BlackBerry App World™ Development

[planetshine]

Is it possible to develop for a BlackBerry without any phone carrier plan?

If not, what is the cheapest plan on any carrier in the United States?

[CEC]

It is possible to develop without a plan if you use an unlocked phone.  However, you can't test the App World downloads without a plan.  The best I can tell, App World checks which carrier you are using to determine what applications are available to you.  when you don't have a carrier, the application crashes.  If you use one of the WiFi models, you could probably check downloads from other repositories.

[cwong15]

Theoretically, it is possible to develop for a BlackBerry without a phone altogether. All you need is the SDK, which includes a simulator. You can develop, sign, test on the simulator and upload to App World without owning a phone. Of course, it is best to be able to test on a real phone.

I keep a spare Curve 8320 for testing. I find that even without a SIM card (i.e., no carrier), I can use wifi to connect to the Internet and install apps OTA. Among carriers, I think T-Mobile is one of the cheaper options. They let you use your BlackBerry on the network without data service (I have a $19.99 voice-only plan!), but only if you don't buy a subsidized BlackBerry from them. Otherwise, a data plan (minimum $30/month) is mandatory. Some things won't work without a data plan, however, such as App World itself.

[puguasoft]

Yes, you can.

Like the other poster, we use WIFI-enabled BlackBerry phones to test our apps without needing a wireless carrier plan.