With all the news from the event, one thing was clear: RIM desperately wants developers to build for Blackberry and is now actively enticing them with a slew of new offerings designed to win them over.

One of the biggest announcements made yesterday involved the launch of new APIs (application programming interfaces) for third-party developers. The APIs offered include a new advertising service, a payments service, location services, and the general availability of Blackberry's own Push service, which had never before been made available to outside developers. What this means is that developers now have the tools to build applications that rival those already available on many other smartphones today, most notably, the iPhone. In some cases, the Blackberry APIs even offer something the iPhone doesn't such as is the case with the payments service which allows you to pay for apps on your next mobile phone bill.

The location services include a geo-location API that will use cell tower triangulation as a backup for when GPS fails, making location-based applications more reliable. There are also services for determining your phone's location on a map and another that helps estimate travel time for driving directions. It's obvious to see how these types of services could help build new and useful mobile applications for the Blackberry.

Also revealed was the new Blackberry Advertising Service, an offering designed to help developers generate revenue from their mobile applications. Through partnerships with ad networks, developers can easily integrate mobile advertising within their apps and track the ad's effectiveness with an included analytics package. It's even possible for these ads to access the phone's core features. For example, you'll be able to initiate a phone call from an ad or add a calendar entry from an ad. That's an innovation that many other mobile handhelds are not yet offering. These types of interactions should have a clear appeal to the many business-minded corporate Blackberry users who are often more interested in getting things done than they are with playing mindless games.

That being said, the game-playing crowd isn't being ignored either. Also announced was support for OpenGL ES, a graphics API for 3D games. While this doesn't quite put the Blackberry on par with what's available for iPhone, it's a move that's designed to keep Blackberry at least somewhat competitive in the field of mobile gaming.

Other announcements included new support for mobile developers looking to build applications with the languages and tools they already know and use. Java developers will get a new GUI builder that lets them create mobile interfaces using a WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) editor with drag-and-drop capabilities. Adobe developers will be able to use the company's Flash Platform technology and Adobe Creative Suite tools to build rich, mobile apps as well. This is another area where Apple falls short - Flash still doesn't work on the iPhone. Instead Flash developers have to use special Adobe software to convert apps written in Flash to a format that's iPhone-compatible. Also, designers can now use Adobe Photoshop and Dreamweaver to build both themes and widgets using the new Blackberry Theme Studio 5.0.

Apps, Apps, Apps!

In addition to the RIM-specific announcements, a number of companies also used the Developer Conference as the launching pad for new Blackberry applications and related announcements.

Ebay, for example, unveiled a brand-new mobile app that lets you search for items, view descriptions and photos, bid, watch items, and more. It will also tap into Blackberry's now open Push services API to deliver real-time alerts as to when you're outbid on an auction. Considering that the company has already generated $400 million this year using eBay's iPhone application, this new Blackberry app should be a big hit among mobile users when it launches next month.

The popular location-based social networking service called Loopt also revealed a major update for Blackberry which includes something the iPhone can't offer due to the nature of the device: it runs in the background to continually update your location in real-time. This is one of the iPhone's biggest flaws according to critics, since so many mobile applications take advantage of always-on connectivity to track your location for the benefit of specific mobile apps. In Loopt's case, the app knows where you are in order to show you nearby friends and local businesses which you can rate. It even offers mobile coupons for the retailers and restaurants in your vicinity.

Finally, Xobni, the Outlook email search plugin that discovers social connections in your inbox, revealed their new Blackberry application, too. As with the desktop software, Xobni for Blackberry will let you find contacts in your address book quickly using Xobni Rank technology which returns results ranked based on frequency and freshness of your communication. The application will be made available sometime early next year.

The Blackberry Developer Conference continues until Thursday, so stay tuned for even more news over the coming days.

We predict that it won't be long until Apple overtakes RIM as the leader in this hotly contested (and vitally important, in context of the Web's shift from PC to phones) market.

39% of the 4,255 people polled by ChangeWave Research said that they own a smartphone. This is an increase of 2% since June and nearly double the level of two years ago. 11.6% now say they plan on buying a smartphone in the next 90 days.

AdMob's report was particularly bullish on Apple, reporting that iPhone traffic now accounts for nearly half (48%) of all smartphone requests in the United States. The ChangeWave report adds some much-needed context into smartphone statistics, by reporting that RIM - the makers of the blackberry - remains the market leader in terms of number of devices.

More people are undoubtedly using the iPhone to surf the Mobile Web, but more people still own a blackberry device.

Perhaps the most telling statistic in the ChangeWave report, also happens to be the most qualitative. 74% of the iPhone owners that ChangeWave polled reported that they're "Very Satisfied" with their iPhone. Less than half of RIM device owners said that.

