the web. This will present a whole new class of applications in the BlackBerry App World, that is once devs get the tools for Eclipse and Visual Studio, which will be made available shortly.
As far as when you can get started on making your own BlackBerry widgets, it’s safe to assume we’ll see more details around the BlackBerry Developer Conference in November. For a closer look at Java widgets on BlackBerry, check the WES presentation slides.
Thanks Josep!