IBM and Research In Motion have unveiled new developer tools for the BlackBerry platform. The BlackBerry Java Development Environment (BlackBerry JDE) for Eclipse plugs into IBM Lotus Domino Designer, making it easier to develop new software applications for BlackBerry smartphones. BlackBerry platform support for XPages enables developers to write a rich application once for both Web and secure use on BlackBerry smartphones.

IBM and RIM are rolling out these features and tools for BlackBerry smartphones in the coming months: Lotus Symphony document viewing and the new capabilities for Lotus Connections will be available in the second quarter; and the Lotus Quickr team room and Designer offerings are planned for availability in the second half of 2009.

Additionally, IBM Lotus Notes and Domino and IBM Lotus Sametime unified communications and collaboration software, which has worked on the BlackBerry platform for several years, is now also compatible with the BlackBerry Storm smartphone. The companies recently made a new presence and awareness-everywhere feature available on the Blackberry. This is made possible by the new BlackBerry Client for Lotus Sametime which provides smartphone customers with real time communications capabilities throughout the smartphone's applications.