14 DAY TRIAL // On Monday, Canadian mobile phone maker Research In Motion announced a series of changes brought to the BlackBerry App World, aimed at offering developers a better experience when it comes to signing up for the portal, or to coming up with applications for the BlackBerry operating system.
Apparently, the handset vendor is set to make even more changes in the future, so that developers would find building and submitting applications to the App World a pleasant process.
The first change that should make developers happy is the fact that they would no longer need to submit a notarized proof of identity for the distribution of apps via the BlackBerry App World.
Tyler Lessard, VP Developer Relations and Alliances, RIM, explains that this was somehow of a deal breaker for many developers, and that the company decided to remove this barrier.
“You still have to submit proof of identity, but now that can be as simple as faxing or emailing a copy of your driver’s license,” Lessard notes in a blog post.
“Our developers can still choose to submit notarized proof of identity if they don’t wish to use their driver’s license as ID. Please note that businesses will still need to send in official documentation to validate their company information (ex. Articles of Incorporation, Business License, etc.).”
However, it seems that this is merely an interim solution, and that the company plans on coming up with a more robust long-term solution. A fully automated online process is in development, focused on all the needed privacy and security options.
Last year, RIM announced a special offer through which developers had the chance to win a free BlackBerry PlayBook tablet PC, and now the company unveiled that the deadline for the promotion was extended to to March 31st.
According to Lessard, RIM is set to offer all developers the possibility to win a tablet PC, as long as they have an app built using the Adobe AIR SDK or the BlackBerry WebWorks SDK for BlackBerry PlayBook submitted to the software portal.
“We’re already testing and approving apps so please keep them coming to ensure you’re ready for launch,” Tyler Lessard concluded.