[quilla_b]

We all know Blackberry has a terrific OS. Probably as good if not better than IOS and Android. Efficient and great at multi tasking. The Blackberry Passport is an innovative product (hopefully that trend continues with the Slider) and shows Blackberry's capability to innovate. So no problem there. Blackberry's main issue with the smartphone business is the app gap. The mobile phone industry have shifted from feature phones to smartphones to app ecosystems. It's no longer who can develop the best hardware or software but who has the quality applications? Just like the console wars, you'd pick the console with the best games. The Amazon app store is limited and running Android apps can be clunky.

Blackberry is right in focusing on business customers to build their reputation for productivity and security. But it hasn't addressed the big elephant in the room. APPS. What can Blackberry do about it?

[paulwallace1234]

Give Native devs a good reason to make more Apps?

[tchocky77]

Nothing. Except ditch BB10 altogether and adopt Android whole-heartedly. But they know that, and they haven't done it.

Which leads me to believe Blackberry knows it's not going to be in hardware much longer anyway. Despite what Chen says, if fewer and fewer people buy Blackberry hardware, then, obviously, they have no future in hardware.

The time to address the app-gap was years ago. 2010 maybe? That ship has sailed. Returned from it's round-the-world voyage, and sailed again. Six times.

[luc4625]

I agree app gap is the killer. I love BlackBerry but everyday I encounter obstacles with apps whether it's going to cafe and not being able to download their app to always felling one step behind all my friends. 2015 is the last year I give them to fix this. This should be the number one priority before any new hardware.

Posted via CB10

[thurask]

Nothing, realistically.

Posted via CB10

[DJRikko]

The millionth thread with the same topic.

Posted via CB10

[Soapm]

They need to develop an app to convert Android and iOS apps to BB10 instead of running them in a runtime like they do. However, after reading up on the QNX micro-kernel, it sounds like the clunkiness is in the Android app and not BB10...

[TgeekB]

The millionth thread with the same topic.

Posted via CB10

And none of them have come up with an answer.

Be classically hip with the BlackBerry Classic

[luc4625]

Chen says they want to play the next game , not the old app game. I see this is the final window before slider hits market, it's either going to be their apple 2007 moment or they start paying Google royalties to use their play store. Whatever their next game is to beat apps, it's gotta be simple and as Steve Jobs would say 'leapfrog' the competition. An obscure IOT strategy won't cut it. One million threads and counting .

[cbvinh]

They need to develop an app to convert Android and iOS apps to BB10 instead of running them in a runtime like they do. However, after reading up on the QNX micro-kernel, it sounds like the clunkiness is in the Android app and not BB10...

Well, even if this could be done well, the problem is that developers have to give their blessing...

[Cozz4ever]

Chen says they want to play the next game , not the old app game. I see this is the final window before slider hits market, it's either going to be their apple 2007 moment or they start paying Google royalties to use their play store. Whatever their next game is to beat apps, it's gotta be simple and as Steve Jobs would say 'leapfrog' the competition. An obscure IOT strategy won't cut it. One million threads and counting .

Since when are apps an old game? Apps can make or brake any OS on the market regardless how good it is.

I agree on the Google play store even though it's going to be impossible to get any agreement

Posted via CB10

[Cozz4ever]

Nothing. Except ditch BB10 altogether and adopt Android whole-heartedly. But they know that, and they haven't done it.

Which leads me to believe Blackberry knows it's not going to be in hardware much longer anyway. Despite what Chen says, if fewer and fewer people buy Blackberry hardware, then, obviously, they have no future in hardware.

The time to address the app-gap was years ago. 2010 maybe? That ship has sailed. Returned from it's round-the-world voyage, and sailed again. Six times.

Android apps can be modified / hacked. The security level won't be the same. What blackberry needs is killer hardware. Too bad Chen doesn't listen. All their hardware designs in the last 5 years have been flawed. I would love to take a crack at it.

Posted via CB10

[anon(9188202)]

I guess that I am just lucky that BB10 has all of the apps I could ever need...although 30 or 40 good antivirus and firewall apps would be nice, and maybe this one...

[luc4625]

I specifically remember Chen saying 'apps is an old game' in interview he gave last month I think it was CNBC. When he said something is brewing.

