[adamschuetze]

Dear BlackBerry,

I have been watching your progress since the BB10 launch in January. Specifically, I have been keeping an eye on the app situation. Nine months later, it is looking grim.

The big players are mostly ignoring you (no Kindle app for Q10 in BlackBerry World!), but the upside is that private developers have taken it upon themselves to build applications that users want and need.

My suggestion is simple: acquire these developers. Buy their companies and IP outright, and hire the developers as BlackBerry employees. Pay them to continue working on their apps, and relaunch them as official BlackBerry apps.

I would be remiss if I didn't point out some apps I think are perfect for acquisition. This list is not exhaustive, it is just a few apps I use all the time, that *should* be official BlackBerry apps:

1. Authomator - Google Authenticator app
2. Blackgram - Instagram client
3. ReadItNow! - Pocket client
4. Fasttube - BlackBerry needs a native official youtube app
5. gNewsReader - Feedly RSS feed reader
6. Max QR scanner
7. Reddit in Motion
8. Trapeez - Tumblr app (and while you're at it, buy the whole company and roll in Blaq's feature set into the Twitter app)

Thanks,

Adam Schuetze


Posted from 420 Paper Street

[anon3700711]

Dear BlackBerry,

I have been watching your progress since the BB10 launch in January. Specifically, I have been keeping an eye on the app situation. Nine months later, it is looking grim.

The big players are mostly ignoring you (no Kindle app for Q10 in BlackBerry World!), but the upside is that private developers have taken it upon themselves to build applications that users want and need.

My suggestion is simple: acquire these developers. Buy their companies and IP outright, and hire the developers as BlackBerry employees. Pay them to continue working on their apps, and relaunch them as official BlackBerry apps.

I would be remiss if I didn't point out some apps I think are perfect for acquisition. This list is not exhaustive, it is just a few apps I use all the time, that *should* be official BlackBerry apps:

1. Authomator - Google Authenticator app
2. Blackgram - Instagram client
3. ReadItNow! - Pocket client
4. Fasttube - BlackBerry needs a native official youtube app
5. gNewsReader - Feedly RSS feed reader
6. Max QR scanner
7. Reddit in Motion
8. Trapeez - Tumblr app (and while you're at it, buy the whole company and roll in Blaq's feature set into the Twitter app)

Thanks,

Adam Schuetze


Posted from 420 Paper Street

Replace Blackgram with iGrann.

[AnimalPak200]

They're laying off people because the cost of maintaining an employee is astronomical. Why would they even consider this? They could 'contract out' the work if the really wanted, but instead they have poured their sweat and tears into enabling a development environment for others to leverage. Not sure if you have noticed, but the BlackBerry-developed apps like FB and Twitter are always met with disdain and lower reviews, while third-party apps like Blaq have an almost cult following. I'm not sure we want them to pluck these brilliant devs and in the process perhaps diminishing their unhindered creativity, entrepreneurship and contributions to the ecosystem.

Posted via CB10

[Magnetic_dud]

6. Max QR scanner

Why, there's a built-in qr scanner from day one. Did you know that?
It's the smart tag app (which coincidentally has a qr code as an icon)

[mf1982]

The Active Twitter Frame for the BlackBerry created app makes their app better than Blaq for me.

I've never been too into Blaq even though I got it for free (fallapps promo).

Posted via CB10

[aussie99]

Explain please. Whats active twitter?

Posted via CB10

[mf1982]

Sorry, the Active Frame with the native BlackBerry Twitter app. I like seeing recent tweets without entering the app.

Posted via CB10

[adamschuetze]

Why, there's a built-in qr scanner from day one. Did you know that?
It's the smart tag app (which coincidentally has a qr code as an icon)

Actually I didn't know that. Thanks for pointing that out

Posted from 420 Paper Street

[The Aficionado]

Not sure if you have noticed, but the BlackBerry-developed apps like FB and Twitter are always met with disdain and lower reviews, while third-party apps like Blaq have an almost cult following..

Posted via CB10

The independent devs cherry pick which reviews whereas blackberry approves every review no matter how bad it is. Heck even bbm has a 2.5 or 3 star rating. Bb travel is the only bb app with a decent review


Posted via CB10

[The Aficionado]

^^^^

(and docs to go)

Posted via CB10