By Semaj Itosno, Nairobi, Kenya
Research In Motion (RIM), the maker of BlackBerry smartphones and tablets, will be holding a BlackBerry 10 Mini Jam developer event on Friday in Nairobi.
The event is expected to provide insights into BlackBerry 10 experience, architecture and tools to enable the developers make the list of partners around the world creating apps for the new platform.
“The BlackBerry platform already provides significant opportunities for the developer community in Kenya,” said Waldi Wepener, regional director for East, West and Central Africa at RIM.
Wepener said there is high demand for more tools and knowledge to create local services and apps, but also a strong desire to reach a global audience of millions of BlackBerry customers.
The meeting will provide local software developers with an opportunity to learn more about BlackBerry 10 and the chance to develop software for the platform.
According to Research Company, Gartner, the BlackBerry maker saw losses in market share in the 2012 second quarter.
Gartner said the worldwide mobile phone market shrank in the quarter, with sales falling by 2.3 per cent compared to the same quarter in 2011.
The research firm warned that the third quarter may be “weaker than usual” for Apple depending on when exactly the iPhone 5 is released. The device is expected to be announced in September and launched a month or two later.
In its latest report, Gartner said overall global sales of mobile devices reached 419 million units in the quarter, with smartphone sales up by more than 42 percent year-on-year.
“Emerging markets such as China and phone makers pushing 3G will drive the smartphone market upward,” the report says in part.
