Research In Motion (RIM) has been generating what can be described as positive headlines because of some exciting features of its upcoming OS and devices BB10. The company appears to be busy in other respects as well, grabbing headlines on Thursday, with the company announcing the opening of its second app lab in Cape Town, South Africa.
On this occasion RIM’s MD for South Africa and Southern Africa, Alexandra Zagury described the objective behind opening this app lab by saying that, “Cape Town is a key innovation hub, and a natural site for RIM’s second BlackBerry apps lab in South Africa. We are now looking forward to fostering mobile innovation in the Western Cape and helping to grow South Africa’s next wave of mobile app developers. Our investment in this lab is a signal of our commitment to supporting South Africa’s thriving BlackBerry developer ecosystem.”
RIM had launched its first apps lab in South Africa at the University of Pretoria (UP) in May of this year, which is still working as the Authorised Academic Centre of BlackBerry.
This app lab in Cape Town will not only accelerate the development of mobile apps in the country, it will also create new jobs and opportunities in the mobile sector. In addition to this, it will also act to serve the goals of the South African Department of Communications’ (DOC) eSkills Institute. Moreover start-ups, local developers, entrepreneurs, and even students and others can access this apps lab to create and do good with the resources provided for the development, sales and marketing of applications. In addition, they can also receive training to expand business opportunities and ideas in this lab.
Talking about the BlackBerry apps lab, Blessing Mahlalela, a student at UP shared, “RIM has eliminated the cost that my startup company would have incurred by providing resources such as the latest BlackBerry devices for testing and high performance development machines.
His classmate, Leon van Dyk, who is also a UP student added that, “My programming abilities for the BlackBerry platform have increased monumentally – and so has my interests in mobile development as a career choice.”
Aside from the aforementioned, another purpose of developing this apps lab was to create regional and local apps for BlackBerry tablets and smartphones including the upcoming BB10 system as well.
In addition to this, apps lab at Cape Town is a part of RIM’s extensive developer plan that covers Africa. As a result of this widespread plan, RIM is currently engaged with about 118 schools, colleges and universities in different countries on the African continent by offering institutions teaching content along with course material and educating students about mobile app development through their BlackBerry Academic Project. We are proud that this organization who would love to have a big bounce back in 2013 is doing genuine good in a part of the world that has people hungry to take those opportunities and run with them.
Source: Crackberry
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