BlackBerry, botanically speaking, belongs to the flower plant genus of Rubus of the rose family.

BlackBerry, the phone maker, has set up a lab, named after Rubus, at Kerala’s famed Startup Village. In about nine months, it has become a rendezvous for engineering college graduates who have a mobile app (application) idea.

Seeing good response, BlackBerry is considering opening similar hangouts for aspiring entrepreneurs in Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Pune and Hyderabad. “A low-cost location in these cities would be an ideal location,” Annie Mathew, Head of Alliances (India) of Research in Motion India Private Ltd, told Business Line .

The company is also planning to move to a bigger location when the Startup Village gets the one-lakh sq ft space from the Kerala Government. “We will grow Rubus as the village gets bigger,” she said.

Showcasing a big bed-room sized Rubus Labs to a group of reporters last week, Annie said who ever comes to the Startup Village to do mobile apps would come to Rubus. “When we conducted Hangout session, over 50 students turned up to try with their idea. Those who have already developed apps on other platforms too would come here,” she said.

“We got some 146 apps from the Hangout activity alone. Over 60 of them are already put on App World (BlackBerry’s app market place). All of them will be available for the upcoming BB10 operating system,” she said.

The OS is set for global launch this month end. No specific date for India launch has been announced.

Annie also talked about the plan to certify apps that conform to set guidelines. These apps would feature on the App World, giving the developers better visibility. “For now, we won’t be charging any fee for this certification,” she said.

She then showcased the young app developers who had successfully put their apps on the App World and making money too.

Nithin George, who’s just past his teens, is the Chief Executive Officer of QEDGE Code Solutions. Along with other teenage friends from college, Nithin had his first brush with the world apps at a Bangalore fete. As his team bagged the first prize, he named his firm QEDGE.

Dhanan Sekhar Edathara, who heads the single man company DhaneW Software Research, also used the BB facility as he developed games. He focussed only on traditional games, with him being the programmer, game designer and music composer.

> kurmanath.kanchi@thehindu.co.in

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