Last week we launched a Blackberry version of our mobile event app for the 13,000 doctors attending the ASCRS 2010 conference at the Boston Convention Center.
SwiftMobile’s CTO, David Willoughby, described the development process for Blackberry as “completely different from the iPhone. The biggest issue is that there are many different screen sizes and shapes for Blackberrys. The Blackberry has been around for a long time and there are still Blackberrys in use that have older features and capabilities. A developer needs to make the decision how far back you go and which devices you choose to support. Rather than sacrifice features, we made a cut off that supports 60 to 75% of devices.”
The Blackberry version of the app has the same core set of features as the iPhone but in order to accommodate the limitations of the Blackberry, Willoughby had to make changes to the design. ”Our app for iPhone is very visual and takes advantage of the power and memory of an iphone. The ability to swipe, pinch, and touch the screen doesn’t carry over, so we designed an interface that gives you access to the same information, but within the user experience of the Blackberry. ”
The iPhone version of the app has a high resolution map of the trade show floor. But, according to Willoughby, “you can’t load the full high-resolution show floor on to the blackberry and you can’t pinch and scroll. Instead, you start with a list with access to the visual map, but use menus to move around.”
Over 400 users downloaded the Blackberry app for the ASCRS 2010 conference. The analytics and survey responses from these users will give SwiftMobile valuable information about how to enhance and add features to future releases.
Watch a demo of the ASCRS 2010 mobile app for Blackberry on YouTube.
Watch a demo of the ASCRS 2010 mobile app for iPhone on You Tube.
Download the ASCRS 2010 mobile app for iPhone.
Email us at support@imswift.com for instructions on how to download and demo ASCRS 2010 for Blackberry.