Given what these latest AdMob and ChangeWave reports found, it's clear that smartphones are poised to hit the mainstream in a big way in 2010 and beyond.

AdMob had reported that of the top 10 mobile phones in the US currently, half are touchscreen, 6 have Wi-Fi capability and 6 have mobile app stores. Apple's iPhone led the way on all of those fronts. Android, RIM and the likes of Nokia are all putting out similar smartphone devices now.

RIM still holds sway over the workplace, but Apple definitely has the momentum in the consumer market.

Photo credit: Andy Mihail

The Indonesian mobile market has more than doubled in the last year and for a lot of users there, their mobile phones are the most important on-ramps to the Internet. As InMobi points out in its press release, strong competition among carriers has brought prices down and made mobile phones more affordable in the last year. While the BlackBerry is generally regarded as a business phone with a focus on email, it is currently beating the more web-centric iPhone in Indonesia when it comes to mobile web usage.

InMobi estimates that the average user in Indonesia generated 592 page views, while the global average is only about 250. About 80% of all the handsets sold in Indonesia are web-enabled - though most of them obviously don't give users access to the rich experience smartphones can offer.

As for BackBerry's lead in this market, it's important to note that AdMob's last metrics report from July (PDF) points out that both Apple and RIM only have a small share of the Indonesian handset market. BlackBerry currently holds the lead against Apple, though, and judging from InMobi's data, it looks like it also has the momentum to extend this lead.

Alternately, you can choose to download the CloudPrint driver to your PC and save the files to the CloudPrint server before you travel so you'll have them ready in advance.

With the new partnership between RIM and HP, the CloudPrint service will come to BlackBerry devices in the form of a software download which will be made available to BlackBerry Internet Service subscribers and BlackBerry Enterprise Server customers. Of course, CloudPrint includes support for the new BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5.0, also launched this week.

There's no word yet on how soon the technology will become available. However, at the time of writing, HP's CloudPrint site at cloudprint.hpl.hp.com has gone blank, stating only "thank you for your interest" along with a link to HP's home page. Perhaps that means they're making changes to it now.

SocialScope

Forget TwitterBerry, the latest and greatest Twitter app for Blackberry users is the brand-new Socialscope, now in alpha. SocialScope not only integrates your Twitter feed, but adds in Facebook status updates as well. When you launch the application, you're immediately taken to your friends' timeline where you'll see their avatars, latest tweet, and timestamp. Tabs at the top let you switch between your feed, Facebook, replies, and DMs, or the main SocialScope feed which includes both Twitter and Facebook combined. You can easily reply and message others as well as favorite tweets. There's also a cool option to add users from these social apps to your phone's address book.

You'll need an invite code to get in - try following @socialscope on Twitter then DM'ing a request to them.

SlingPlayer Mobile for Blackberry

SlingPlayer's iPhone app may have made the headlines, but flying under the radar was the announcement that their Blackberry app is now in public beta, too. If you have one of the supported devices and a SlingBox at home, you can watch your home TV and DVR recordings right on your Blackberry smartphone. If you want to test it out, it's available now as a free 30-day trial. Afterwards, if you want to purchase the application it's $29.99. 

Unify4Life

Unify4Life turns your Blackberry into a remote control. There are actually two applications available: AV|Shadow and Garage|Shadow. AV|Shadow gives you control over your home's audio/visual equipment, including your TV, DVD player, radio, DVR, and more. It even provides an interactive guide for TV listings, search, and favorites. The Garage|Shadow, as you might have guessed, turns your Blackberry into a remote control for your garage. This one doesn't appear to be available yet, but AV|Shadow is...although it will cost you. It's being sold for $99.99.

Slacker Radio

We just introduced to you to Slacker Radio's iPhone app, but it's available for Blackberry, too. This free music app lets you listen to your favorite radio stations on the go whether or not you're connected to a wireless network. That's possible thanks to Slacker's station caching, a unique feature that lets mobile users store favorite stations to a memory card allowing Slacker to play without a network connection. This option also boosts battery life and enhances the application's performance. Learn more at slacker.com/mobile/blackberry.

BeamReader

BeamReader, a PDF reader application, has been around for awhile, but just recently launched out of beta. With this application installed, you can read PDF email attachments or documents stored on your memory card without needing a data plan in order to do so. In addition to the native PDF viewing, BeamReader is also a file manager which lets you organize and access other document formats, too, including Microsoft Office, images and audio/video files. (Note: viewing Office documents requires Documents to Go, which is preinstalled on Blackberry OS 4.5 and higher)

Stockstream Mobile

Oh, and in case you decide to use your phone to actually get some work done, the new Stockstream Mobile application, which comes in both a regular and Pro version, lets you get real-time streaming market data, stock quotes, news, charts, and company research on your handheld. The news comes directly from Reuters and you can sign up to be alerted when there's new information about your tracked investments.

