Research in Motion long owned the smartphones for business segment with its BlackBerry line of devices, but developers are moving to Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android platform in droves, particularly, but not limited to, the consumer side.
As EnterpriseMobileToday reports, RIM has moved to upgrade its developer tools in a bid to make creating programs faster and give devs better access to features and software built in to the popular line of BlackBerry smartphones.
Research In Motion has released updates to its Java and Web development tools for its popular BlackBerry line of smartphones.
Heading the list are a BlackBerry Java plug-in for Eclipse v1.1, BlackBerry Web plug-in v2.0 and a new BlackBerry Java software development kit (SDK) version 5.0 that includes more than 20,000 APIs.
RIM said the new tools will help developers quickly and easily build Web-based BlackBerry widgets or Java applications that leverage the unique benefits of the BlackBerry Application Platform and share information across core BlackBerry and third-party applications.
The news comes as RIM is facing fierce competition in the smartphone sector. Apple’s iPhone has grabbed the crown for coolness among smartphone makers and a range of devices based on Google’s Android software are gaining traction both in the consumer and enterprise markets.