Over the next 12 months, Google’s Android operating system will become the favorite platform among mobile developers, according to research firm Ovum. Nearly all developers, however, will support both mobile platforms. While Apple’s iOS and Android have long been the favorites, Ovum said there is growing developer interest in both Windows Phone and BlackBerry operating systems. “The growing momentum behind Windows Phone indicates that Microsoft has managed to convince developers that its platform is worthy of investment; its challenge now is to persuade consumers,” said Ovum analyst Adam Leach. The research also showed that developers are moving away from traditional mobile development applications such as Java and Flash. Developers are instead focusing their efforts on the web-based HTML5 standard, which is becoming the preferred approach to building cross-platform applications. “A smartphone platform’s success is dictated not only by the pull of consumers and the push of both handset vendors and mobile operators but also a healthy economy of applications delivered by third-party developers,” said Leach. “Therefore, it is important for all players in the smartphone ecosystem to understand the choices developers are making today and the downstream impact of those choices.”

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Via a press release this morning, U.S. wireless carrier Sprint announced a new music service offering for its customers dubbed Sprint Music Plus. Powered by RealNetworks, the new service will allow users to purchase DRM-free, MP3 music tracks and ringtones starting at just $0.69. “Sprint Music Plus is available for Android powered Sprint smartphones from the Sprint Zone app and can be found on the home screen of BlackBerry and Java Feature Phones launched after May 2010,” reads the press release. “Devices introduced before May 2010 will have access to ringtones and ringback tones from Sprint Music Plus via Sprint Mobile Web (WAP).” The company notes that users will have the ability to bundle ringtones, ringback tones, and full music tracks into one purchase for additional savings, and, of course, all purchases will appear on your Sprint wireless bill. The full press release is after the break.

Rock Out No Matter Where You Go – New Sprint Music Plus Application Provides Access to Full Music Tracks, Ringtones, Ringback Tones and More on Sprint Phones

Want your music downloaded FAST? The Sprint 4G network enables downloading music up to 10 times faster than 3G1

OVERLAND PARK, Kan.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Most people never leave home without their mobile phone, although they may leave behind their MP3 player. Now you can share your musical tastes with those around you – or those who call you – with Sprint Music Plus, a new music application, accessed either on a Sprint phone or sprint.com, which serves as a single, convenient destination for customers to discover, purchase and play individual and bundled offers of full track music, albums, ringtones and ringback tones.

Sprint Music Plus, powered by RealNetworks® Inc. (Nasdaq: RNWK), is a full-featured music and tone manager, which allows users to:

• Create music playlists.
• Assign ringback tones to play for different callers and times of day.
• Search for music by artist, title or keyword.
• Organize full tracks/albums by artist, genre and custom playlists using the music library manager.
• Preview content – sample millions of music tracks and tones, which are updated daily.
• Get new music recommendations based on their musical tastes.

“Sprint Music Plus is an easy way for our customers to discover new music and tones and manage all of their music content in one convenient place,” said Sean Khurana, vice president-Consumer Product Marketing at Sprint. “Sprint makes sure our customers always have access to their favorite music by providing a wide array of options, ranging from free apps downloaded from Android Market™, BlackBerry App World™ or GetJar.com to Sprint Radio to purchasing tunes from Sprint Music Plus.”

Everyone is busy these days and the last thing we have time for is to wait for our music to download. The Sprint 4G network offers one of the fastest wireless experiences among all U.S. national wireless carriers and enables downloading music up to 10 times faster than 3G. Sprint 4G, available today in 71 markets across the country, was the first national carrier to offer wireless 4G service.

Sprint Music Plus is available for Android™ powered Sprint smartphones from the Sprint Zone app and can be found on the home screen of BlackBerry® and Java Feature Phones launched after May 2010. Devices introduced before May 2010 will have access to ringtones and ringback tones from Sprint Music Plus via Sprint Mobile Web (WAP). For more information and to download the application, visit http://sprint.us/smp on your Sprint phone.

Love a new song and want the full track, ringtone and ringback tone? Customers can save money when buying a bundle of all three products with just one click. DRM-free full tracks range from $0.69 to $1.29 per song. Customers are conveniently charged right on their Sprint bill.

