[qingyuank]

<rant>
The Facebook is a pretty good app. IMO it's the best of the Facebook apps available for phone/tablet. And guess what? It's written with the SDK for Adobe Air (Flash and not NDK)!

I think part of the problem is that people complaining about apps have no idea what's involved with creating apps. I was involved with the group of devs working furiously to crank out apps for the launch. While a few people basically mailed in an effort just to get a free Playbook, there were many spending lots of time designing, coding, and asking advice of others in the dev forums. In many cases, weeks and months of work produced a complete app.

Things many of you take for granted are difficult to get a handle on. No matter how much support from RIM (and they were there with us each step of the way) each app poses its own challenges. You probably don't even think twice about simple things like changing to portrait mode or having an app know just where it was when you last exited.

Between November and April, there were many of us up at all hours making slow but consistent progress. We got a bunch of apps submitted. Some were very simple and others were pretty complex. But most were done by individuals and there is only so much one person can do in any period of time.

RIM did a very good job attracting some very talented developers to their platform. Then once the device launched, all I heard was how all of the apps sucked. RIM did a good job of being supportive. The rest of you did not. Let's see any of you start from scratch, download an entire suite of development tools you've never used before and then create something as simple as Pick a Number Between 1 and 10. You'll spend weeks and then everyone will tell you your app sucks. People I observed and worked with tried very hard to make their apps functional and nice looking without being too simple. But the consensus was that we all suck (sorry for taking criticism to heart).

My question is are you going to rush back in to take a second shot after hearing this? I doubt it. RIM has provided many tools to developers along with great support. From where I sit, the problem is a lack of support from the Playbook user community.

And for all of the people clammoring for the NDK, do you even know what it stands for? Do you even know what languages it supports? Would you recognize it if you walked right into it? Doubt it.

<\rant>

is this a post begging for sympathy?

sorry for being heartless but this is the real world and the free market runs the real world.
the fact is that consumers are not satisfied with app world, pb sales suffer. end of story.

[NickA]

is this a post begging for sympathy?

sorry for being heartless but this is the real world and the free market runs the real world.
the fact is that consumers are not satisfied with app world, pb sales suffer. end of story.

He's not begging for anything. He's stating how difficult it is to develop apps on a new platform, especially when you are rushed.

These are brand new apps. You can't borrow code from your existing apps, you can't convert your code and magically have it run on the PB. Save situation Windows Mobile developers are in. All these apps are written from scratch.

[lorax1284]

I'm puzzled why saying the PlayBook is a good device and explaining the difficulties of getting up to speed with new development tools on a new platform should be considered "whining" or "complaining".

louzer eloquently explained the facts, speaking as someone who had participated in Tablet OS app development.

Critics can certainly say "the appz suck" but you catch more flies with honey than vinegar, and all that lots of people know how to do is **** vinegar. Never constructive criticism, never calling out successes or good things.

These people are negative, and when you point it out, you know what you get? "Wahh Wahh cry me a river" MORE negativity... when the basis of the argument has nothing to do with facts, only with perception, and those trying to contribute positively to the incorrect market perceptions are jumped on.

Talk about "our own worst enemy"... maybe on the whole the CrackBerry forums are a net NEGATIVE for the RIM ecosystem, not positive, giving all these inarticulate whiners who have nothing better to do all day than complain about RIM a platform, where those who support RIM (even though we wish things COULD go a bit faster) are simply outnumbered post-wise by the ne'er-do-well whiner contingent (who really SHOULD be posting on BGR).

[FF22]

He's not begging for anything. He's stating how difficult it is to develop apps on a new platform, especially when you are rushed.

These are brand new apps. You can't borrow code from your existing apps, you can't convert your code and magically have it run on the PB. Save situation Windows Mobile developers are in. All these apps are written from scratch.

Obviously, rim worked with some developers to get out "top notch" apps like NFS and Dead Space. So the potential to create apps in a timely fashion was there. But for whatever reason rim did not work with some developers or did not provide the appropriate inducements. Kindle, Skype, and a better pdf reader are examples of what should be class operations on the pb. People noted that the HP's failed tab had Kindle. Someone provided the incentive whereas rim did not. Yes, those are 3rd party apps but internal support, urging, coaxing, other should have been provided.

As it stands, the pb is flailing about in the cold and its users left questioning the choice.

Maybe it is whining. But I guess folks are looking for both sympathy from folks who understand. You want us to complain to ipad users about the deficiencies we've found. How 'bout 3rd party blogs - should we grip there? Maybe we hope that rim does read these forums. Will it speed up the release - maybe, maybe not but at least we can let them know what some of us want and how let down they've left folks.

[s219]

Obviously, rim worked with some developers to get out "top notch" apps like NFS and Dead Space.

That level of app may have been top notch 3-4 years ago, but by today's best standards, they are way behind. I really think RIM went after some low hanging fruit with NFS as on of the PlayBook's initial "showcase" apps. It was an easy port for EA, so it all worked out. What RIM really should have been doing is reaching higher and wider. I just don't see that they made any effort to get real "wow" apps on the platform (that would be shooting higher) or solid apps for business and personal use (shooting wider). It just all looks halfhearted to me when I compare to the developer support and outreach efforts I see by Apple, Google, and now Microsoft. RIM still hasn't figured it out. NFS is an indication of that.