App Confusion. . .

**AfroZepher** · 08-04-2012, 08:42 AM

. . .I'm still a bit confused about this app business. . .If developers won't make an app for Blackberry (even after all the crazy wooing) why doesn't RIM just ask the developers for permission to have RIM do all the work and develop the apps and if money is made send the developer a check? (is there like a rule against this or something????) RIM has a huge gap of time before BB10. . .they can be using this time to make the apps developers won't make for them??? Right??? It shouldn't be a big deal right. . .cuz with all the developer tools RIM had made available and all the success stories of apps being made in only a few days I'm sure RIM's in house guys can bust out the top 100 most popular apps not on BB in a couple of months??? No???

**PedroBorgas** · 08-04-2012, 09:02 AM

Laws and better stuff to do ^^

Sent from a old but beautiful BB 8520 or a new and shinny PB 2.0

**PedroBorgas** · 08-04-2012, 09:05 AM

But still a relevant question.

"If nobody does it for us, we should it ourselfs" - Isn't that what we teach our children??

Sent from a old but beautiful BB 8520 or a new and shinny PB 2.0

**dkonigs** · 08-04-2012, 10:06 AM

If you're reading a story about how someone farted out an app in a couple of hours, it actually means one of the following...

The app was a meaningless trinket, and isn't really worth having. But it at least shows that the developer being interviewed didn't drool on themselves for 3 weeks trying to learn how to read API documentation (and complain on forums and blogs about this).
Some web designer threw something together that looks pretty, but it really doesn't do much yet.
It was a simple repackaging job (e.g. Android app), and is full of integration awkward quirks that the developer is never going to bother fixing
Its a game, which doesn't depend on any device-specific frameworks. The port was really easy, since they just recompiled it and fixed a handful of build issues. (But they won't tell you that it now needs another month of testing, between the time the "it was easy!" article got printed and the actual public release)

I keep trying to scream this at people for so long now, but all the "some toddler wrote an iFart app over the weekend!" stories make it hard to get the message across. "Mobile apps" are still actual software, require actual software development skills, and time and effort, to develop. There is a big difference between mixing a few snippets of sample code together, and actually writing an app people would want to use.

P.S. There are also all the confusing and annoying legal issues that should be obvious to anyone reading the OP's post.

**AfroZepher** · 08-04-2012, 11:24 AM

Fair enough. . .I just really hope RIM has something significant in terms of apps up their sleeve. . .cuz honestly,getting a bunch of indie developers on board still won't do it. . .sure. . .an amazing and unique UI might get some folks on board but it's the amount of noteworthy and recognizable apps that will keep them. . .

**dkonigs** · 08-04-2012, 12:47 PM

Originally Posted by AfroZepher

Fair enough. . .I just really hope RIM has something significant in terms of apps up their sleeve. . .cuz honestly,getting a bunch of indie developers on board still won't do it. . .sure. . .an amazing and unique UI might get some folks on board but it's the amount of noteworthy and recognizable apps that will keep them. . .

This I actually agree with completely. All of these big Jam events seem to be dragging indie developers out of the woodwork, but the bigger names need a little more than public outreach and freebies to justify things to the bottom line.

Of course Microsoft's approach of bankrolling (or bribing, depending on your POV) WP development hasn't helped them too much either.

Right now RIM really does face a bit of a "chicken and egg" problem. No good business case for BB10 app support without consumer adoption, yet no consumer adoption without BB10 app support.