After ousting Opera’s popular Opera Mini Web browser from its app store earlier this month, GetJar announced the browser’s return on Thursday. The app was originally tossed out of GetJar’s app store in early March when Opera announced plans to offer an app store of its own. GetJar wasn’t very happy with Opera’s entrance into the space so it banned the app from its catalog, theoretically preventing its users from accessing Opera’s competitive offering. “I’m glad that Opera Mini is back in the GetJar store,” said Mahi de Silva, EVP of Consumer Mobile at Opera Software, in a statement. “We believe Opera should be everywhere and we love the fact that our fans will now be able to download Opera Mini again from GetJar.” GetJar offered no explanation as to why it allowed this new version of Oper’a mobile browser, Opera Mini 6, back into its app store.

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Browser maker Opera has announced the a new application store for Android, BlackBerry, Symbian, and Java based handsets that offers both free and paid applications for your mobile device. “The Opera Mobile Store is available to Opera users and users of other mobile browsers, on all popular mobile phone platforms in more than 200 countries,” reads the press release. “The Opera Mobile Store uses Appia’s storefront commerce technology and leverages a wide catalog of applications.” The company boasts that its store attracted more than 15 million users from 200 countries, cultivating over 700,000 downloads per day, during its pilot stage this February. Opera has partnered with app store curator Appia to help launch the Opera Mobile Store globally. “The Opera Mobile Store presents a remarkable opportunity for mobile application developers to distribute localized content through a single, far-reaching marketplace,” said Appia’s CEO, Jud Bowman. “Appia is thrilled to partner with Opera to deliver an incredible storefront of applications to Opera users and beyond.” The Norwegian company has put a “featured link” leading to the new store in the Speed Dial section of the Opera browser. Hit the jump for the full press release.

Opera launches the Opera Mobile Store, available in over 200 Countries

Oslo, Norway – March 7, 2011 – Opera Software, the leading provider of mobile browsers around the world, today announced that the Opera Mobile Store is now open and available at http://mobilestore.opera.com/. This storefront is a featured Speed Dial link in the Opera Mini and Opera Mobile browsers, which makes the storefront immediately accessible by more than100 million people who use an Opera browser on their mobile phones. The Opera Mobile Store has been built and delivered through a strategic partnership with Appia, the leading provider of open application marketplace technology. The Opera Mobile Store offers both free and paid applications for virtually any mobile platform and device.

The Opera Mobile Store is available to Opera users and users of other mobile browsers, on all popular mobile phone platforms in more than 200 countries. The Opera Mobile Store uses Appia’s storefront commerce technology and leverages a wide catalog of applications for phones with Java, Symbian, BlackBerry and Android operating systems. The storefront experience is customized to each user’s phone, providing a tailored catalog based on the phone’s operating system, local language and currency.

“The launch of the Opera Mobile Store supports Opera’s core belief in an open, cross-platform mobile Internet experience by providing Opera users with an integrated storefront of mobile applications,” said Mahi de Silva, EVP, Consumer Mobile, Opera Software. “Our partnership with Appia delivers to all Opera Mobile and Opera Mini users easy access to a wide variety of great content, on any device, all over the world.”

To support the Opera Mobile Store, Opera Software has also launched the Opera Publisher Portal (http://publishers.mobilestore.opera.com), providing developers with an easy way to get their applications onto the Opera Mobile Store and in front of millions of Opera users every month. In its pre-launch state, the Opera Mobile Store attracted more than 15 million users in February, from 200 countries, achieving more than 700,000 downloads per day. These metrics establish the Opera Mobile Store as a top 10 mobile application store around the world.

“The Opera Mobile Store presents a remarkable opportunity for mobile application developers to distribute localized content through a single, far-reaching marketplace,” said Jud Bowman, CEO of Appia. “Appia is thrilled to partner with Opera to deliver an incredible storefront of applications to Opera users and beyond.”

We independently confirmed it with multiple sources of ours when we broke the news back in January, and today, Bloomberg has chimed in with multiple sources of its own claiming that the BlackBerry PlayBook will indeed run Android applications. We reported that the PlayBook might run the Java VM Dalvik, but later received information that RIM might be looking for other options. Bloomberg has reported that RIM won’t be using Dalvik, but is looking elsewhere. With this news and RIM’s recent strategic moves, we can confidently say that we’re incredibly excited about the future prospects for Research In Motion — and the ability to run over 130,000 Android applications on our BlackBerry smartphones and PlayBooks, of course.

