RIM has used its BlackBerry Devcon Asia event to further seed developer interest in its PlayBook tablet with the launch of the beta version of the BlackBerry WebWorks SDK for Tablet OS, as well as announcing new developer services tools for BlackBerry smartphones. The new SDK enables developers to use standard web technologies, such as HTML5, CSS and JavaScript, to build apps for RIM’s new tablet, as well as BlackBerry smartphones that run its most recent OS, BlackBerry 6.

The company also launched new services and tools for developers at the same event. The BlackBerry Payment Service SDK, which is in beta, offers developers new ways to make money out of apps by allowing them to incorporate options such as subscriptions, feature unlocking and pay per use. It follows last week’s launch by RIM of support for in-app payments in the beta of BlackBerry Apps World 2.1, and could prove nearly as important, although late arriving. The company originally announced the BlackBerry Payment Service back in October 2009, notes BerryReview. “It took a long time coming but i think this will be a big game changer for RIM and App World,” it says.

The other launches at the event were an update for BlackBerry’s Push Service SDK (v 1.0.1), and a new release of the BlackBerry Java Plug-in for Eclipse. The Push Service update improves management of the SDK’s operations through a new Subscription Check API which offers “simpler statistics gathering and query capabilities as well as installer enhancements”. By checking the registration status of a smartphone with a particular app via a server-side framework, the push service “only occurs to currently subscribed users of the application”.  The new plug-in for Eclipse version 1.3 includes “many enhancements and new features that help make Java development more productive on the BlackBerry platform”.

The PlayBook was unveiled in September and is due to launch early this year. The launch model will be Wi-Fi-only, although RIM announced a WiMAX-based version with US operator Sprint Nextel at last week’s CES 2011 in Las Vegas, which will launch later in 2011. Shipments of the PlayBook will top one million units in the first quarter of 2011, according to a report from Digitimes, with reference to industry sources.