[jetman1287]

One of the big arguments for $2.99 minimum apps on App World is that it would allow only quality apps, and not a million fart apps like the iPhone has cluttering the works.

We're coming up on the one-year mark since AppWorld's release, and I think this was the wrong approach.

The consumer market is driven by apps, and we are clearly in third behind Apple and Android. Most Blackberry apps are more expensive and usually of a lesser quality than their counterparts on other platforms.

I think tons of apps adds to the experience. It adds to the competition. While many will be inferior, they may have features others want to emulate. We need MORE apps so bright ones will shine through, and $1 apps will help us. I know the Crackberry store offers this but it's a small portion of Blackberry users.

So what do you think? Should RIM allow $.99 apps or stick with the status quo of crappy apps for $5.99?

[scorpiodsu]

Crapworld has a bunch of useless apps as well. Of course not as many as the iPhone because the iPhone has more developers and more apps. One of the biggest issues with crapworld is that you are overcharged for apps that are no where near comparable to the same app on the iPhone on Android. The blackberry software has a lot of limitations so developers spend more time on the iPhone and Android platform because they can make better apps.

[Speedv1]

Unfortunately in terms of app compatibility the iphone is top notch. I mean it's so easy for developers to just push them out that they stick to that. Also you have to think about the market sharing taking into consideration both the iphone AND ipod touch series. Both can run almost all of the apps on the Apple app store and I don't know any facts or figures but there are a LOT of ipod touch users out there. According to wikipedia (flawed perhaps, but it's just for an idea), there has been 42.48 million iphone sales and 20 million ipod touch sales to this date. After a quick search roughly 20 million blackberries have been sold. Personally I think the second number is WAY off, but nonetheless I'm just pointing out that the Apple app store has a lot more 'opening' because of the popularity of both the ipod touch and iphone.

[Reed McLay]

Should RIM allow $.99 apps or stick with the status quo of crappy apps for $5.99?

That totally ignores the ton of free stuff and unfairly categorizes BlackBerry App World as a host of crappy apps.

[jetman1287]

That totally ignores the ton of free stuff and unfairly categorizes BlackBerry App World as a host of crappy apps.

We don't even have a lot of free apps. There are few free games on AppWorld except for "Lite", non-touchscreen compatible lagfests. And only one sports score app!

[Reed McLay]

non-touchscreen compatible lagfests ...

Your bias is showing.

Us Non-touchscreen guys are not big on games in the first place.

We are more like Bloomberg Terminal (Free), and dealing with business issues, like forwarding our careers.

[jetman1287]

Your bias is showing.

Us Non-touchscreen guys are not big on games in the first place.

True true

Although I think RIM's growth depends on expansion with consumers and they have been average at best there...I wonder how many people will re-up their contracts when they see what Apple/Google have to offer.

Regardless, a minimum $2.99 for apps has not helped AppWorld at all in comparison to the other major app stores. If anything our apps are worse, not better. Maybe that is also a result of RIM's lackluster OS that's fragmented across carriers (4.2, 4.6, 4.7, 5.0, 5.0.1, different screen sizes, etc)...but the $2.99 distinction needs to go.

[qbnkelt]

I wonder how many people will re-up their contracts when they see what Apple/Google have to offer.

Uuufff....that'd be my entire clan. And we're a huge clan. On both sides of the pond.

[Sith_Apprentice]

Unfortunately in terms of app compatibility the iphone is top notch. I mean it's so easy for developers to just push them out that they stick to that. Also you have to think about the market sharing taking into consideration both the iphone AND ipod touch series. Both can run almost all of the apps on the Apple app store and I don't know any facts or figures but there are a LOT of ipod touch users out there. According to wikipedia (flawed perhaps, but it's just for an idea), there has been 42.48 million iphone sales and 20 million ipod touch sales to this date. After a quick search roughly 20 million blackberries have been sold. Personally I think the second number is WAY off, but nonetheless I'm just pointing out that the Apple app store has a lot more 'opening' because of the popularity of both the ipod touch and iphone.

