[drumzalicious]

All the UI enhancements look great but App World is probably by FAR the worst app store of any OS. It looks and feels completely dated.

Anyone else feel this?

[Thunderbuck]

Nope. I think it's totally fantastic.

[Griffin2012]

I have not had any issues with App World. App World works fine on my Playbook and my 9810, so I am not sure what your perceived issue with App World is about. RIM has been very vocal and supportive of app developers for BB10, so I would think that App World will also improve exponentially as the platform matures.

[Rello]

Are you basing this off of how it looks/functions on the PlayBook?

[varunsain]

I think the app world looks really good as it is.. Maybe they can add some more tabs to promote some more apps.. Since there are many which alot of people are not aware of..

They also are country and phone specific.. Which is great!

[dbmalloy]

Would be useful to know what is dated? Use Apple... Droid... and PB... to me they are laid out differently but all surve the same purpose.... Personally do not find anything dificient about RIM App World but maybe I am missing something....

[anjali_jain]

They were still selling many devices in the countries where Android phones or iPhones hadn’t yet taken off. It shows the strong presence of RIM in the market. But t hey want to more successful then they may add some apps and games don’t know which type of but it will help to increase their sales.

[anthogag]

One thing that would make App World better is if every single app was great

[athooya]

BB users can play a big part in improving AppWorld by demanding apps.

My city has just released a neat "visit my city" tourism app for the iPhone and Android. The app shows tourists an interactive map of sites of interests in the city, the pictures, its history and how to get there. Pretty cool.

I wrote the city and DEMANDED the same for the Blackberry. I asked my BB friends to write to the city and ask for it. Guess what? A week later, the city announces that they will release a Blackberry version of the app.

"Ask and thou shall receive"

[Powdah]

To be successful they need to build a phone with a hardware spec that is good for at least 4 years. Quad core, plenty of ram, great screen to be able to handle software improvements for the next near future. Then listen to the needs of the consumers for apps and have them ready on release day.

[kbz1960]

App world needs better searching and the d a m n ebooks need to never be in newest arrivals and put in a far off category somewhere.

[Thunderbuck]

To be successful they need to build a phone with a hardware spec that is good for at least 4 years. Quad core, plenty of ram, great screen to be able to handle software improvements for the next near future. Then listen to the needs of the consumers for apps and have them ready on release day.

Is that all? You'd think that should be easy enough...

[gtpointer]

Pretty sure I've read somewhere that AppWorld is getting a bit of a visual overhaul overhaul for BB10, not surprising as PB AppWorld is written in Air and this will be native/cascades. Can't exactly remember the changes...it was in that document with the stuff about "cinnamon toast" for notifications and the new fb and twitter apps

[Thunderbuck]

App world needs better searching and the d a m n ebooks need to never be in newest arrivals and put in a far off category somewhere.

There's a problem with that whole e-books thing: the publisher is within his rights to submit the ebook as an app. As long as he's working within RIM's TOS, it has to be accepted. At which point, it shows up in "Recent Arrivals", presumably the same way every other app comes in.

What criteria do you want to start imposing in the TOS to filter these submissions? Any kind of standard you want to set here has to be clear, objective, and consistent, and saying "no standalone e-books" seems to be kind of prejudicial. And since the number of available apps is kind of an important metric for RIM right now, I can't imagine they really want to impose a rule that is going to chop maybe 5% of their current count.

It's kind of spammy, agreed, but these same standalone e-books are in Google Play, too. Arguably, there's tons of trash in Google Play and Apple's App Store (and in REAL stores too, for that matter), so it only stands to reason that not every piece of software in BB's App World is going to be stellar.

RIM's said they're committed to providing a certification process for quality apps, which sounds like a great solution to me. Obviously, such apps will get preferential treatment and higher visibility.

[kill_9]

This past weekend I logged into BlackBerry AppWorld to checkout any new applications. All I saw was ebooks masquerading as applications and not a single one of the real applications mentioned on the front page of CrackBerry. The UI is the least of their concerns.

