Blackberry 2011 Annual Report Download - page 17

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4 RESEARCH IN MOTION ANNUAL REPORT 2011
focused on growing the number of apps available for the BlackBerry
platform. BlackBerry users can download and purchase applications
through BlackBerry App World™ which is now available in more than
100 countries around the world. There are now more than 3 million
apps downloaded per day from BlackBerry App World and the num-
ber is growing. During fiscal 2011, we also made it easier than ever
for consumers to purchase apps by adding new payment options,
including the ability for customers to add purchases directly to the
mobile phone bill they receive from their carrier. Over the coming
year we plan to further grow the number of apps on BlackBerry App
World and to make these new payment options more broadly avail-
able to our customer base.
Growing Application Platform
In fiscal 2011, the number of registered BlackBerry application
developers grew by more than 100,000 to over 350,000 and RIM
remains committed to delivering a powerful software and services
platform to enable these developers to create, distribute and
monetize innovative and compelling oerings for BlackBerry
smartphones. Over the past year a number of software development
kits (SDKs) were launched to make it easier for developers to
leverage unique capabilities of the BlackBerry platform such as
BBM, geo-location, presence, integrated calendar and alerts and to
generate additional revenue through the new BlackBerry Advertising
Platform and BlackBerry Payment Service. To further extend the
flexibility in payment options for BlackBerry subscribers we are also
introducing the BBM Mobile Gifting platform which will integrate
with BlackBerry App World and carrier billing systems to allow
BlackBerry subscribers to seamlessly and instantaneously gift
airtime, applications and other carrier services from one subscriber
to another.
The new BlackBerry Tablet OS also provides significant opportu-
nities for both current and prospective BlackBerry developers and
the response from the developer community has been excellent. It
oers support for industry standard tools that are already familiar to
millions of developers, full POSIX compliance and support of Open
GL for 2D and 3D graphics. The BlackBerry Tablet OS already sup-
ports an incredibly robust platform with support for Web develop-
ment standard HTML5, through the BlackBerry® WebWorks™ SDK for
Tablet OS, and Adobe® AIR®, through the BlackBerry Tablet OS SDK
for Adobe AIR. The BlackBerry Tablet OS is built from the ground
up to run WebKit and Adobe® Flash® as well, giving developers a fast
and true Web experience to leverage. In addition, with the upcoming
BlackBerry Tablet OS native development kit (NDK), C/C++ tools will
be added to our repertoire to give developers one of the broadest
and deepest development platforms.
BlackBerry Service
RIM’s global BlackBerry Infrastructure remains a core advantage
for our business and is an integral part of RIM’s ability to deliver
industry leading push services, security, manageability and spectral
eciency for RIM’s customers and partners. The amount of global
data trac supported by the BlackBerry Infrastructure more than
doubled year over year to more than 15 petabytes each month and
our focused investments made throughout the year helped us evolve
and expand the infrastructure to support this growth and to build for
the future.
BlackBerry Customer Care eorts also expanded in Fiscal 2011.
In addition to our multiple existing customer care facilities around
the world which oer 24/7 service, RIM continues to assess needs
and respond with localization eorts and support for new markets,
oering support in multiple languages. We also continue to extend
our online reach to provide additional support options for customers.
The Year Ahead
RIM is well positioned to build on the success of the past year and to
continue driving growth in the adoption of BlackBerry products and
services in new markets and segments. Over the next year, we plan
to expand our leadership in the enterprise market, further penetrate
prepaid and entry level segments, expand our cloud services oer-
ings, further entrench the BlackBerry platform as a leading mobile
social networking platform, expand the footprint of QNX software
in automotive and other markets and continue delivering leading
edge, high quality smartphone and tablet products and services in
markets around the world. Collaboration and partnerships will be
key to meeting our goals and we look forward to working with carri-
ers, distributors, software developers, suppliers and other partners
to deliver growth in Fiscal 2012. We thank our shareholders for their
support over the past year and we look forward to providing updates
on our progress over the coming year.
MESSAGE FROM THE CO-CEOS
Mike Lazaridis Jim Balsillie
President and Co-CEO Co-CEO