[nuff_said]

BlackBerry doesn't even know what it's going to do to solve the app gap. If Chen's solution is some sort of hybrid bb10 android phone that's one step closer to throwing in the towel and raising the white flag.
Anyone here complaining about not needing apps doesn't understand the significance of them. I always read comments about fart apps or using the browser as a work around. Workarounds are only going to work if you don't mind them. Majority of people do hence why BlackBerry 10 sales struggle.
What BlackBerry needs is to find the next evolution in cell phones - not IOT - and get their before Apple or Google do. I don't think they will. Both iOS and Android are miles ahead of where BlackBerry is right now.
How do they solve the app gap? Try to convince a handful of big name devs (e.g. Google, major banks, Facebook, etc.) to build, and support, native app on their platform, and pray others follow. Chances of that happening? I think slim.
I've been hoping, since BlackBerry is helping out with securing android devices, they'd convince Google to build native Google apps as part of the agreement. Don't see that coming to fruition either.

They laugh at me because I'm different; I laugh at them because they're all the same. 

[cribble2k]

The apps are only part of the problem.

Assuming BlackBerry World had the exact same app selection as Android, it still would be missing things like :

Music (full albums and individual tracks)
Movies (buy and rent)

Books

TV shows

I doubt we will see a day where we can rent a movie from BlackBerry World and stream it wirelessly to Chromecast, at least natively and without workarounds.

And for those about to fire back with 'working class professionals don't need to watch movies using their mobile device', I'll just say I am a working class professional, and I do this stuff with my phone.

#GoSensGo

[katiepea]

They can sell handsets people want. There, can we end this discussion now?

[kraidx]

Get the enterprise market = more phones being sold.
More phones = more apps

Also it wouldn't hurt talking with Jolla, Ubuntu since they also use QT and seek a effective way of "develop for one and implement on many solution (in simplistic terms).

Posted via CB10

[Soapm]

Well, even if this could be done well, the problem is that developers have to give their blessing...

That's who would be using the tool, I guess what I was suggesting was an easy way for developers to turn what they've made into a BB friendly application... As it stands they have to redevelop for BB which few take the time to do...

[Calvin8181]

Ditching BB10 is a waste of efforts, money and time. Now why the BB10 has app gap issue is because people keep on comparing it with Android and IOS.

I would just wanted to say just keep it going, instead of porting Android apps, continue to improve the Android runtime, and fix the google service issue. Push native cascade apps as more as BlackBerry can... encourage, support and offer lucrative salary or awards for the development of native apps.

BlackBerry 10 is a unique OS, this is the one that differentiates it from IOS, Firefox OS, Android, or whatever OS. Give me just one reason why they want to ditch BB10! Because of it is difficult to use? Because of it is laggy? Because of it has not much apps? Because of it does not have fancy stuff like what IOS and android have? I would strongly reject all the reasons! BlackBerry 10 has been amazing and was the state of the art OS for BlackBerry.

No one should ever ask BlackBerry to ditch its own OS and go for Android....

Posted via CB10

[ubizmo]

But it hasn't addressed the big elephant in the wall.

So that's the elephant in the wall. I always wondered.

[anon(55900)]

Nobody cares any more, dead issue, except for App junkies and trolls. The dead horse has been beaten so much that it is now dust mixed so completely into the soil you cannot tell the difference between the now pulverized horse corpse and the earth.

Posted via CB10

[cbvinh]

That's who would be using the tool, I guess what I was suggesting was an easy way for developers to turn what they've made into a BB friendly application... As it stands they have to redevelop for BB which few take the time to do...

BlackBerry already tried this, in a multitude of ways:
- porting commonly used open source API's, https://blackberry.github.io/
- getting toolkit API developers to port their toolkit, like Unity, https://unity3d.com/contest/blackberry
- Android app converter, https://developer.blackberry.com/android/download/

If you've been following along, there are some Android apps that run perfectly fine in the Android Runtime, yet the developer will not support it on BlackBerry. Some developers just aren't interested.

[Soapm]

BlackBerry already tried this, in a multitude of ways:
- porting commonly used open source API's, https://blackberry.github.io/
- getting toolkit API developers to port their toolkit, like Unity, https://unity3d.com/contest/blackberry
- Android app converter, https://developer.blackberry.com/android/download/

If you've been following along, there are some Android apps that run perfectly fine in the Android Runtime, yet the developer will not support it on BlackBerry. Some developers just aren't interested.

If the developers aren't interested, then there really isn't a way to close the app gap...

I didn't realize they made tools to aid the developers, but without apps, BB will be a limited device...

[ljfong]

If the developers aren't interested, then there really isn't a way to close the app gap...

I didn't realize they made tools to aid the developers, but without apps, BB will be a limited device...

In the early days of BlackBerry 10 they did try hard to win the developers over with numerous code jams and portathons. However the effect was limited at best. Alec Saunders even sang for it, yeah it was corny as hell but you couldn't blame him for not trying. In the spirit of Malcolm Gladwell's tipping point, by the time they got really serious about ecosystem, they were already way past the tipping point of any chance of closing the app gap.

Posted via CB10