RIM bribes coders: Make BlackBerry 10 apps, GET A FREE SHINY

The first 100 developers to build applications for BlackBerry OS 10 using Appcelerator's Titanium cross-platform kit will get free devices as RIM attempts to kickstart its mobile platform. The next 10,000 developers will get free access to cloud services.

Those wanting the freebies will have to download the BB10 version of Titanium and then port something good enough to be uploaded to RIM's BlackBerry World online software store. The first 100 developers accepted will get a free prototype device and the next 10,000 will get a year's free cloud from Appcelerator.

Appcelerator and RIM have joined up for the push, which is aimed at the 390,000 developers using Titanium who may not have considered BlackBerry 10 as a target platform, and might be encouraged to do so with this offer.

The companies admit that developers will have to put some effort in - rewriting something between 10 and 35 per cent of their code to get it working on RIM's last best hope of mobile glory, but at least the programmers will be able to compete in a sparsely populated market.

That, combined with the relatively cash-rich BlackBerry user demographic, has been the sole attraction of RIM development until now, but at the end of January we'll have BlackBerry 10 devices and be better able to judge if the development effort was worth it. ®