Kayak Response to My Email

[Itstakenovermylife]

So I wrote Kayak, expressing my dissatisfaction in their dropping BlackBerry support. Here's the response I received less than an hour later:

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Thanks for taking the time to write. Our decision to stop active support for Blackberry was difficult, but we feel it is the correct one.

Supporting a native application on a platform is quite expensive, and KAYAK is a small company. For quite a while now, our usage metrics on Blackberry platform have been declining, whereas the other mobile platforms have been growing rapidly. We have to invest where the users are going to be in two years, not where they are right this minute.

In terms of app download behavior and usage, the Blackberry audience doesn't behave like other platforms. Size alone doesn't create an app economy. For example, the iOS audience is less than 3X the size of the Blackberry population (in terms of devices out there), but generates about 30X the number of app downloads.

Personally, it makes me sad to see where Blackberry has ended up; I got my first blackberry in 1999 (one of the little pager ones with a B&W screen), and used them for years. I honestly hope they can pull off a comeback somehow, but I can't bet KAYAK's resources on it.

By the time it matters (i.e. if we can't maintain compatibility to keep the BB app running), bb10 will be out, and will run Android apps, and will also have a good browser, so KAYAK users on BB will have those options.

Best Regards,

Bill

Bill O'Donnell
KAYAK Chief Architect and GM Mobile

[IllmasterMathematics]

That seems pretty reasonable

[Erievon]

Hmm. I can buy that I guess. Write back and tell Bill to run their android app through the conversion process for submission to app world for PB2.0. Heck, he'll even get a free playbook for his trouble.

[app_Developer]

Originally Posted by Itstakenovermylife

I honestly hope they can pull off a comeback somehow, but I can't bet KAYAK's resources on it.

It was really nice of him to take the time to send you such a reasonable response so quickly.

I think a lot of people feel this way. We all had Blackberry's before and loved them. I remember how excited I was when I opened my first BB. It was really liberating actually. I think I sent about 100 emails that day, maybe more, from all sorts of interesting locations which I won't mention.

So, yeah, I think Mr. O'Donnell's response is fair. He's personally a fan of RIM obviously, but if BB users are downloading their app at a rate of 1/30 of the iPhone community, then I can see his point.