May 8th, 2007
New BlackBerry application development tool announced
At the BlackBerry-sponsored Wireless Enterprise Symposium that starts today in Orlando, BlackBerry is showing a forthcoming development tool called BlackBerry Plug-in for Microsoft Video Studio.
Available as a free download later this year, this tool will enable BlackBerry developers to work within the .NET programming environment to create wireless applications for BlackBerry devices. It will be integratable within the existing BlackBerry Mobile Data System- which is already used by BlackBerry developers for this purpose.
The BlackBerry Plug-in for Microsoft Visual Studio is being positioned by BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion as offering the following advantages:
Familiar Development Experience - The plug-in integrates within thefamiliar Visual Studio development environment, and allows developers to visually design, implement and debug applications for BlackBerry smartphones.
Leverages Developer Skill Sets - Customers and system integrators can leverage their developer skill sets in order to reduce costs and accelerate the development of applications for the BlackBerry platform.
Seamless Wireless Connectivity - Leverages the inherent security, manageability and efficient wireless connectivity of the BlackBerry Enterprise Solution.
Platform Interoperability - Allows enterprises to create rich client applications for BlackBerry smartphones that interoperate with .NET-based systems via Web Services.
Rich Client Application Functionality - Provides the ability to create rich client applications with a flexible user interface, offline data storage, asynchronous push, and secure data access.
Enterprise-Class Security and Manageability - Applications developed will leverage the same security architecture of BlackBerry Enterprise Server. IT departments will benefit from simplified management and centralized control of their wireless deployments with reduced administrative overhead and a lower total cost of ownership.
Russell Shaw is an enterprise computing journalist, analyst and author based in Portland, Oregon. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
