In the past few days 2 interesting bits of information were released by RIM and Google.

• Google released the Google Apps connector for Blackberry Enterprise Server
• RIM released the Gmail enhanced plugin for Blackberry Internet Service

Now this would normally be cool but well nothing special. But in the past weeks many have wondered whether RIM is capable of keeping up with the competition, especially the iPhone. For me these releases are signs that RIM acknowledges the shortcomings of it’s current platform and is not hiding it’s head in the sand. The fact that Google has released it’s connector for the Blackberry Enterprise Server means that there are enough installations of BES on top of Google Apps already that this combo needs to be taken seriously. The company I work for does in fact run on Google Apps so I am very happy about both of these releases.

One big advantage that RIM has in the fight vs the iPhone and other competitors is it’s push infrastructure. Not only is it quite unique even today but also it’s infrastructure is spread well and built up for the future. The most important thing now for RIM is to consider this not as a locked up proprietary service but to open it up to developers to build great apps on. Although the Blackberry SDK is already out there for some time many argue it is yet to be powerful enough to build serious apps on. The success or failure of the Blackberry platform depends on this as in regards to hardware – the berries themselves were always great devices.

And this brings me to my last point. RIM started a developer blog recently (11/08/2009) which is again an indication of where they are heading. Since it’s start it had 10 post in 10 days each rich with detailed information for developers. These guys mean business.

The most current post is about the new Blackberry 5.0 SDK beta that is now available to developers. If you read through the feature list the key from my perspective is

Push API

(net.rim.blackberry.api.push.*)

Makes using Push APIs even easier and more powerful for developers.

This is exactly what I meant earlier. The best move for RIM now is to empower it’s developer community with the access to the unique features of it’s platform. Apple only recently released it’s push functionality and compared to RIM it has still a long way to go.

In the past weeks I have been considering getting an iPhone 3GS to supplement my Blackberry Bold because I felt the Blackberry platform stagnating. Not anymore. I have high hopes for the Blackberry and I also wish the rumors about the browser upgrades are true. Full Flash/Silverlight capabilities on the Blackberry? iPhone beware!