[kbz1960]

There's a problem with that whole e-books thing: the publisher is within his rights to submit the ebook as an app. As long as he's working within RIM's TOS, it has to be accepted. At which point, it shows up in "Recent Arrivals", presumably the same way every other app comes in.

What criteria do you want to start imposing in the TOS to filter these submissions? Any kind of standard you want to set here has to be clear, objective, and consistent, and saying "no standalone e-books" seems to be kind of prejudicial. And since the number of available apps is kind of an important metric for RIM right now, I can't imagine they really want to impose a rule that is going to chop maybe 5% of their current count.

It's kind of spammy, agreed, but these same standalone e-books are in Google Play, too. Arguably, there's tons of trash in Google Play and Apple's App Store (and in REAL stores too, for that matter), so it only stands to reason that not every piece of software in BB's App World is going to be stellar.

RIM's said they're committed to providing a certification process for quality apps, which sounds like a great solution to me. Obviously, such apps will get preferential treatment and higher visibility.

They need different new arrival sections then. Games, apps and books. Books are not an app. It sucks to look at the page and only see books. I know RIM has to allow them by why on earth do they need to be the only thing you see when you want to know what new APPS have come in. Searching for something is horrid also. As someone else said the UI is the least of the problem with it.

[janeka]

I'm so tired of seeing post where an individual/s try to tell RIM what they need to do. Then when they tell you what RIM needs to do it be small things like app world with 100k+ apps get a quad core, get a bigger screen etc. Enlighten me on this why people feel the need to say what a billion dollar company needs to do when you can't do 1% of what they are doing. That's like you being a blackberry user all your life but you think you can tell a iphone user how to use they phone when you never had an iPhone a day in your life, where's the COMMON SENSE at in this.

[Rickroller]

I'm so tired of seeing post where an individual/s try to tell RIM what they need to do. Then when they tell you what RIM needs to do it be small things like app world with 100k+ apps get a quad core, get a bigger screen etc. Enlighten me on this why people feel the need to say what a billion dollar company needs to do when you can't do 1% of what they are doing. That's like you being a blackberry user all your life but you think you can tell a iphone user how to use they phone when you never had an iPhone a day in your life, where's the COMMON SENSE at in this.

You're tired of reading people's opinions on the internet? I think there is an easy solution to that..

[gregorylkelly]

App World certainly needs some work. For example:

1) Search is TERRIBLE. I mean absolutely awful. It's something that hurts users and developers alike.

2) The rating system is way too basic. Users should be able to edit their reviews. Dev's shouldn't be able to delete reviews left by reviewers for no reason. And finally, reviews should be broken down by app version number. A review for version 1.0 should hold less weight when the app is at version 5.2 3 years later. There should be a weighted version and date formula to the overall rating of an app.

3) Release notes should be mandatory. Heck, RIM is the worst offender of this. Half the time I don't update an app because I don't know what is changing.

[hispanola]

1) Included a physical keyboard with the initial BB10 device. RIM needs BB10 to be successful on launch and stop the bleeding of BB users leaving to other platforms. It can not allow BB users to hold off purchases until a device with keyboard is released later.

2) A good/incredible user experience. Many BB users left because of the horrible experience they had (slowness, freezes, battery pulls, etc.). If they get even a hint of it being the same they will not stick around or come back. The experience (OS + hardware) must needs to impress them enough to make them want to stay or comeback to BB.

3) Appworld MUST have the top major 25-50 apps that iOS + Android has or their users want. Skype, Netflix, Instagram, etc. must need to be available on launch. There can not be an instance where user looks at someone's app and is told it's not available for BB10.

4) RIM can't skim on the hardware. For the initial BB10 device to be taken seriously as a premium device it needs to top of the line hardware. That means, 2gbs of ram, 32gb hd, battery life akin to Driod MAXX, waterproof, dual core CPU, etc. If RIM wants any chance to get hardcore Android users to take a look at BB10 or even convert them, the specs must be top notch. If you can sway the hardcore...