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As crazy as that sounds, we have been told by multiple trusted sources that RIM is seriously considering a feature that will allow BlackBerry devices to run Android apps. Here is what we know… Research In Motion has been trying to figure out the path it wants to take as far as how the existing Java environment will work on its upcoming QNX tablet and smartphones. The company has publicly stated that it is looking at getting a Java virtual machine running on the PlayBook  — not so much for app development going forward, but for legacy support, custom apps corporations have deployed and don’t want to recreate, etc — but RIM hasn’t yet decided what kind of Java VM it will use. Hit the break for the rest!

Here is the big news: we have been told RIM is very much considering the Dalvik virtual machine, and we ultimately expect the company to chose Dalvik. If that sounds familiar to you, it’s because it’s the same VM that the Android OS uses, and it would allow RIM’s PlayBook and other QNX devices to run just about any application built for the Android platform.

There are various approaches to this situation — one where RIM uses the open source Dalvik VM and does not involve Google, and another (incredible) scenario where RIM and Google might reach an agreement (basically “certify” the device/platform) that would provide official support to Android apps on RIM’s QNX-based OS, and would feature the Android Market, Google’s Gmail, Maps, and other apps.

With the bold moves RIM has taken lately — QNX, the acquisition of the great UI team at The Astonishing Tribe, and possibly the ability to run any and all Android apps — if the company can hang on just a little longer, it could be poised to attack the market again in a huge way.

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Following up on a story we posted this morning, Google has released a statement in response to the lawsuit filed by Oracle over the search giant’s implementation of Java in Android. The statement looks like this:

We are disappointed Oracle has chosen to attack both Google and the open-source Java community with this baseless lawsuit. The open-source Java community goes beyond any one corporation and works every day to make the web a better place. We will strongly defend open-source standards and will continue to work with the industry to develop the Android platform.

As reported by USA Today, Oracle is, “seeking an injunction and unspecified damages,” although the suit is most likely “part of a larger negotiating effort by Oracle to land a sizable licensing fee.” Oracle has yet to release an official statement defending the merits of the suit.

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While speaking at the Red Hat Middleware 2020 virtual conference, Google’s Josh Bloch expressed serious concerns over the direction of Oracle’s recently acquired Java platform. Commenting that it has “appeared rudderless for the last few years”, Bloch went on to say that “technical and licensing disputes over the last few years have been highly detrimental. They’ve sapped the energy of the community and caused plenty of bad press.” Although he was clear to underscore the fact that the issues predate the buyout of Sun Microsystems, Bloch challenged Oracle to “take the lead of Java once again.” Specifically, he would like to see Oracle push out newer versions of the platform at a faster pace, make firm commitment to the swift release of Java 7, bolster support for the Java Community Process, and replace the woefully underpowered Java 2 Micro Edition. Bloch doesn’t believe hope is lost for Java and that “Java will remain a dominant platform in the enterprise space”, but if it doesn’t make the changes now, the King will go from having a cold to being gravely ill.

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Yesterday, RIM released an update to its Java and web-based development tools for the BlackBerry platform, a move which RIM says will: “provide new capabilities that make it even easier to create feature-rich applications.” The new and updated SDKs include: BlackBerry Java Plug-In for Eclipse v1.1, BlackBerry Web Plug-in v2.0, BlackBerry Widget SDK v1.0, and BlackBerry Java SDK v5.0 — RIM boasts that the updates will provide access to over 20,000 native APIs. We’ve got the official press release ready for you after the break.

RIM Releases Enhanced Java and Web Development Tools

Updated Plug-ins and SDKs Make It Even Easier to Create Feature-Rich Applications on the BlackBerry Platform

Waterloo, ON – Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today released updated Java and Web-based development tools for the BlackBerry® platform. The BlackBerry® Java Plug-In for Eclipse v1.1 and the BlackBerry® Web Plug-in v2.0 offer new capabilities that make it even easier to create feature-rich applications. The BlackBerry® Widget SDK (Software Development Kit) v1.0 and the BlackBerry® Java SDK v5.0, which includes more than 20,000 APIs, provide unparalleled access to BlackBerry® smartphone hardware features, native BlackBerry software applications and other unique system capabilities of the BlackBerry Application Platform.