RIM has more than 35 million ACTIVE BlackBerry subscribers. This is not a measurement of devices sold as the Apple number is.

Revenue for the third quarter of fiscal 2010 was $3.92 billion, up 11% from $3.53 billion in the previous quarter and up 41% from $2.78 billion in the same quarter of last year. The revenue breakdown for the quarter was approximately 82% for devices, 14% for service, 2% for software and 2% for other revenue. During the quarter, RIM shipped approximately 10.1 million devices, including its 75 millionth BlackBerry smartphone.

Approximately 4.4 million net new BlackBerry� subscriber accounts were added in the quarter. At the end of the quarter, the total BlackBerry subscriber account base was approximately 36 million.

[evilhunter101]

The consumer market is driven by apps, and we are clearly in third behind Apple and Android. Most Blackberry apps are more expensive and usually of a lesser quality than their counterparts on other platforms.

We may be third for the time being but a new dev kit is about to be released for Palm's WebOS to port iPhone apps over to WebOS so we'll be fourth here in a bit...

Just thought I'd point that out.

[Reed McLay]

...

Regardless, a minimum $2.99 for apps has not helped AppWorld at all in comparison to the other major app stores. If anything our apps are worse, not better. Maybe that is also a result of RIM's lackluster OS that's fragmented across carriers (4.2, 4.6, 4.7, 5.0, 5.0.1, different screen sizes, etc)...but the $2.99 distinction needs to go.

Free, or about the cost of a cup of coffee?

Personally, I am glad we don't have thousands of $.99 fart apps to sort through.

That listing of OS versions is a chronicle of progress, Go BlackBerry!

[jetman1287]

Have you ever paid $5.99 for a ****ty cup of coffee?

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[thymaster]

We all have expectation to where RIM should be in this heated smartphone war. We all can't tell RIM look make me a cheap SIM 3 game for my blackberry like the iPhone then I'll switch to a Blackberry. If we all have our spoiled ways, life would be flat.

I'm proud of RIM for trying to be different because right now I can't differentiate an iPhone to an Android and Palm because they are all based on the same Linux kernal technology. The apps and OS feel of an Android, iPhone and Palm feels very much alike that they can easily port apps between them now. I think this could be a scary thing for Apple because when black and white blends together, it becomes grey. Apple's bread and butter app store could soon see a thing of a past.

RIM is a growing company and like any growing company it needs to harness this growth in a good way. The company's got big plans and long term goals. The company is well aware that there are competitors out there and they are working hard to fulfill that gap while staying on track with plans. They know that their web browser is behind the times and it doesn't mean they are ignoring the fact. Building a new web kit browser and at the same time offering new and better service to their BES and BIS clients have been a challenge.

It's almost App World one year anniversary and looking back, I've seen a huge improvements in app developments. We've seen many serious developers from the iphone platform extending their reach to the blackberry platform as well.
There is now over 5000+ apps versus with like a couple of hundreds last year. I prefer to browse through 5000 quality apps then 100 000 apps where most are irrelevant to my search.

If you're an app wh0re then get yourself an iPhone and quit complaining blackberry apps sucks.

[Masahiro]

I agre100% with thymaster. Too many people here want the BlackBerry to become just like every other smartphone out there.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[jetman1287]

We all have expectation to where RIM should be in this heated smartphone war. We all can't tell RIM look make me a cheap SIM 3 game for my blackberry like the iPhone then I'll switch to a Blackberry. If we all have our spoiled ways, life would be flat.

I'm proud of RIM for trying to be different because right now I can't differentiate an iPhone to an Android and Palm because they are all based on the same Linux kernal technology. The apps and OS feel of an Android, iPhone and Palm feels very much alike that they can easily port apps between them now. I think this could be a scary thing for Apple because when black and white blends together, it becomes grey. Apple's bread and butter app store could soon see a thing of a past.

RIM is a growing company and like any growing company it needs to harness this growth in a good way. The company's got big plans and long term goals. The company is well aware that there are competitors out there and they are working hard to fulfill that gap while staying on track with plans. They know that their web browser is behind the times and it doesn't mean they are ignoring the fact. Building a new web kit browser and at the same time offering new and better service to their BES and BIS clients have been a challenge.

