DeviceAnywhere Connects BlackBerry App Developers to Smartphones via Internet

Saying it’s making application creation and testing easier, a San Mateo, California-based company today announced that it’s now part of the so-called “BlackBerry (News - Alert) Independent Software Vendor Alliance Program.”

 

Officials with DeviceAnywhere say that with their platform, developers can access 100 live BlackBerry smartphones – such as the BlackBerry Curve 8320, pictured below – on 16 different carriers.

 

More than half of the U.S. market now owns a smartphone, and Research In Motion has been a leader since the market’s inception, according to Faraz Syed (News - Alert), chief executive officer and co-founder of DeviceAnywhere.

 

“The need to bring in smart applications to cater to high-end mass market devices is more apparent than ever,” Syed said. “DeviceAnywhere helps solve this dilemma with unmatched solutions to ease the mobile application development lifecycle. Developers realize the immediate benefits of reducing time to market of their products and DeviceAnywhere provides them the right tools.” 

DeviceAnywhere’s flagship platform is designed to hasten those benefits by providing access to more than 1,500 mobile handsets connected to live networks through the Internet.

 

The company’s platform is so popular that similar services now are popping up among different companies.

 

As TMCnet Contributing Editor Anuradha Shukla reported yesterday, Nexperience (News - Alert) has announced the upcoming launch of a remote development and testing service that will enable BlackBerry developers and testers to control via the Internet numerous remote BlackBerry devices, including the recently launched BlackBerry Pearl 8220 flip smartphone and the BlackBerry Bold 9000.

 

The company will initially offer this worldwide service from the United States, Spain and United Kingdom, according to Shukla.

 

“Nexperience’s new remote development and testing service will also offer the BlackBerry developer community Cross-Device Automated Solutions, which can support the BlackBerry development and testing processes,” Shukla reports.

 

It’s no wonder DeviceAnywhere has company: The need for such platforms has grown at high rate, as BlackBerry devices grow in popularity.

 

Officials at DeviceAnywhere cite a recent report from Gartner (News - Alert) that worldwide smartphone sales during the second quarter this year totaled more than 32 million, and are expected to climb through next year.

 

Jeff McDowell, vice president of global alliances at RIM, said his company is seeing more and more interest in BlackBerry apps from business and casual users.

 

“DeviceAnywhere provides a valuable service for BlackBerry application developers with real-world testing on multiple carrier networks that can help developers bring their applications to market much faster,” McDowell said.