Using the new tools developers can quickly and easily build web-based BlackBerry Widgets or Java applications that leverage the unique benefits of the BlackBerry Application Platform to seamlessly share information across and interact with core BlackBerry applications or other third party applications.  These are personalized and contextualized applications that can integrate with a BlackBerry smartphone’s inbox, calendar, address book and other native BlackBerry applications to deliver a highly engaging user experience.

“The BlackBerry Application Platform continues to evolve tremendously and the new tool enhancements make developing applications for BlackBerry smartphones easier and faster than ever,” said Alan Brenner, Senior Vice President, BlackBerry Platform at Research In Motion. “We believe these enhanced tools will spur a new level of creativity and innovation as developers find new ways to leverage the unique power and integrated nature of the BlackBerry platform in order to bring useful, intelligent applications to the millions of BlackBerry smartphone users around the world.”

BlackBerry Java Plug-In for Eclipse v1.1

• Enables Java developers to leverage a familiar open source development environment (Eclipse 3.5) to create, debug, profile and simulate their applications using a wide selection of BlackBerry smartphone simulators, actual devices and multiple versions of the BlackBerry® OS
• Improved productivity features include the ability to instantly load and immediately run a modified application being debugged without having to reset the simulator or device, providing tremendous time savings

For more information on the Java Plug-in v1.1, visit www.blackberry.com/developers/java11

BlackBerry Web Plug-In v2.0

• BlackBerry Web Plug-ins are now available for both Eclipse and Microsoft Visual Studio
• Enables developers to easily create web applications (includes BlackBerry Widgets) and web content using standard web technology and programming languages (e.g., HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and AJAX)
• Enables JavaScript access to core BlackBerry Java API’s.
• New features in the latest 2.0 release include BlackBerry Widget debugging and profiling, support for Eclipse 3.5, and simulator “hot swap” to greatly reduce the time required to test and debug between iterations

For more information on the BlackBerry Web Plug-In v 2.0, visit www.blackberry.com/developers/web20

BlackBerry Java SDK v5.0

• OpenGL ES support for 3D graphics, touch-screen, and accelerometer enables visually stunning interactive 3D games*
• Rich multimedia audio and video support, Media Play features, camera zoom and focus, and embedded video capture and audio/video streaming support
• New pre-built UI components (e.g., spin-box fields, file pickers, and screen transitions) enable advanced graphics and built-in animation and increased developer productivity.
• SQLite support for data sharing across different applications, as well as Gears JavaScript® API for persistent database storage.
• Location Based Services APIs enable cell-site geolocation, GPS, geocoding and reverse geocoding to obtain address and location information

For more information on the Java SDK v5.0, visit www.blackberry.com/developers/java50

BlackBerry Widget SDK v1.0

• Allows third-party applications to access the calendar, contacts, camera, maps, messaging, browser, files, location via cell-tower or GPS, and receive BlackBerry push content via BlackBerry Widget APIs
• Includes navigation support for touch-screen handsets and screen transition and image transition support for BlackBerry Widgets startup and shutdown
• Location-Based Services and SQLite / Google Gears enabled persistent data storage is also available for BlackBerry Widgets.
• The widget architecture allows for extensibility by letting a third party developer develop their own JavaScript extensions, for use and distribution within a BlackBerry Widget.

For more information about the BlackBerry Widget SDK, visit www.blackberry.com/developers/widgets

To learn more about the range of products and services available to the BlackBerry developer community, please visit www.blackberry.com/developers.

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A job posting for a position within Lab126, a wholly owned subsidiary of Amazon that focuses on the Kindle, suggests that Amazon may be developing a new web browser for its popular e-reader. In an “it’s about time” maneuver, the job is seeking a Software Development Engineer to work with the web browser team on a project whose goal is to provide an innovative Embedded Web Browser. The current Kindle browser is severely lacking and needs an overhaul if the Kindle is going to compete with the iPad and other tablets slated to hit the market in 2010.
A recent report form ChangeWave Research is foreboding when it suggests that current e-reader owners would have bought an iPad if the iPad was on the market when they made their purchasing decision. Considering the market forces at play, the last line in the job description requiring “someone to deliver high quality work on tight schedules” is quite telling. Despite its calm and cool appearance, Amazon may be feeling a bit under the gun. What do you think?

