RIM announced availability of its BlackBerry WebWorks SDK 2.0 in Tablet OS and Smartphones versions, stating that “our development teams have spent a great deal of time re-architecting the BlackBerry WebWorks framework to prepare for bringing the two platforms together.” Describing the latest release as “the first step towards convergence of the BlackBerry WebWorks SDK for Tablet OS and the BlackBerry WebWorks SDK for Smartphones,” the company noted that “as we continue to improve and enhance the SDKs, we will better align the features and APIs so developers can easily develop and deploy applications onto both platforms.”

Features of the latest release include the separation of the JavaScript APIs from the OS, which is designed to enable developers to easily modify and enhance existing APIs and package them with the WebWorks applications. In addition, the WebWorks framework and all of the APIs have been open sourced and are available on GitHub, so that developers can “contribute to and participate in the evolution of the BlackBerry WebWorks project.”

The BlackBerry WebWorks SDK is intended to enable developers to build rich, integrated BlackBerry applications using web technologies including HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript. These can be “distributed and monetised like traditional applications running on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet and BlackBerry smartphones (via BlackBerry App World).”

RIM also said that developers that have built BlackBerry PlayBook tablet applications using the WebWorks SDK should re-package and re-submit applications to BlackBerry App World, ready for commercial availability of the device. This will ensure that developers have “the latest fixes and enhancements” to ensure that apps are compatible with planned BlackBerry Tablet OS upgrades.