A new BlackBerry Beta Zone has been launched for beta testers to volunteer to trial official apps from BlackBerry maker RIM – in addition to the existing App World Test Center which is for both RIM and third-party applications.
If you’re in the UK, U.S. or Canada you can sign up, and ReadWriteWeb spotted a phone running the upcoming official Twitter application for BlackBerry in the banner image on the new site. There’s no official mention of the Twitter app in the blog post announcing the launch of Beta Zone, but it has to be pretty much guaranteed as the first place to play with it in the wild.
Previously listed features match other third-party apps with url-shortening, photo-sharing, push messages, message list integration, filtered search by geo-location, and rumours of profile editing, Twitter lists, and on OS6.0 Twitter/BlackBerry contact sync.
The integration between Twitter and BlackBerry services makes sense – it’s one of the major selling points of a BlackBerry, highlighted in the concept of a “Super App” which RIM co-CEO and founder Mike Lazaridis talked about in his keynote at Mobile World Congress. One of the key characteristics, as outlined in a BlackBerry blog post outlining the talk?
‘Apps can add custom menu items and data to the Inbox, Address Book and Calendar and can be called into action immediately from those, and other, apps on the device – always one-click away.’
Now there’s a potential edge for BlackBerry. Inbox, Address Book, Calendar and maybe BlackBerry Messenger integration?
Business users with complete Twitter integration at a time when companies are embracing social media more thoroughly than ever before?