The future of RIM's BlackBerry platform doesn't include BlackBerry Java, the company has decided.
While a goal of BlackBerry BBX, RIM's new "future mass application platform," is that devs will be able to write once and deploy everywhere, this won't the case for those working in Java.
"After further investigation we decided against supporting BlackBerry Java on BlackBerry BBX," Alec Saunders, VP of developer relations and ecosystem development wrote in a post on the Inside BlackBerry Developer Blog. "We concluded that the BlackBerry Java experience on the BlackBerry PlayBook platform would ultimately not satisfy us, our development community, or our customers as the platform continues to evolve.
RIM introduced BBX at its DevCon Americas 2011 event last week (CP: RIM BBX OS will marry BlackBerry and QNX and run on everything). A combination of its BlackBerry OS and QNX platforms, BBX is to be equally adept on smartphones as tablets.
"Everything you build for BBX will run on everything we offer in the marketplace," RIM Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis told DevCon attendees.
Is the Java SDK to fade into the dusk, as the sun rises on a new era at RIM?
"Absolutely not," said Saunders. RIM will continue to support its BlackBerry Java developer community, he explained, which still has an enormous community for its apps — 70 million smartphones currently running the BlackBerry OS, to be more exact, and RIM only just introduced its first BlackBerry 7 smartphones, which it expects to "sizably increase" that figure. Plus, there are also more BlackBerry 7 devices on the way.
BlackBerry users are also known for using the heck out their phones. "Even when upgrading to a newer model," Saunders wrote, "older models are often not taken out of service, but are instead passed along to others."
BlackBerry Jam — a new program where devs can collaborate and talk shop, also introduced last week — is a sign of RIM's commitment to its development community, added Saunders. "Expect enhancements to continue on the BlackBerry Java SDK, making it easier and faster to produce money-making apps for in-market smartphone running the BlackBerry operating system."