It's almost App World one year anniversary and looking back, I've seen a huge improvements in app developments. We've seen many serious developers from the iphone platform extending their reach to the blackberry platform as well.
There is now over 5000+ apps versus with like a couple of hundreds last year. I prefer to browse through 5000 quality apps then 100 000 apps where most are irrelevant to my search.

If you're an app wh0re then get yourself an iPhone and quit complaining blackberry apps sucks.

I'd be worried if this is what the RIM execs think. Blackberry did not get any closer since their second or third release of AppWorld last summer. There is a serious lack of innovation, and some of the most downloaded apps are ones that fix the shortcomings of the OS (QuickPull, QuickLaunch, LEDcolors, etc.)

5000 quality? There is little quality...a very high risk in buying an app...this one leaks memory, that one is 2.5MB, that one is only on certain OS versions, and so on.

What's so wrong with a larger community? The iPhone hasn't suffered at all.

[GlitchZero]

2.5 mb?! the atrocities of Java! Frankly, you're bias is showing again. Very very few apps excluding themes or suites are over 2mb, and the only one I can think of off the top of my head is PBA Bowling 2, which sits at 6mb.

Considering we have 256mb (a lot of us) to work with, 2.5mb isn't too steep. Maybe you should look into getting a new BlackBerry if that's such a big memory buster for you.

[jetman1287]

2.5 mb?! the atrocities of Java! Frankly, you're bias is showing again. Very very few apps excluding themes or suites are over 2mb, and the only one I can think of off the top of my head is PBA Bowling 2, which sits at 6mb.

Considering we have 256mb (a lot of us) to work with, 2.5mb isn't too steep. Maybe you should look into getting a new BlackBerry if that's such a big memory buster for you.

Keeping an application lightweight and under 1MB should not be a major concern for developers.

[qbnkelt]

I'd be worried if this is what the RIM execs think. Blackberry did not get any closer since their second or third release of AppWorld last summer. There is a serious lack of innovation, and some of the most downloaded apps are ones that fix the shortcomings of the OS (QuickPull, QuickLaunch, LEDcolors, etc.)

5000 quality? There is little quality...a very high risk in buying an app...this one leaks memory, that one is 2.5MB, that one is only on certain OS versions, and so on.

What's so wrong with a larger community? The iPhone hasn't suffered at all.

Actually, those apps are choices. You can, in fact, run the phone without them. But consumers want to add them to customise their devices. Yes, there were memory leaks, and 5.0 has fixed them on my 9700. My memory holds perfectly steady. The LED colors? Those are choices. (By the way, at least we have them to customise!)

I would much prefer having a smaller community of apps than have several p00p apps and games. I for one don't really want several different games/apps similar to "Where's my P00p?" on my blackberry. You think I'm kidding? Check it out....there are *pages* of p00p apps/games. Really?!? I can live without them, thank you. They're perfect for 12 year olds.

As far as the size of the app, that's a choice as to whether to download or not. I'd rather spend 2.5 MB on a useful app than 1.4 MB on Fling P00. As far as OS versions....yah, different phones have different OS....don't get the problem with that.

App World is growing. I find the apps there useful. But then again, I'm not a 12 year old who has to find a Fling P00 app. Thank God!

[MrObvious]

I wish more apps were free.

[GlitchZero]

Keeping an application lightweight and under 1MB should not be a major concern for developers.

It's becoming less of a concern with this generation of Blackberry. Howarmat is a great example of how far BB apps and 256mb really goes, he's had 130+ applications on his Storm2 at one time, with I believe somewhere between 40-50mb still available. How many does the iPhone hold? 160, regardless of available memory.

And Java isn't exactly bloated. You can't make 100mb applications with it for a phone like you can for the iPhone.

[darkmanx2g]

Actually, those apps are choices. You can, in fact, run the phone without them. But consumers want to add them to customise their devices. Yes, there were memory leaks, and 5.0 has fixed them on my 9700. My memory holds perfectly steady. The LED colors? Those are choices. (By the way, at least we have them to customise!)

