A BlackBerry® device with a touch screen can include an accelerometer, which is designed to sense the orientation and acceleration of the BlackBerry device. When a BlackBerry device user moves the BlackBerry device, the accelerometer can sense the movement in 3-D space along the x, y, and z axis. A BlackBerry device user can change the orientation of the device which can change the display direction of a screen for a BlackBerry device application between portrait and landscape.

You can use the Accelerometer APIs in the net.rim.device.api.system package to respond to the orientation and acceleration of a BlackBerry device. For example, you can manipulate a game application to change the direction and speed of a moving object on the screen as a user moves and rotates the BlackBerry device at different speeds.