5) BB10 needs more then just apps. It needs content to draw people to the platform and differentiate it from the others. RIM needs to partner with Amazon. Have BB10 push the Kindle and Amazon video content while having Amazon push BB to the masses.

6) Advertising must do a good job at getting BB10 out to the public and selling it. Simple as that.

[janeka]

You're tired of reading people's opinions on the internet? I think there is an easy solution to that..

There's also an career Page on RIM website for those who can do a better job than the current team

[MartyMcfly]

Rim needs to stop using "let's rock n roll" to be successful..jk...Honestly release something that get's consumers/blogs excited about Rimm's products....I would like to see strong third party support, as well as a smooth OS....

[app_Developer]

There's also an career Page on RIM website for those who can do a better job than the current team

Fortunately I can tell you that the RIM employees I've met lately are much more receptive to good suggestions and feedback from all kinds of people, regardless of whether those people want to actually go work at RIM.

The current team wants to do a better job than they have been doing for the past 5 years. They will be the first to admit that, from the CEO on down. The arrogance of "we know this industry" and "amateur hour is over" is gone now.

That's a good thing.

[Thunderbuck]

1) Included a physical keyboard with the initial BB10 device. RIM needs BB10 to be successful on launch and stop the bleeding of BB users leaving to other platforms. It can not allow BB users to hold off purchases until a device with keyboard is released later.

The keyboard model is coming just a couple of months or so after the initial full-touch model. If that's enough to consign RIM to oblivion then they're in even worse shape then we thought.

2) A good/incredible user experience. Many BB users left because of the horrible experience they had (slowness, freezes, battery pulls, etc.). If they get even a hint of it being the same they will not stick around or come back. The experience (OS + hardware) must needs to impress them enough to make them want to stay or comeback to BB.

Well, hopefully that's what they'll have. Can't disagree there.

3) Appworld MUST have the top major 25-50 apps that iOS + Android has or their users want. Skype, Netflix, Instagram, etc. must need to be available on launch. There can not be an instance where user looks at someone's app and is told it's not available for BB10.

See, RIM doesn't have a lot of leverage on that front. Might happen, might not. Only so much RIM can do about it. It would be physically impossible to have every single app from Apple's App Store in time for BB10.

4) RIM can't skim on the hardware. For the initial BB10 device to be taken seriously as a premium device it needs to top of the line hardware. That means, 2gbs of ram, 32gb hd, battery life akin to Driod MAXX, waterproof, dual core CPU, etc. If RIM wants any chance to get hardcore Android users to take a look at BB10 or even convert them, the specs must be top notch. If you can sway the hardcore...

Philosophical question: do you engineer so your specs are the best, or do you build the best device? We already know the first handsets aren't going to be quad-core, but they WILL have a dual-core architecture that runs benchmarks better than some quad-core chips.

Willing to bet there will be some class-leading specs. Display resolution on the dev alpha units is better than the iPhone; I presume that will be improved on for launch.

5) BB10 needs more then just apps. It needs content to draw people to the platform and differentiate it from the others. RIM needs to partner with Amazon. Have BB10 push the Kindle and Amazon video content while having Amazon push BB to the masses.

Amazon would be nice, but outside the US their offerings are limited. I doubt Amazon is going to bother with a bigger international market just for RIM's sake. I'd rather they maintain their current partnerships than shackle themselves to Amazon.

6)) Advertising must do a good job at getting BB10 out to the public and selling it. Simple as that.

They just hired a new Chief Marketing Officer. Presumably he's got something up his sleeve.

[hispanola]

The keyboard model is coming just a couple of months or so after the initial full-touch model. If that's enough to consign RIM to oblivion then they're in even worse shape then we thought.

A few months in the mobile realm is an eternity! And yes, they are in that bad of shape.