I would much prefer having a smaller community of apps than have several p00p apps and games. I for one don't really want several different games/apps similar to "Where's my P00p?" on my blackberry. You think I'm kidding? Check it out....there are *pages* of p00p apps/games. Really?!? I can live without them, thank you. They're perfect for 12 year olds.

As far as the size of the app, that's a choice as to whether to download or not. I'd rather spend 2.5 MB on a useful app than 1.4 MB on Fling P00. As far as OS versions....yah, different phones have different OS....don't get the problem with that.

App World is growing. I find the apps there useful. But then again, I'm not a 12 year old who has to find a Fling P00 app. Thank God!

You guys cant be serious? Appworld is freaking crap. You state apples appstore is filled with poo apps but compare all the cross platform apps to the blackberry app and the blackberry version just fails hard.
Engadget, USA today, CBS sportsmobile, Pandora, Facebook, Myspace, etc... Blackberry just falls flat in its face. Not only it looks way worst its even way slower.
Even Craig Johnston in the podcast says blackberry apps are depressing! RIM actually called blackberry apps SUPER apps. RIM can totally fool alot of people if blackberry users think appworld has 5k quality apps. Get real people stop worshipping RIM. RIM and alot of crackberry addicts are worried that they are falling so far behind Apple and Android. At this pace RIM will turn into Palm.

[kassdog]

Rims problem is not the app world. I know some people buy phones based on the apps that are out but rim should focus on its strong points Let's face it rim can't and probably won't be able with apples app store. I have had android and blackberry. I just switched back to blackberry for one reason, messaging. Rim by far is the clear leader in this category. And I feel they need to advertising it. Iphone and android both have extensive advertising on what there phones do. Blackberry has people running on a beach listening to beetles. If they actually advertise what there phones can do I think they can gain some marketshare.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[Aviator168]

Communication is RIM's strong department. We are BB developer and we only focus on communication's apps which is also our strong point since the start of the company some 15 years ago. Some of our apps can't even be possible with the iPhone platform.

[Artemis68]

I bet BB could use a bigger Appworld (as in, more apps) to appeal to customers. People buy the iPhone because of all the apps. Blackberry isn't getting anywhere with the "quality apps" business. Customers don't care about that - they want CHOICE and many options.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[stuaw11]

Very true.

and for the "oh its just all fart apps" then you have NO clue what youre talking about and obviously talking out your rear without ever using one.

Lets see:

About 10+ different MS Office like apps- the 2 biggies and most feature filled being DocsToGo and QuickOffice, both under about $12.
Far cry from the one app on BB which costs you $60.

About 10-20 different all-in-one IM apps- biggies being Beejive, IM+, meebo. Beejive is about $6 right now on sale, IM+ around $5, and meebo FREE. Tons of others under $5 too and Free ones like Fring.

BB alternatives? Beejive at about $30, IM+ at $40.

All kinds of converters for traveling- money, language, etc etc etc. All mostly under $10, most under $5 even.

Lawyers (my personal area)- free federal rules for all areas, black's law dictionary, US Code, state statutes, Lexis/Fastcase for case searches, on and on. NONE readily available for BB without going on the web, except maybe the federal rules.

Dictate text with your voice with Dragon Diction to use even in texts and emails- FREE

RSS readers- dozens, and most under $4 or FREE.

To say there are no business related apps in the Appstore is denial in the worst sense. Yes, there are stupid ones there, but with 150,000, EVEN IF there are 50,000 junk ones theres still a TON of good ones.

In fact there are MANY TIMES more business apps for iphone even weeding out the crap apps then BB has TOTAL even including their own number of crap apps.


If you jailbreak the sky is the limit, apps expanding functionality (like BerryBuzz and Quicklaunch types of mods for BB) are literally endless.

To say apps dont matter is ignorant. Apple sold tens of millions of devices based on the app for that mentality. Apps expand the functionality of the device past anything the manufacturer could ever incorporate all themselves.