Bonus: Cool new Blackberry Hardware, Zeemote

Zeemote isn't actually a Blackberry application, but it's worth a mention. This bluetooth-enabled controller works in tandem with your Blackberry smartphone to allow for improved smartphone gaming by means of a separate controller. The controller has four programmable buttons. a joystick, and runs on two AAA batteries.

In addition to the benefits provided by standardization, IT departments also have to take into account the investment in their current infrastructure technology. To date, that investment often includes BES, or Blackberry Enterprise Server, which supports the needs of email-on-the-go for millions of corporate users.

Now, BES admins can deploy Google Maps for Mobile to those millions of users with ease, thanks to Google's new packages designed specifically for this server technology.

• Download the ALX package for BlackBerry Enterprise Server to give employees Google Maps for mobile.
• Download the JAD/COD package if you would like to host the files internally and have your employees individually install Google Maps.
• If you use access control policies to restrict installation of applications on corporate BlackBerry phones, download the workaround ALX package for BlackBerry Enterprise Server versions prior to 4.1.5 MR1. (More information is available in our discussion group.)

ALX packages for Google Web Search and GOOG-411 are also available. 

Now that the iPhone has a MySpace app, the company felt it was time to deliver a version to Blackberry users, too. The new app will feature a full messaging interface (comments, bulletins, and messages), status and mood updates, the ability to interact with friend requests, camera integration and integrated photo management, the ability to view and comment on friends albums and photos, and notification of new MySpace events.

This app is very much like the Facebook app for Blackberry, which was announced back in late 2007. Now, almost a year later, a MySpace version is planned. Why the holdup?

It's possible that RIM didn't feel that Blackberry users were interested in having a MySpace application, as that network tends to skew younger and is not used for business networking in the same way that Facebook is. Yet with the arrival of the Apple iPhone, RIM may be concerned about loss of market share. This new app may represent how RIM is trying to hold onto those customers who want more social networking tools and apps available on their Blackberry devices.

This potential loss of userbase must be especially concerning to them since the iPhone now integrates with Microsoft Exchange, the email system used by businesses all over the world. That integration means that I.T. departments are now able to support iPhones if they so desire, breaking down one of the final barriers to getting iPhones in the enterprise.

Blackberry Hub

In addition to today's announcement about the MySpace Mobile Blackberry app, RIM also announced the creation of a new hub on MySpace for information about the company's products. The Blackberry Hub features product demos, contests, how-to video guides, a marketplace of apps, and downloadable wallpapers and skins. When browsing through the MySpace Blackberry app section, clicking any link for an app will redirect you to RIM's web site, where you can download the app for your phone.

Users can also sign up here on the hub to be notified when the MySpace Mobile app becomes available for download.

What About Nokia, Palm, Motorola, and Rim?

While Nokia devices were responsible for just over 62% of all smartphone traffic worldwide, none of Nokia's smartphones ranked in the top 20 in the U.S. Palm's Centro, on the other hand, looks like a major boon for the company, as it is only trumped by the Blackberry Pearl when it comes to traffic volume.

Motorola, which does not have a single smartphone ranked in the top 20, still dominates the mobile traffic rankings with its RAZR V3. which was responsible for 3.7% of all mobile Internet use worldwide in August. The iPhone was the 17th most used phone on the mobile web and generated 1% of all worldwide traffic, up from 0.6% in July.

The iPhone is clearly growing quickly in the U.S. and now that Apple seems to have gotten its supply chain under control, chances are that it will continue on this track. However, it is also important to point out that, in the overall market, Apple is still only a small player. Most users, according to AdMob, are still accessing the mobile web on a RAZR.

Securing Nokia’s support marks a major coup for Microsoft. Having already committed to developing a version of Silverlight for all three major desktop Operating Systems (Windows, Mac OS and Linux), gaining access to Nokia’s millions of mobile users brings Microsoft one step closer to fulfilling the promise of a Rich Internet Application (RIA) framework with genuine ‘write once, run anywhere’ capabilities — the holy grail of software development.

However, notes last100 editor Steve O'Hear, while scoring a partnership with Nokia is a huge win for Microsoft, it hardly means that Silverlight will be the de facto mobile RIA platform. RIM, Apple, Adobe, and Google each have their own platforms for mobile RIA development.

For the full scoop, check out the post at last100 and be sure to subscribe to last100's RSS feed to keep up on all the latest digital lifestyle news.

The service begins its launch in Spain through subscribers to Telefonica's Blackberry service plans. Later this year, Unite Servers will be made available to Germany and others, though no word on when they will arrive in North America.