Java Development

[hendrelouw]

What developer support options are available for BlackBerry Smartphone Java Development?

What plans are available?

Who can I make contact with to enroll a support plan?

[peter_strange]

The answer is probably it depends on what you are planning to develop and the  tools you are planning to use.

Have a look round here:

https://developer.blackberry.com/

[hendrelouw]

I am looking for paid-for professional support that can assist with questions like what tools and what platform

[peter_strange]

Ah, that is a very good question atm.  I suspect your best bet is to try to contact RIM directly, specifically the Developer Relations team.  What country are you in?

[hendrelouw]

Peter, I am from South Africa.

I am first of all trying to establish what platform to develop for. From the BlackBerry website it seem that 5.0 is the way to go. The stats on BlackBerry.com are global though. I will love to see some South African market penetration by phone model.

My second interest is to engage professional BlackBerry developer services that can assist with code questions and code reviews.

The forums are great, the documentation not so great, talking to BlackBerry directly, priceless.

Hendré

[peter_strange · Accepted solution]

One of the 'developer evangelists' in RIM works out of South Africa I think, so there should be someone local you can talk too.  If you message Mark Sohm (the RIM name you will see a lot on the forum - MSohm), with your email address, and ask him to put you in contact with the developer evangelist in SA, that should help.  You can tell Mark to ask me if he needs clarification.  Not promising anything but hopefully something will happen.

[hendrelouw]

This is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you for the assistance, Peter.

[IpiRon]

Hendré,

This is exactly what I'm trying to do as well. I currently have an 'Incident' open with RIM to resolve a problem but I am desparate to find a local (Dallas, TX USA) resource that I can preferably face/face with or at least phone with and am willing to pay them hourly for assistance. I'm an Android programmer thrown over to port my app in Java BB and have been on it for about 3 months solid now. (We tried to find an experienced BB developer back then but got no resumes from the on-line sites). I find the same, the forums are great (kudos to all who help!) but the documentation leaves a lot to be desired. I spend way too much time trying to overcome what I believe are simple issues. I checked the RIM site and didn't see anything such as an hourly consult, just per incident. If you come across anything let me know.

Good luck!

[hendrelouw]

IpiRon,

I send a personal email to MStom, a regular member on the forum. He offered to put me in contact with the BlackBerry Evangelist in South Africa. Send him a message and ask to be introduced to an evangelist in Dallas.

Hendré

[simon_hain]

MSohm, not MStom, and he is the Administrator (and also a very active solution provider on the forums, if he finds the time).
You can find him as the author of all sticky posts.

Maybe there should be a site where Evangelists can be found?
All RIM people i see on conferences etc all say "mail me when you have questions", but until you see their presentation it is difficult to get their handles.

Maybe you can ask RIM on twitter?