RIM pushing Indian mobile app development

Research in Motion, the maker of the BlackBerry phones, has launched a project in Tamil Nadu, which will train engineering students to develop mobile applications. According to the Economic Times, the company wants to push Indian application development because it sees a huge potential in this space in the country. The pilot project in Tamil Nadu will be used to create applications by youths for youths. RIM India Head of Alliance and Developer Relations, Annie Mathew told PTI, “We see huge opportunity in mobile application development. BlackBerry App World currently has 26,000-odd registered developers from India, against 5,000 two years ago, with the applications numbering over 40,000.”

RIM wants to push Indian mobile app development

RIM has a similar revenue share system for its apps as Apple. Revenues from applications are shared 70:30, with the developer getting 70 percent of the revenue from app sales. This revenue share system has led to some developer frustration with Apple; social networking giant Facebook even plans to attack Apple on its own device because of the revenue share system. If similar frustration occurs with BlackBerry’s revenue share system, their attempt to foster app development in the company may not work out as planned.

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RIM is also planning on launching Near Field Communication (NFC) in the country. They said that they are planning on launching an NFC application this month which they think will benefit the domestic healthcare industry. One of the uses that RIM wants to see with NFC is that it wants its users to stop handing out business cards and use NFC to exchange information.