Why RIM doesn't have to worry about the number of apps
- The world is not divided up into emerging markets and the United States. There are hundreds of millions of people in very rich countries like Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia, Western Europe etc that can afford to purchase high end phones that carry high margins for RIM. The US is very important but it's not USA or bust for RIM. Expand your perspective, the world is a big place.
Ireland: Pop. 6M smaller than Los Angeles
Australia: Pop. 22M smaller than Texas
UK: Pop. 62M about the size of California and Texas
Western Europe: About 3.4% market share for RIM, which includes the UK, which has more than twice the average at almost 8%.
Basically, Western Europe is it. The combined population of Canada, Ireland, and Australia is about the combined population of Texas and California, not insignificant, but not huge. Is the Western European market as important or of greater importance than the US for $600 phones? I have doubts, but others may disagree. The fact that RIM is holding its launch event in New York says that's the market RIM considers the most important. Can RIM succeed even if it concedes the US market? Perhaps. Perhaps not.12-19-12 10:23 AMLike 0 - I don't know about other people. I don't go around asking people things like that. On my phone, I use almost all of them at least once a month. They take up valuable memory space. Whatever I don't use, I delete. My "Purchased" app list is about 600 long, but my phone holds about 120-150 at any given time.12-19-12 10:27 AMLike 0
- kbz1960Doesn't MatterI don't know about other people. I don't go around asking people things like that. On my phone, I use almost all of them at least once a month. They take up valuable memory space. Whatever I don't use, I delete. My "Purchased" app list is about 600 long, but my phone holds about 120-150 at any given time.12-19-12 10:46 AMLike 0
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GoToMyPC remote desktop
WebEx teleconferencing
Tasker - context driven task automation
MagicJack VOIP
IP camera viewer - home security
AdBlock
TunnelBear - vpn to solve the "video not available in your country" problem
GPS track logger
Exercise app
Sleep tracker
Text to speech enginekbz1960 likes this.12-19-12 11:03 AMLike 1 - The problem is, selling to the rest of the world doesn't make money for RIM. This matter doesn't really come up, but RIM's future doesn't matter so much on the success of BB10, as much as the success of $600 BB10 devices. RIM could possibly sell large numbers of BB10 phones at $200 and less in emerging markets in a year or so, but they won't make any money doing it. Unless they can sell large quantities of the $600 phones, RIM will continue to tread water at best.12-19-12 11:08 AMLike 0
- kbz1960Doesn't MatterOff the top of my head, here's small list of apps I use for which the mobile website is either impossible or grossly impractical.
GoToMyPC remote desktop
WebEx teleconferencing
Tasker - context driven task automation
MagicJack VOIP
IP camera viewer - home security
AdBlock
TunnelBear - vpn to solve the "video not available in your country" problem
GPS track logger
Exercise app
Sleep tracker
Text to speech engine12-19-12 11:27 AMLike 0 - Those threads started by american users? Who knows who cares. Good chunk could be by trolls starting trouble. At the end of the day Netflix and hulu only benefit markets with unlimited Internet. As well, Netflix america offers differ than netflix Canada so kind of a wash, but the media overhyped the fact of not being there and one market bought into it, and of course that market is the US. People have to now look beyond apps and see what their device offers overall and that is where bb10 will be stronger. The balance feature to separate work and personal is worth it on its own. That is where the strength will be.12-19-12 11:37 AMLike 0
- I don't know about other people. I don't go around asking people things like that. On my phone, I use almost all of them at least once a month. They take up valuable memory space. Whatever I don't use, I delete. My "Purchased" app list is about 600 long, but my phone holds about 120-150 at any given time.
How can you possibly use as many apps as you do? I'm trying to comprehend your habits ....... not registering with me. Not calling BS on you, but I might call "you need to get looked at" LOL12-19-12 11:47 AMLike 0 - I use MagicJack instead of Skype for VOIP, because I'm already paying for MagicJack at home.
For video conference, my circles all have access to Google Hangouts.
As for Netflix, I do have it installed. I hardly every use it though.12-19-12 12:07 PMLike 0 - Canada: Pop. 33M smaller than California
Ireland: Pop. 6M smaller than Los Angeles
Australia: Pop. 22M smaller than Texas
UK: Pop. 62M about the size of California and Texas
Western Europe: About 3.4% market share for RIM, which includes the UK, which has more than twice the average at almost 8%.
Basically, Western Europe is it. The combined population of Canada, Ireland, and Australia is about the combined population of Texas and California, not insignificant, but not huge. Is the Western European market as important or of greater importance than the US for $600 phones? I have doubts, but others may disagree. The fact that RIM is holding its launch event in New York says that's the market RIM considers the most important. Can RIM succeed even if it concedes the US market? Perhaps. Perhaps not.
Population by Country in millions
Canada 34
UK 62
Ireland 4.5
France 65
Germany 82
Spain 47
Netherlands 17
Australia 23
Belgium 11
Austria 8
Switzerland 8
Portugal 11
Nordic countries 25
Italy 60
Total 397.5 million
Population of the USA 311 million
Expand your perspective, the world is a big place. BlackBerry has other potential markets to make a buck and it's potential failure in the US doesn't have to be the hill RIM dies on.Last edited by Jtaylor1986; 12-19-12 at 12:26 PM.
