[FlashFlare11]

Hi everyone!

After learning about the delay of BlackBerry 10 phones and the death calls for RIM, one problem kept coming up about why BB10 is going to fail: apps. Now, I realize that those of us who use BlackBerry phones don't use them for apps. However, I don't think RIM can survive without winning more customers into the BlackBerry network. The key to this is app development.

I know it's up to RIM to bring on app developers to develop for BlackBerry. But is there a way for us BlackBerry users to get our voices heard by the developers? Companies like Rovio, Zynga, Netflix, Microsoft etc. need to realize that there it is worth it to develop for BlackBerry.

There must be something we BlackBerry users can do to show these companies just what they're missing by not developing for BlackBerry!

[_StephenBB81]

Hi everyone!

After learning about the delay of BlackBerry 10 phones and the death calls for RIM, one problem kept coming up about why BB10 is going to fail: apps. Now, I realize that those of us who use BlackBerry phones don't use them for apps. However, I don't think RIM can survive without winning more customers into the BlackBerry network. The key to this is app development.

I know it's up to RIM to bring on app developers to develop for BlackBerry. But is there a way for us BlackBerry users to get our voices heard by the developers? Companies like Rovio, Zynga, Netflix, Microsoft etc. need to realize that there it is worth it to develop for BlackBerry.

There must be something we BlackBerry users can do to show these companies just what they're missing by not developing for BlackBerry!

Well if there were some BlackBerry fan sites people could go to that's target was to be a Fan site, They probably could write articles and get user feed back from BlackBerry users that is relevant to developers such as What Devices are currently being used, what OS, What price point per Specific App based on device/ OS are users willing to pay, does the user use the App on another device,

As well as Written articles to support and promote what RIM does well, unfortunately no such Fan sites exist.

[loneweasel]

To give you a sense of the scale of the effort used by big companies to write secure and profitable apps, consider Ebay. 100 of their people are working on the iOS app. Another 100 work on the Android app. That's millions of salaries a month, just on the programmers.

A letter writing campaign is not going to change the focus of these large projects.

[emirozmen]

To give you a sense of the scale of the effort used by big companies to write secure and profitable apps, consider Ebay. 100 of their people are working on the iOS app. Another 100 work on the Android app. That's millions of salaries a month, just on the programmers.

A letter writing campaign is not going to change the focus of these large projects.

Same thoughts here

[app_Developer]

I think the best thing users can do is buy and download apps. There were some big companies that built things for the Apple store early because Apple persuaded them directly. But a lot of others jumped in only after they saw the store getting hundreds of millions of downloads.

If users produce the download numbers, to the point that RIM is proud to publish them clearly and regularly, then that really helps people make their business cases or funding requests.

People write apps for iOS because we know iOS users strongly prefer real apps to websites. If BB users show the same preference and support for developers that Apple users have, I think you'll see more apps. But I think you really have to prove it with the little guys first before the big guys will pay attention.

Many of the popular apps for iOS and Android are built here in the bay area. There are far fewer blackberry users around here than probably other parts of the country. And the perception around here is that BB users haven't really caught on to apps yet, and so aren't a great audience to target. (as my partner said last week, "if they [cared] about apps, why did they voluntarily buy [devices] that have no apps?") But you guys can change that perception with numbers I think.

Again, I would focus on the small guys. Success of apps from little guys like bejeweled and angry birds and tweetie are what made everyone else, big and small, get serious about investing in apps. That's when everyone started hiring iOS devs and cranking out apps all over the place.

[app_Developer]

Also, if you want a letter writing campaign, get RIM to publish an updated graph like this on a public site so we all know exactly what we're dealing with if we decide to jump in:

Android version breakdown

[app_Developer]

To give you a sense of the scale of the effort used by big companies to write secure and profitable apps, consider Ebay. 100 of their people are working on the iOS app. Another 100 work on the Android app. That's millions of salaries a month, just on the programmers.

I read that, too. If they need a 100 people to write those apps, they seriously need to consider bringing in a team that knows what the heck they're doing with these platforms. You could write a whole OS with 100 people.

[_StephenBB81]

I (as my partner said last week, "if they [cared] about apps, why did they voluntarily buy [devices] that have no apps?")

Just to focus on that, for your meeting on Monday

Form Factor > OS > Battery > Office Apps > 3rd party productivity Apps

NO one makes a Better QWERTY form factor than RIM,

The BlackBerry Keyboard is like the IBM Model M, I held onto a few Model M's until I finally had to relinquish the desktop and go mobile all the time.

[_StephenBB81]

I read that, too. If they need a 100 people to write those apps, they seriously need to consider bringing in a team that knows what the heck they're doing with these platforms. You could write a whole OS with 100 people.

I felt the same way reading that either the eBay guy was REALLY over exaggerating, or they have some really bad developers working for them

I could see a 4:1 ratio of developers working on iOS and Android to BlackBerry, maybe as high as a 10:1, but something like a 20:1 is pretty bad resource management