[phantograms]

there's quite a handful of us without blackberrys to bridge. If you made this, I know plenty like myself would have no problem paying for it. side loaded or appworld, doesn't matter.

[BBThemes]

Hey BBThemes, thanks for your note. Where can I find the SDK terms and conditions that you're referring to? I'm curious to read what you're quoting here...

Thanks!

its part of the standard BB SDK agreement, which is that bit ya click `agree` to every time you install one of their programs onto your pc, its also linked on most product download pages from their devzone.

heres the link to the full PDF.

heres the excerpt which pertains to what i mentioned:

section 2b, license and license restrictions.

For avoidance of any doubt, unless You obtain written authorization from RIM executed by an officer of RIM, You acknowledge that the License (as defined below) does not include and You are not licensed to develop, market, rent, distribute, transfer, license, sublicense, or furnish any software applications which modify, delete, duplicate or replace all or any material part of: (i) the email functionality, or features, of all or any portion of the BlackBerry Solution except where such applications are developed for and distributed solely in connection with RIM Handheld Products in accordance with this License; (ii) the functionality, or features, of all or any portion of a Synchronization Server or Synchronization Agent which has been incorporated by RIM into any portion of the BlackBerry Solution; or (iii) the functionality, or features, of all or any portion of any Distillers which have been incorporated by RIM into the Attachment Service. You further agree not to engage in any of the aforementioned activities or to attempt to do so using any part of the SDK.

[danielbigham]

section 2b, license and license restrictions.

For avoidance of any doubt, unless You obtain written authorization from RIM executed by an officer of RIM, You acknowledge that the License (as defined below) does not include and You are not licensed to develop, market, rent, distribute, transfer, license, sublicense, or furnish any software applications which modify, delete, duplicate or replace all or any material part of: (i) the email functionality, or features, of all or any portion of the BlackBerry Solution except where such applications are developed for and distributed solely in connection with RIM Handheld Products in accordance with this License; (ii) the functionality, or features, of all or any portion of a Synchronization Server or Synchronization Agent which has been incorporated by RIM into any portion of the BlackBerry Solution; or (iii) the functionality, or features, of all or any portion of any Distillers which have been incorporated by RIM into the Attachment Service. You further agree not to engage in any of the aforementioned activities or to attempt to do so using any part of the SDK.

Oh wow. Well that paints a pretty clear picture. Thanks!

[danielbigham]

Got a reply back from Alec Saunders today confirming that the SDK explicitly disallows email apps since they are regarded as part of the core BlackBerry experience.

I guess we'll just have to wait patiently.

[ADGrant]

Got a reply back from Alec Saunders today confirming that the SDK explicitly disallows email apps since they are regarded as part of the core BlackBerry experience.

I guess we'll just have to wait patiently.

A core part of the experience that RIM is denying their customers.

[danielbigham]

A core part of the experience that RIM is denying their customers.

Yeah, it is kind of odd to claim that something is core experience when it isn't present, although it can be argued pretty well that it is present, just as bridge functionality. Semantics.

If I were running RIM, I think I would have encouraged third parties to deliver email functionality for the PlayBook, but I also see why they would want to be picky about making sure that any native email experience is top notch. (Even in that case, though, they could choose to allow third party apps but test them well prior to accepting them, and/or require a higher level of quality than most apps)

At the end of the day, the right decision is a balance between the interests of your customers and shareholders -- maybe this is one of those cases, somehow, that what is best for the customer isn't best for the shareholder? I don't know.

Frankly I wouldn't be all that surprised if this clause in the SDK was just a carry over from the context of the phone, and perhaps Mike & Jim would have been fine with third parties delivering email functionality in the interim, but for the simple fact that the contract historically contained that wording, it needed to be followed? I suppose it would have been kind of messy to only allow third party email in the interim and then disallow those programs once the official solution was in place. Come to think of it, that's a pretty good reason to disallow the third party solution... you could imagine the issue with telling people they were no longer able to use a program they had been using for months, that was full of their personal data, etc. How could you even do that?

So perhaps there is more sense to this than it would at first appear...

[ewitz]

Here is a preview of the Blackberry's native e-mail, contacts and calendar app:

BlackBerry PlayBook's Native Email Client Makes an Appearance

[Disparishun]

If I were running RIM, I think I would have encouraged third parties to deliver email functionality for the PlayBook, but I also see why they would want to be picky about making sure that any native email experience is top notch. (Even in that case, though, they could choose to allow third party apps but test them well prior to accepting them, and/or require a higher level of quality than most apps)

But if you were running RIM, you'd also have a laser focus on security issues and making sure RIM products passed the highest levels of security certification. An e-mail client that isn't RIM-secured, and that routinely receives personal data, might not be something you want available on tablets you're trying to get enterprise customers to distribute to their workforces -- because you can be pretty sure that, if such a client were available, tablets would fill with company-/organization-sensitive data pretty quickly.

[npunk42]

How about a spell checker?

[danielbigham]

But if you were running RIM, you'd also have a laser focus on security issues and making sure RIM products passed the highest levels of security certification. An e-mail client that isn't RIM-secured, and that routinely receives personal data, might not be something you want available on tablets you're trying to get enterprise customers to distribute to their workforces -- because you can be pretty sure that, if such a client were available, tablets would fill with company-/organization-sensitive data pretty quickly.

Yes, very good point.