Recently VAULT took on development of a Blackberry app for POS. The requirements of the app were relatively straight-forward: allow the user to choose Fund Facts documents to send to investors, choose a delivery method (email or print/mail) and choose who to send it to (based on contacts within the user's Blackberry contact list. Simple.

While RIM does provide some basic "Getting Started" type tutorials what is sorely lacking is any type of guidance on more advanced topics. Chief among our specific needs for the app was access to web services. Web service integration is key to developing apps for modern handheld devices. Unfortunately I wasn't able to find much help online as to how to best use web services from within a Blackberry app. For a period I was convinced the Blackberry APIs did not (natively) support web service calls at all.

While searching for help online regarding my web services issues I found comments from numerous other developers stating how much easier development is for the iPhone platform. Help online is abundant, APIs are easy to navigate and to use and there is support for modern web services standards.

The launch of the iPhone and subsequent success of the App Store has shown that it's not enough to create compelling hardware. If RIM is to compete then they need to have a robust application development community. By providing weak development tools, Byzantine APIs and limited assistance RIM is pushing its developers away and into a space where they can succeed, the iPhone.