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We’ve already talked about some of the news from the first day of the 2009 BlackBerry Developers Conference, but another blast of PR from RIM has hit out inboxes, and wow, are we ever excited. The biggest news of the day is that developers will finally be able to unlock the full potential of the latest generation of BlackBerry smartphones — OS 5.0 and hardware permitting, of course — with the latest beta of the Java SDK 5.0 thanks in part to its OpenGL ES support. Still, there’s a lot of things to cover and we don’t want to clutter up our newly redesigned site with a bunch of text, so join us after the jump.

Previewed today but not expected to be available until the middle of 2010, the BlackBerry Java Plug-in for Eclipse will be updated with a new drag and drop WYSIWYG interface which will greatly reduce the amount of time it takes for a developer to put together all of the graphical elements in an app. More importantly, as BG is screaming up and down with excitement, this should allow BlackBerry applications to utilize a more streamlined and consistent user interface instead of, well, utter crap. More information about the new BlackBerry Theme Studio which replaces the Plazmic Content Developer’s Kit has also come out. Comprised of the Theme Builder and Composer, Theme Studio works for all devices running OS 4.2.2 and up and can not only directly import images from Adobe Photoshop but create a new generation of themes that are capable of zooming, sliding, wiping and fading while devices with OS 5.0 and up will have support for ringtones and screen transitions (oooooh, aaaaah). And now on to some slightly drier content (as far as consumers interests go.)

One of the things RIM has focused very hard on since the launch of App World has been helping to create an environment in which developers can generate more revenue and heighten the app-friendliness of the OS. With this in mind, RIM has announced its very own advertising service, BlackBerry Advertising Service, which amongst other things will “include the ability to easily initiate a call from an ad, add a calendar entry or contact entry from an ad, and directly link to an application in BlackBerry App World from an ad” while providing deep analytics. Speaking of monetization, BlackBerry Payment, available in mid-2010, will open the flood gates to activities such as premium content, subscriptions and in-app purchases. GPS has been a strong point of any BlackBerry, but now developers will have the means to do crazy new-fangled things like use cell site geolocation, reverse geocode and figure out how many minutes it will take to arrive at ones destination. Mindblowing? Definitely not. Abso-positively-necessary for RIM to do? Yes.

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In with the new, out with the BREW — Sun Microsystems has just announced that Verizon Wireless is among several new partners to jump on the Java bandwagon. The nation’s largest carrier has long used BREW as its mobile platform of choice but times they are a’ changing. Moving forward, VZW will deploy Java Platform Micro Edition-based services and apps. From Sun’s JavaOne conference keynote highlights:

Lowell McAdam, president and CEO of Verizon Wireless, who will outline his company’s strategic decision to deploy Java Platform Micro Edition (Java ME) -based services in its network and offer Java-based services and applications to its subscribers.

While Big Red has not confirmed that Qualcomm’s BREW platform will be phased out, maintaining two separate platforms doesn’t make much sense. Crazier things have definitely happened though, especially where carriers are concerned. We’ll have to wait and see what the future has in store for BREW though we highly doubt anyone would really miss it. Verizon has yet to issue any public statement regarding its Java ME adoption.

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In an economic climate such as the one we’re currently experiencing, we’re sure that Sun Microsystems is wishing they could say, “No takesies-backsies!” For the past few weeks, it seemed like everyone was on the edge of their seat waiting to see what would happen with IBM’s offer Sun. On Sunday, everything came to a halt when IBM withdrew a hefty $7.5 billion bid for the computer and software manufacturer. Sun became apparently picky when the sum ($9.40 per share instead of the $9.55 offer from the prior week) and details of the negotiations didn’t quite meet their tastes. Now the company could be facing a rough future if IBM can’t find a way to please and purchase it.  In the meantime, Sun’s stock prices could continue to drop as they further their quest to find a buyer.

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