Mike Lazaridis, president and Co-CEO of Research In Motion, used his keynote address at the 2010 BlackBerry Developer Conference this week to trumpet momentum for the platform, before introducing a number of new tools and services, telling the audience: “we continue to invest in additional services, to help you monetise and build your business.”

According to Lazaridis, “just in the last twelve months alone, we have added over 100,000 new registered developers for the BlackBerry platform – that brings the total to 300,000 registered developers globally.” There are now 50 million active BlackBerry subscribers worldwide, and more than 10 percent of the BlackBerrys ever sold reached customers in the last quarter. BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) – which RIM is set to open to developers next year – is “quickly becoming one of the largest wireless social networks in the world”, with 1.5 million users added per month. Growth of BBM will be constrained by the size of the BlackBerry customer base, however, unlike other, cross-platform social networks.

Lazaridis reiterated the figure of 1.5 million downloads from BlackBerry App World per day which, as has already been noted, means that more apps are downloaded from the store than from Nokia’s Ovi Store. There are 35 million active App World users in 70 countries, and in line with comments made by Nokia and Verizon Wireless at their recent developer events, operator billing was highlighted as a key feature of the channel.

RIM also made a significant effort to attract Web developers to BlackBerry OS, through its BlackBerry WebWorks portfolio (see separate story here). Lazaridis noted: “This is really important. You are going to be able to build apps in days if not hours, using existing Web development tools and Web skills.” Details were also provided for developers looking to write apps for the newly-announced BlackBerry PlayBook tablet device.

BBM opened to third-party apps
RIM is planning to extend access to the popular BBM application to the third-party app community, through its BBM Social Platform. Developers will be able to integrate various functions of the BBM service into applications, including chat capabilities, content sharing, and invitations. An example the company gives is of a game with BBM Social Platform support, which would enable users to invite friends to join them in a competition, and then chat while this is underway.

An important feature of BBM Social Platform is that developers will be able to continue their application’s user interface when using the BBM features, meaning that users will not be aware that they are using functionality from a separate app.

The company says there are more than 28 million users of BlackBerry Messenger, and opening the service to third-party apps “presents incredible opportunities.” Several BlackBerry Alliance members are already testing the BBM Social Platform, as part of an “early access” programme. While the BlackBerry Social Platform was announced this week, it will be some time before it is available for commercial use: the company said that it is “expected to be available in the spring of 2011.”

Enhanced advertising options for developers
RIM also unveiled a new advertising service for the BlackBerry application platform, called (somewhat unsurprisingly) BlackBerry Advertising Service. The intention is to enable developers to “integrate advertising in their BlackBerry smartphone applications quickly and easily,” and to allow advertisers, agencies and brands to work with a broad selection of advertising networks. While it has been reported that RIM is in the market to buy a mobile ad network, it is now supporting a number of partners – at launch Amobee, Jumptap, Lat49, Millennial Media and Mojiva are on the list, with Buzzcity, NavTeq, Placecast, Sympatico, Transpera, Where and xAD expected to join “in the coming months.”

The BlackBerry Advertising Service software development kit allows developers to support advertisements complying with the Mobile Marketing Association’s standards, or deliver HTML5 Rich Media, as well as enabling ads that have one-click in-application access to BlackBerry features such as contacts, calendar, media player and BlackBerry App World. Also offered is a mediation platform, which provides a single console for developers to manage their ad allocations and access analytics, tracking and reporting features, and provides immediate feedback on metrics including fill rates, ad performance and earnings.

The company said that “several BlackBerry Alliance members have already tested the BlackBerry Advertising Service as part of an early access programme, and are looking forward to the opportunities it brings.”

BlackBerry Enterprise Application Middleware
While in recent months RIM’s efforts have appeared to be focused on increasing the consumer-friendly credentials of BlackBerry, the company also used the event to reaffirm its commitment to enterprise apps, with the launch of the BlackBerry Enterprise Application Middleware. This is intended to enable commercial enterprise and corporate developers to more easily build apps which take advantage of more features of the BlackBerry architecture, while integrating with existing corporate IT developments.

The middleware will include a set of APIs, libraries and server software that will enable developers to create apps which access instant data push and alerts, use efficient file transfers with enterprise applications, and make it easy to query a user’s device for location, presence, current camera image, calendar availability, device type, “and much more.” It can be used with existing application development platforms including IBM’s WebSphere, Oracle Fusion Middleware, and mobility technology from SAP and Sybase.

RIM highlighted that these capabilities are “combined with the advantages of the BlackBerry Enterprise Solution,” which delivers “re-time communication via true push technology, cost-effective data usage, efficiency over carrier networks, easy web-based administration of smartphones, servers, users, groups and applications, single sign-on, and secure wireless access to enterprise systems.”

IBM Interactive, Oracle and SAP are currently using the BlackBerry Enterprise Application Middleware in early trials. The initial set of middleware libraries are expected to be available in “closed beta” later this year. Additional libraries are expected to be released in 2011.

RIM and Webtrends partner for BlackBerry Analytics service
Finally, RIM announced a partnership with Webtrends, to deliver “free enterprise-class analytics to the BlackBerry developer community.” The move is said to allow developers to “discover insights about how customers use their apps and to evolve their applications in a way that will drive loyalty, increase use, and potentially lead to new and more successful avenues for revenue and monetisation.”