BlackBerry holding company Research In Motion (RIM) has announced the name of South Africa’s first BlackBerry App Master. Joe Diedericks (follow him on Twitter) received this honour for his ‘Salon Queen’ application for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet (read our review here), which will become available locally soon.

Canadian smartphone and tablet maker, RIM, launched its local search for South Africa’s best and brightest mobile app developers at the beginning of the year. Contestants had to develop an application for the BlackBerry PlayBook and submit it before the 31st of May 2011.

Salon Queen

The app that came up tops in the competition was ‘Salon Queen’, a sales, scheduling and customer relationship management app for hair salons. This app makes it simple for hair stylists to showcase their work and hairstyle ideas to their clients, as well as the hairstyles the salon has done for them before. The app also enables salons to track their clients as well as schedule hair appointments for clients on the spot.

According to RIM the app was crowned champ because the concept is simple, but also powerful. It makes use of core features of the BlackBerry PlayBook (email, camera and calendar) to create an enriched business tool that any salon can benefit from. Salon Queen can also easily be adapted for other professionals such as beauticians, dermatologists, dentists as well as personal trainers.

“We will continue to support South African developers as they develop localised apps and content that meet the needs of our market, stated Craige Fleischer, regional director for Southern Africa at RIM.

Diedericks won the title of BlackBerry App Master, a BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, as well as an all-expenses-paid trip to the US. He will be going to the BlackBerry Developer Conference, taking place from 18 October to 20 October in San Francisco. His winning app will also be prominently featured on the South African BlackBerry App World carousel when it becomes available.

 

RIM also recently revealed that even in the face of tough competition from the likes of Apple’s iPhone and a flurry of Android-powered smartphones, it is still experiencing tremendous growth in the Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). The Canadian company added over a million new subscribers to its base within the EMEA region in less than three weeks.