RIM (Research In Motion) the makers of the beloved BlackBerry Devices are throwing a mean conference in Orlando this week WES2010. I can honestly say that this is one of the tightest conferences I’ve ever attended. Everything is running on time, there is food and beverage everywhere, plenty of entertainment, I’ve not had a single connectivity issue (WiFi or Mobile), there are an abundance of outlets and even bean bags to sit on where there are outlets near the floor as “overflow” seating. To top it all off they are doing a virtual broadcast of WES in case you can’t be here in person.
More importantly there is a lot of cool stuff going on. RIM unleashed the Pearl 3G and the new BlackBerry Bold 9650, both nice devices in their own right but I see the bold getting picked up a lot more than the Pearl. The Pearl felt too small to me and a little fragile but then I’m very hard on devices!
There are also a ton of app makers and vendors here. Some notable apps from Day 1:
Slacker: Music App, Customizable Personal Radio. The music also adapts to what you like and don’t but handles the logic differently than Pandora. Also has announced local music caching capability on device.
Poynt: Mobile mapping app that allows you to connect with contextually relevant local information (restaurants, people, gas prices, …).
Shozu: Allows you to easily upload pictures and video from your mobile device to your favorite social media sites. Best of all, if uploading is disrupted, Shozu will resume where it left off (easy to imagine when uploading video for example). I loved how easy this app was to use. (disclaimer, my stepfather works for Critical Path, the owners of Shozu so I was already familiar with the app but didn’t know they would be here). Unfortunately Shozu is not free but is definitely worth the $4.99 price tag.
Everything listed above tends to be more consumer centric but I’m going to be digging in to the business apps and technologies more over the next couple of days. I can honestly say I’m a little surprised, and excited, by all of the movement in the SMB/enterprise apps space, there is a TON of stuff going on.
If there is something more you want to know about from WES2010 send me a message on twitter (@vsellis).
Look for more updates or follow me on twitter @vsellis for real time updates from the conference.
About Scott Ellis
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