[Lunars Edge Design]

These are really tough times, for RIM, for the world.

The Playbook is no place to play mystery app roulette. A girl screams? What is this, 1976?

Why don't you figure out a way to offer real value, new functionality that helps people solve problems and improve their lives.

This particular app is designed to be a gag/prank type app, so we would want to improve upon that and appeal to those types who would find value in it as something to do with their friends/family, ect.

The best hope for PlayBook and for RIM are quality tools. We need a better document writer, we need a far better PowerPoint slide tool, we need loads better music composition tools, drafting tools. Why not take a look at the most highly rated apple stuff and find an opening to perform a similar function on PlayBook?

Help people, don't play them for rubes. There's real money to be made and glory to be had, with little to no negative feedback, for developers who embrace the potential of this tool and show RIM how application development is done.

Survey the field and go for it. Aim high. Quality is King.

Thanks for the honest advice. We are new to QNX/BB10 developing, and these are types of apps we are eventually shooting for.

[Maestrodog]

I can't entirely discount the gag prank thing, but did you test it on a sample audience--beyond the walls of your dev shop--to see that it would fly in the general population?

Perhaps you should have offered to donate half or all the profit margin to charity?

Then you begin to make a name for yourself, brand yourselves as do gooders on the up and up rather than risk being seen as folks out to throw up a mystery curtain to make a buck, even if that wasn't your intent.

If you come up with a really sweet gag, something funny and or that raises the spirit or inspires, something you test and know is going to get two thumbs up from the majority of users, you could give it away or give the proceeds to charity and use it as a promotion to send people to your higher brow stuff.

Most devs don't get marketing at all. RIM doesn't either. Really it's not so hard, you just need to study what works, learn some principles, test, and apply.

Not at all unlike coding, just a shade to the creative side, but no big deal.

Good luck with the applications. This device needs saving. I'm definitely buying a new Kindle Fire this fall and will even take the apple bullet if the PlayBook doesn't start delivering more functionality.

I buy applications in a minute if they deliver value, price is no object, but quality and support is a must.

[tsells]

This particular app is designed to be a gag/prank type app, so we would want to improve upon that and appeal to those types who would find value in it as something to do with their friends/family, ect.

If that's what it is, then you should have just listed it as a gag/prank app, along with all of the "fart" apps that are available on this and other platforms. Actually the "fart" apps are better than this one, as the buyer knows what he's getting when/if he chooses to make that purchase.

[bdegrande]

As I don't own a smartphone, I found the first one rather useless for my PlayBook.

[DaedalusIcarusHelios]

I don't like the idea of a mystery app, where you pay before even knowing if it's something that is useful/interesting/fun. That's regardless of cost (unless it is free, then I may feel inclined to try it). I think the mystery or surprise would be best put on unsuspecting individuals that you have try on your phone, but not for the one actually purchasing - you should know what you are buying, or at least have an idea (you never know what kind of quality an app is, except for reviews).

Having said all that, I think it is perfectly fine for multiple developers to have the same type of app, or the perception of it. The PlayBook ecosystem is young, so any developer that has a unique idea can expect only a short while before a similar app comes out, whether intentional or not. If someone comes out with a refined idea based on another, then perhaps the originator of the first idea will further refine it. It's competition.

[smartie88]

Who at RIM approved this farce in AppWorld?

Holy mother of God, App roulette?

Don't spoil the surprise? Are you fricken kidding me? Does it even begin to occur to you that lots of really smart people are on these forums? Why insult our intelligence?

I'd rather give Rim a dollar to save their sorry behinds than see AppWorld turn into a bigger joke than Apple's House Of AppCrapp---although Apple of course provides a load of perfectly useful things that have yet escaped Rim's capability of producing.

What a time in which we live. People choosing a dollar over honor.

Go run a casino, or enter politics.

Playbook has enough issues without this new low... and don't abuse the island of sanity within the Rim universe--Crackberry--by turning it into a streetwalk of personal pimpery.

I don't think they have quality control. Probably they only make sure it is not porn and discrimination. Appworld is a mess basically now

[smartie88]

Personally, I think devs need to demonstrate grace when communicating with customers and in public forums. My purchasing habits are strongly affected by how they portray themselves, and how they deal with problems. Here's an example of a company who have won me over to apps I wouldn't normally have bought based solely on their presence and responses:

"Quote:
Originally Posted by kdna
This app is a just a ripped off clone of the iOs app.

Response from XLabz:
kdna: Do you know that this game was in existence in a Excel sheet format almost some 8 years before? Every idea is inspired from a older one.

�There are no original ideas. There are only original people.� � Barbara Grizzuti Harrison
__________________
Checkout our other apps for PlayBook here.

For the latest news, updates, deals and giveaways, follow us on Twitter & Facebook.

www.xlabz.com"

Character sells too.

Cool. Feel strong personality

[Lunars Edge Design]

Hey fellas, thanks for all your feedback.

We are in the process of updating and optimizing our app. Making a lot of improvements and changes to benefit the user.

Also taking your advice, we are not going to make it a app that you don't know what it is until you buy it. After giving it some thought, this is misleading to the buyer, even if they are well aware that is the way the app is suppose to work.

I'll post back here when the update is ready.