Registration for BlackBerry 10 Jam Jakarta To Open Soon

BlackBerry 10 Jam World Tour, an event to introduce BlackBerry 10 operating system by Research In Motion (RIM), is set to be held in Jakarta on July 10, 2012. Even though registration is not opened yet, RIM already announced the schedule for the event on BlackBerry 10 Jam World Tour’s website.

BlackBerry 10 Jam will be held for an entire day, starting from 09.30 am to 06.30 pm. Before lunch, three sessions will be held, namely BlackBerry 10 Architecture Overview, BlackBerry 10 Experience Overview, and BlackBerry App World Monetization and Platform Services, Including Enterprise App World.

After lunch, participants will be divided into two tracks, native and web. Both tracks will discuss two types of BlackBerry application development, native as well as HTML5 based web apps.

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RIM Invests in an Innovation Center in Indonesia

If the Minister of Communications and Informatics, Tifatul Sembiring makes another inquiry to Research In Motion (RIM) about its investment in Indonesia, RIM will have a definite answer this time. RIM has invested more than USD 5 million to build an Innovation Center in Indonesia. The facility, set to open this year, will be built in collaboration with Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB).

It was marked by the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between RIM and ITB which was done on Wednesday, May 22, 2012 at ITB. This memorandum is a follow-up to the agreement between ITB and RIM made in early March.

The Innovation Centre will be a place for RIM and ITB to encourage ITB students to create innovative mobile applications, as well as teaching them how to market it. In addition, also listed in the MoU that the funding of this investment will also be used for scholarships, various seminars and conferences as well as other initiatives aimed at triggering the development of innovative applications and entrepreneurial spirit of ITB students.

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Didiet Noor Bergabung ke RIM Sebagai Developer Relations/Evangelist untuk Indonesia

Muhammad Sumyandityo Noor atau yang lebih dikenal dengan nama Didiet, telah ditunjuk sebagai Developer Relations/Evangelist untuk RIM. Didiet sebelumnya adalah produser di Guava Games dan CTO Oneb1t yang berbasis di Yogyakarta. Peran yang akan dijalankan Didiet sebagai Developer Relations/Evangelist RIM adalah mengajak para developer mobile di Indonesia untuk bergabung dan mengembangkan aplikasi di platfrom terbaru RIM yang akan datang, BlackBerry 10. Walaupun Didiet masih menjadi pemegang saham di Guava Games dan Oneb1t Media, ia tidak lagi memegang peran aktif di dua perusahaan ini sejak ia mengundurkan diri untuk mengabdi secara penuh kepada RIM.

Pengembangan aplikasi BlackBerry terlihat cukup berkembang di Indonesia meskipun Android dan iOS bertumbuh sangat pesat di seluruh dunia. Angka terbaru yang dipublikasikan oleh Gartner menempatkan RIM pada posisi ke tujuh di antara produsen ponsel global dalam hal perangkat yang terjual, dengan kurang dari 10 juta unit di kuartal pertama tahun 2012. Setahun yang lalu, RIM menjual lebih dari 13 juta perangkat, yang berarti ada penurunan lebih dari 25 persen. Untung bagi RIM, developer Indonesia sepertinya tidak terpengaruh oleh laporan ini.

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Didiet Noor Joins RIM As Developer Relations/Evangelist for Indonesia

Former producer at Jogjakarta based Guava Games and CTO of Oneb1t Media Muhammad Sumyandityo Noor, better known as Didiet, has been appointed RIM’s developer relations/evangelist for Indonesia. His responsibilities essentially is getting Indonesia’s mobile developers on board RIM’s upcoming platform, the BlackBerry 10. While he remains a shareholder at Guava Games and Oneb1t Media, he no longer holds an active role in either company as he has resigned to take up the full time role at RIM.

BlackBerry applications development has seen some serious uptake in Indonesia despite the platform’s growth being savaged across the world by the ever expanding Android and iOS. Recent figures published by Gartner placed RIM seventh among global phone makers in terms of units sold with less than 10 million units in the first quarter of 2012. A year ago RIM sold over 13 million devices which means it saw a drop of over 25 percent in sales. Fortunately for RIM, Indonesian developers seem immune to such reports.

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BlackBerry 10 Jam To Come To Indonesia

As we wrote the other day, BlackBerry World has started on Tuesday in Orlando, Florida, United States. Alongside the event, Research In Motion is also holding BlackBerry 10 Jam, a special event for developers in introducing the upcoming BlackBerry 10 operating system.

Although BlackBerry 10 Jam is being attended by developers from around the world, it looks like RIM is eager to meet with more developers and for that they have planned to take BlackBerry 10 Jam on a tour around the world. One of the countries is of course, Indonesia.

