BlackBerry Push Service - Fail

This really is depressing. Being Canadian and all I really want to root for the home team. Moreover I hate polluting my blog with complaints about BlackBerry development. Alas, here we go again…

Todays topic: BlackBerry Push Service. BlackBerry push can be routed through BlackBerry Internet Service or it can route through a BlackBerry Enterprise Server. The difference? BIS is the one you want to use if you are a developer targeting the consumer market at large. To route push notifications through BIS, you must request to evaluate the push service. It also appears you must submit another request when you want to go live, but I haven’t made it that far.

This is where the problem lies. I have submitted three requests in the past two weeks with no response. Each time I submit one, I’m greeted with a friendly message:

“Thank you, someone will contact you in two business days“

Bottom line I can’t finish OR test my app without access to this service.

What about the other guys?

This is where it gets sad. The software I’m working on is also being developed in parallel for Android and iOS. So what does the process look like for the other platforms?

Android

The Android Cloud to Device Messaging framework also requires developers to signup to access the service. The difference being two seconds after you fill out the signup form you are ready to go!

Slightly off topic, but the C2DM API is extremely simple to use. It was a pleasure to work with since I could use basic Unix shell scripting to send requests to the service during testing.

Apple

After you register as an iOS developer (and you drop $100 US for the privilege), Apple gives you access to something called the iOS Provisioning Portal which is a web interface for generating all manor of certificates and mobile provisioning bits and bobs. In this portal access to the APNS (Apple Push Notification Service) can also be enabled with a few mouse clicks… instantly.

So what have I done so far?

Not wait on RIM, that’s for sure! In the last two weeks I have managed to completely finish the iOS and Android versions of my app including full push integration.

Let me say that again. In the time it’s taking RIM to grant me permission to write software that uses their services, I have created the same thing on competing platforms.