BlackBerry Enterprise Application Middleware (BEAM) announced by RIM

Onstage at the BlackBerry developer conference, DEVCON 2010, in San Francisco, Research In Motion (RIM) previewed BlackBerry Enterprise Application Middleware – an innovative application development platform that will enable commercial enterprise and corporate developers to more easily build “super app” enterprise applications and services for BlackBerry smartphones. IBM Interactive and customer ING DIRECT, Oracle, and SAP joined RIM on-stage at the conference today to present their plans to enable “super app” development solutions and services using the new platform.

BlackBerry Enterprise Application Middleware will include a set of application programming interfaces (APIs), libraries and server software that will make it easier for developers to build “super apps” that can access instant data push and alerts, use efficient file transfers with enterprise applications, and make it easy to query a user’s device for geo-location, presence, current camera image, calendar availability, device type, and much more. It will be possible to use it with popular application development platforms such as IBM WebSphere, Oracle Fusion Middleware and the mobility platform from SAP and Sybase, and can be integrated with these platforms to give access to developers.

These capabilities are combined with the advantages of the BlackBerry Enterprise Solution offering real-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, which specializes in providing clients with a unique think-tank environment to collaboratively work with user experience, industry and technology experts to plan, develop and launch mobile, next-generation business solutions, is utilizing the features of BlackBerry Enterprise Application Middleware together with IBM WebSphere to help develop a business-to- consumer application with ING DIRECT.

SAP continues to co-innovate with RIM to offer new opportunities to extend the reach of SAP Business Suite on BlackBerry smartphones. Through close integration of BlackBerry Enterprise Application Middleware with the mobility platform from SAP and Sybase, partners and customers will be able to quickly build mobile applications that connect business data to their workers on BlackBerry smartphones.

The initial set of BlackBerry Enterprise Application Middleware libraries are expected to be available in closed beta later this year. Additional libraries are expected to be released in 2011.