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A Hundred Thousands BlackBerry Apps Has Been Purchased Through Indosat Operator Billing System

Although smartphone users in Indonesia is still likely “freebies lovers”, the cooperation between Research in Motion (RIM) and Indosat to provide an alternative payment solution for BlackBerry App World is quite successful. As quoted from IndoTelko, ever since operator billing is imposed for the BlackBerry App World through Indosat since December 2011, there are nearly one hundred thousand BlackBerry paid apps have been purchased. As of late 2011, there were 1.7 million BlackBerry users utilizing Indosat. The default payment scheme in App World is by using PayPal and credit cards.

Assuming that each application or themes worth US$0.99 (on average), that means that Indosat customer is willing to spend nearly US$100 thousand for 3 months paid content. Maybe this is not much from if calculated value wise, but I think this could facilitate as payment alternative and encourage user who wishes to purchase an application without going through a hassle as signing up for a PayPal account or owning a credit card, which is still not common practice in Indonesia. So in general this result is a positive thing. Unfortunately, we do not know the comparison with PayPal or credit card purchase.

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BlackBerry Travel di Indonesia

Sebelumnya saya sudah beberapa kali mencoba BlackBerry Travel. Ini adalah salah satu aplikasi buatan Research in Motion yang bisa dibilang paling banyak mengelola data traveling, tidak cuma sekedar email ataupun messaging. Data sekompleks ini dikelola dengan bekerja sama dengan Expedia — yang merupakan salah satu penyedia layanan travel global. BlackBerry Travel saat ini dikabarkan sudah beroperasi penuh di Indonesia dan melayani pemesanan kamar hotel, pembelian tiket pesawat, dan penyewaan mobil.

BlackBerry Travel juga dapat mendeteksi My Trips (seri perjalanan) yang kita lakukan secara otomatis. Setiap konfirmasi perjalanan yang masuk ke inbox juga akan meng-update rangkaian Trips yang kita miliki. Ini adalah fitur yang menyenangkan buat Anda yang senang membuat itinerary. Selain yang sudah disebut di atas, BlackBerry Travel juga memudahkan konsumen untuk melakukan konversi mata uang dan mengetahui prakiraan cuaca di kota setempat.

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BlackBerry Travel in Indonesia

Previously I tried BlackBerry Travel several times. This is one of the applications made by Research in Motion and it is arguably the most widely-managed travelling data, not just simply email or messaging. This complex data is managed with Expedia – which is one of global travel service providers. BlackBerry Travel is already fully operated in Indonesia and able to do hotel reservation service, purchase airline tickets and car rentals.

BlackBerry Travel can also detect My Trips (travel series) that we do automatically. Any journey confirmation enters into inbox and it will also update the Trips series that we have. This is a nice feature for those of you who like to make itinerary. In addition to those already mentioned above, the BlackBerry Travel also allows consumers to perform currency conversions and find out the weather forecast in your local town.

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RIM prepares $5 million research fund for ITB

As reported by several media, last Saturday RIM has signed a partnership agreement with Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) and will deliver a $5 million fund in several stages. The fund will be used mainly for mobile app development and research. ITB is the first campus in Indonesia to strike this kind of partnership with Canada-based RIM.

“This investment will be used for research and development mainly for mobile application, where ITB excels. The fund will also be used to build the first RIM Innovation Center” said Andy Cobham, President Director RIM Indonesia as quoted from ITB’s announcement.

RIM is famous amongst the academic community, of course it’s understandable since RIM itself was born the academic environment of University of Waterloo Canada. And RIM is also known for its generosity and donation for University of Waterloo’s research facility.

As said in the press release, the objective of this partnership is so universities can educate their students about mobile app development, and give boost in terms of helping them get a job in the field as well as creating new opportunities in the mobile space. Previously, Microsoft and Nokia did the similar partnership with some of Indonesia’s top universities.

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RIM Siapkan Dana Riset $5 Juta untuk ITB

Seperti dilaporkan oleh sejumlah media, hari Sabtu lalu Research in Motion (RIM) menandatangani kesepakatan dengan pihak Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB) untuk menggelontorkan (secara bertahap) dana $5 juta. Dana tersebut akan digunakan untuk riset terutama pengembangan aplikasi mobile. ITB menjadi kampus pertama di Indonesia yang menjalin kerjasama dengan RIM — pembuat BlackBerry asal Kanada.

“Investasi ini akan dipergunakan untuk biaya penelitian dalam pengembangan aplikasi dimana ITB memiliki potensi untuk hal tersebut. Dan dana tersebut akan dipergunakan juga untuk membangun RIM Innovation Centre pertama di Indonesia” ujar Andy Cobham, Presdir RIM Indonesia, seperti dikutip dari laman situs ITB.

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