Research In Motion announced new and enhanced tools for developing web applications for BlackBerry smartphones.

The tools include the new BlackBerry Web Development Plug-in for Eclipse and the BlackBerry Plug-in for Microsoft Visual Studio version 1.2. These tools are part of a complete portfolio of BlackBerry developer tools for web and Java development and a rich set of APIs that enable developers to easily create a wide variety of mobile applications that connect BlackBerry smartphone users to the information they care about.

The BlackBerry application platform also incorporates significant advantages, including real-time push technology, unmatched security and highly efficient data compression and network bandwidth utilization, allowing developers to deliver optimized applications on the most powerful, secure and efficient platform in the industry.

"The BlackBerry developer tools portfolio aims to bring together the best of Java and web development for the creation of web applications that are integrated with core BlackBerry smartphone functions for a seamless, intuitive and robust user experience," said Alan Brenner, Senior Vice President, BlackBerry Platform Group at RIM. "The evolving portfolio of web development tools for the BlackBerry platform allows developers to work in familiar development environments to create, debug, profile, test and optimize their web applications for BlackBerry smartphones."

The BlackBerry Web Development Plug-in for Eclipse, available today at www.blackberry.com/developers/webeclipse, is a new plug-in that allows developers to create web applications and content for BlackBerry smartphones within the familiar Eclipse 3.4 environment. Using this plug-in, developers can debug and profile Internet/intranet web pages displaying HTML and CSS content in addition to more complex rich internet applications using AJAX, Silverlight, PHP, ASP, Ruby on Rails, JSP, and Python.

BlackBerry Plug-in for Microsoft Visual Studio version 1.2, available today at www.blackberry.com/developers/webvisualstudio, provides an all-in-one tool for developers to create web applications and content for BlackBerry® smartphones within the Visual Studio 2008 environment. Using this plug-in, developers can create simple Internet/intranet web pages or more complex, rich Internet applications using AJAX and ASP.Net.

Both tools feature BlackBerry smartphone simulators for testing and debugging projects, and web application profiling for visibility into data traffic, load time and use of web based content, including elements such as images, CSS, JavaScript, HTML and objects.

RIM supports the BlackBerry developer community through a variety of means including BlackBerry® Developer Zone (www.blackberry.com/developer), the BlackBerry® Alliance Program (www.blackberry.com/partners), developer community forums (http://supportforums.blackberry.com/rim/?category.id=BlackBerryDevelopment), the BlackBerry Developer Newsletter, a developer track at the annual WES conference (www.attendwes.com) in Orlando, the annual BlackBerry® Developer Conference (www.blackberrydeveloperconference.com) in Silicon Valley, the BlackBerry Solutions Catalog (www.blackberrysolutionscatalog.com) and BlackBerry App World(TM) (www.blackberryappworld.com).