Knightcrawler and Cesare21 like this.12-19-12 12:15 PMLike 2 - Those threads started by american users? Who knows who cares. Good chunk could be by trolls starting trouble. At the end of the day Netflix and hulu only benefit markets with unlimited Internet. As well, Netflix america offers differ than netflix Canada so kind of a wash, but the media overhyped the fact of not being there and one market bought into it, and of course that market is the US. People have to now look beyond apps and see what their device offers overall and that is where bb10 will be stronger. The balance feature to separate work and personal is worth it on its own. That is where the strength will be.
And I think Balance is going to be a wash. Sure, a minority of people might find it useful, but most people don't have a strict separation between work and private life (for better or worse). They use some of the same apps at home as at work, many of their contacts are the same, etc. The whole balance thing is just RIM being RIM trying to invent features people don't need, and being stuck in the old RIM "Bah, why do people want a camera? Their CIO will never approve it!" kind of thinking...12-19-12 12:40 PMLike 0 - You do realize that Netflix is in Europe now, right? I guess not...
And I think Balance is going to be a wash. Sure, a minority of people might find it useful, but most people don't have a strict separation between work and private life (for better or worse). They use some of the same apps at home as at work, many of their contacts are the same, etc. The whole balance thing is just RIM being RIM trying to invent features people don't need, and being stuck in the old RIM "Bah, why do people want a camera? Their CIO will never approve it!" kind of thinking...Knightcrawler likes this.12-19-12 12:54 PMLike 1 - I really wish that people would stop the app debates until January 30th. RIM may have NDA's with some of the top big name app makers to not admit they are making or have made apps for BB10 until after the January 30th launch so RIM can have extra umph at the launch event. If every app maker responded yes, then launch could be really boring. Wait till January 30th people if you can, and if you can't you know what your other options are on the market.Prince_Poppycock likes this.12-19-12 01:07 PMLike 1
- They need a good number, because every review will point out that number compared to Apple and Android. They also need the primary apps that are popular. The existing BlackBerry OS gets dinged all the time for not having Instagram, Skype, Netflix etc, even though it does actually have quite a few of the table stakes apps that people use most often (Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare etc). I do like the approach that RIM is taking of having two teams deal with this: Alec Saunders' team to build the quantity; and Marty Mallick's team to focus specifically on the named apps.
So far, Alex's team seems to be fairly successful. I imagine how well Marty's team did will be revealed at launch.12-19-12 01:14 PMLike 0 - and being stuck in the old RIM "Bah, why do people want a camera? Their CIO will never approve it!" kind of thinking...12-19-12 01:16 PMLike 0
- I would be interested to study your habits with your device. I power use about a 15-16 apps dailey, beyond that the rest of my app portfolio sits around alot (I have close to 50 apps total). I very rarely play games (my brain is not wired to enjoy that for any length of time).
How can you possibly use as many apps as you do? I'm trying to comprehend your habits ....... not registering with me. Not calling BS on you, but I might call "you need to get looked at" LOL
Edit...Scoutmob is available for BB.Last edited by Drew808; 12-19-12 at 02:15 PM.
12-19-12 01:55 PMLike 0 -
I do use Skype and Netflix heavily on all of my mobile devices and it will be a deal breaker if those expected apps are not there.
I kid, I kid ... just never saw the personal appeal of watching a Netflix show on a 4" smartphone with an overpriced dataplan. Do wish it was on my PlayBook though.Drew808 likes this.12-19-12 02:04 PMLike 1 - LOL - yeah. I get the app craze and all, but there are an awful lot of stupid apps that exist for the sake of 'having an app'. My local mall has "an app" (on multiple platforms) that really doesn't do anything exist list store hours and put up pictures of the mall floor plans. Not really of any use over and above what looking at the mobile website and/or looking at the floor display panel would provide.
Someone who watches Netflix on a 4" screen and watches data sucking content? I heard that you existed in vast numbers but I didn't actually believe it!
I kid, I kid ... just never saw the personal appeal of watching a Netflix show on a 4" smartphone with an overpriced dataplan. Do wish it was on my PlayBook though.12-19-12 02:42 PMLike 0 - Lol!...I have a 5gb plan so I don't really worry about data use and wifi is available everywhere here in Atlanta. You'd be surprised at how many people I see watching content on small screens. My Nexus7 has replaced my 4.3 inch use but it wasn't that bad with the 720p movies having great quality.12-19-12 03:03 PMLike 0
- Saying that BB10 only needs the top 100 apps is like saying a phone book only needs to list the 100 most popular people.
If I'm a doctor and I need a medical app that's available for iPhone but not BB, that's a reason for me to get an iPhone. Multiply that by a thousand other niche apps and that's a lot of reasons for a lot of people to get something other than BB10.
Depth matters.12-19-12 07:22 PMLike 4 -
Sent from my BlackBerry 9930 using TapatalkRubberChicken76 likes this.12-19-12 08:17 PMLike 1 - I would agree with the op if only RIM actually had some quality apps.
Sent from the smartphone if my choice using Tapatalk 212-19-12 08:46 PMLike 0 -
There are countless examples of niche apps like this. Individually, no single app of this sort will make or break a platform, but cumulatively they are very important.
We too often fall into the false dilemma of thinking there are two kinds of apps: the "big name" popular ones, like Evernote, and the frivolous, "junk" apps, like the flashlight apps.12-20-12 08:30 AMLike 4
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Why RIM doesn't have to worry about the number of apps
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