RIM extends BlackBerry Push Service to developers

Research In Motion announced its BlackBerry Push Service is now available to all developer and content provider partners, enabling creation of time-sensitive applications and services that push information and updates directly to users' phones. According to RIM, BlackBerry Push Service leverages push technology either through the BlackBerry Enterprise Server (for enterprises) or BlackBerry Internet Service infrastructure (for consumers)--developers can integrate the service into both Java applications and web widgets to deliver images, text or audio content like news and weather updates, sports scores and stock prices.

Research In Motion notes that unlike alternative push solutions that only notify users when new content is available, BlackBerry Push enables developers to transmit updates as large as 8KB for immediate access. RIM adds that rival solutions may use polling mechanisms to check at fixed time intervals whether new information is available, but BlackBerry Push Service enables development of push applications that continuously listen in the background for incoming new content and immediately alert device users via tools like vibration alerts, audio alerts, email messages and home screen icons.

RIM offers two options: The free BlackBerry Push Essentials and BlackBerry Push Plus, which includes a free tier and paid tiers while supporting notifications of delivered pushes (complete with time and specific device information) as well as mechanisms to change the time or cancel push requests queued for delivery. For additional resources, information and tools, click here.

For more on BlackBerry Push Service:
- read this release

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