[Nesquik]

Also as a follow up, here is a response from RIM's Tyler Lessard via the Developer's Blog posted just now:

Thanks for the Open Letter to RIM Developer Relations | BlackBerry Developer's Blog

Awesome.

[Shao128]

Also as a follow up, here is a response from RIM's Tyler Lessard via the Developer's Blog posted just now:

Thanks for the Open Letter to RIM Developer Relations | BlackBerry Developer's Blog

Awesome.

I was quite surprised when I saw that, I wasn't expecting a response from RIM.

[barrist]

Why would RIM respond if the original blog post was full of inaccuracies? Aren't they just legitimizing it now? The guy wanted attention by whining about RIM and now he's got it in spades.

[howarmat]

I am shocked RIM responded too. It this was so off the wall then why respond?

[Smiley88]

That guy is just a whiner. I hate to have him as a employee. If you can't deal with it get out of the kitchen.

[Nogrentain]

Thanks for providing your view on the matter and correcting numerous inaccuracies, BBThemes.

I too am shocked at RIM's response. I can see why they'd want to respond but they refuted NOTHING, and thanked him for whining and moaning. I'm really surprised at how RIM responded.

[BBThemes]

i get why they responded how they did, imagine they stood back and put a post up like mine, the media and interwebs could crucify them for shouting down a dev, better to be seen to placate someone than to be seen to be harsh to them, i think their image of them being supportive (which they truly are, @blackberrydev if you ever need anything) is far more important to them.

[houshinto#IM]

The environment right now is very hostile if not apathetic towards RIM. Apple on the other hand has it's "Cult" and the general populace wrapped around it's finger. So this apple fanboy probably is just doing his part to ensure that the ipad2 is recieved even better.

It's sad but, in the PR front, RIM has to respond seriously to stuff like this frankly outside of their "Crackberry" base there's an ocean of haters who are more then happy to feed off bad press. All it takes is a few dominos.

[barrist]

So do we even know what apps this guy has developed for iOS? I looked all over his websites and found nothing that he's actually made... am i missing something?


http://functionalobjects.ca/projects.html

Projects

This is the projects page

?

[barrist]

lol looks like WP7 trying to swoop in

Microsoft Shows Love To Developers � WP7 Connect

When Jamie Murai chronicalled his experience about trying to develop apps for Blackberry’s RIM, he was merely a frustrated developer trying to get his point across. Little did he know that it would lead to him being tracked down by Microsofts Brandon Watson ( Microsoft’s Director of Developer Experience for Windows Phone 7) . Brandon Watson, in what can be viewed as a great PR move, found Murai on Twitter and extended an invitation for him to develop for WP7. Watson, in his own blog wrote about the importance of developers. He emphasized that Microsoft is recruiting and that all developers are important, stating “Even if we build the platform one developer at a time, that’s one more developer than we had last week. Every developer matters. Every. Single. One. I effing love my job”. My hat’s off to you Brandon Watson and to you Microsoft for making it known that even the little guy matters.

I kind of laugh at the idea of Microsoft (whose been in anti-trust suits how many times?) "making it known that even the little guy matters".

[barrist]

i get why they responded how they did, imagine they stood back and put a post up like mine, the media and interwebs could crucify them for shouting down a dev, better to be seen to placate someone than to be seen to be harsh to them, i think their image of them being supportive (which they truly are, @blackberrydev if you ever need anything) is far more important to them.

They shouldn't have responded at all. Now I'm seeing articles pop up ALL OVER THE PLACE legitimizing this letter. If you're right and its full of inaccuracies, then what was going through RIM's head in responding? Articles are just passing off the letter's arguments as true. At the least, RIM could have "clarified" some of his concerns without sounding like they were berating him. Instead they give the old "we understand your concerns, and we're working on it" BS.

This guy got exactly what he wanted. Attention. Now he's getting wooed by Microsoft with a free dev phone, kit, etc. Now the story is RIM scares off developers, Microsoft catering to them.

Great move RIM!

[Intosh]

And that "developer" posted an update:

RIM Rant Follow-Up

Maybe I missed something in RIM's official response but seems like there wasn't anything substantial there in terms of changes -- mostly just a typical PR response. But obviously, it was the right thing to do since that "developer" wrote some positive stuff about RIM in his update.

And about that developer's update:

"There have been tens or hundreds of rants about Apple and Google from journalists, pundits, and bloggers alike, but RIM has kind of been flying under the radar. That’s not to say that many people haven’t been having bad experiences, but just that they haven’t written about them in the same accessible and funny way that I did."

LOL Really? I'm flabbergasted. On what planet is he living? One thing's for sure, he's not too humble.

[ryanlrobinson]

I think basically everything said here was already stated pretty well by others, but I also was a first-time developer thanks to the PlayBook offer. In some ways it took a bit longer than I expected, but all in all I'm not complaining. Especially since the support was always quick to respond, which I think is why they still responded to his open letter - to continue to show a care for the developer even if it was one who wasn't *really* trying to develop.

Anyway, my thoughts on the process:

- I see no reason to complain about the multiple downloads. I too was working on a Mac so I did find having to pay for VMWare Fusion to be a bit annoying, but honestly it is a useful enough piece of software that I had considered buying it anyway. Same goes with Flash Builder, and I actually used this as a good excuse to upgrade the Adobe Web Premium kit to CS5 that I wanted anyway because it also got me the new Photoshop, new Flash, new Dreamweaver etc, all things that I'll use for more than just that app development. That kit through my student store was less than the cost of a PlayBook, so if I get a PlayBook on top of that software to use for all of my other purposes, that's a big win of an investment for me. And there's always the one-month free trial from Adobe if you're not like me and don't want to buy their software anyway.

- Why exactly is he complaining about the cost to become a vendor if the cost has not been applied for quite a while? I thought it was awesome that I could sign up for free and I've been pumping out themes as well while I'm still not losing any vendor credits to do it.

- The thing that honestly did annoy me the most was the Notary Public requirement, but after the first day of thinking it was ridiculous, I realized it really does make a lot of sense. It adds a lot of security, and honestly, it barely costs anything to have done (in my case, nothing, again thanks to my university's services). My initial reaction was largely on an assumption that since it involved a lawyer, it would cost me a lot of money, but that wasn't true - even if I hadn't done it through my school's legal aid, the estimates I looked at online were $10-$20. And then they changed it afterward so you can scan or fax some other ID instead which makes it even better.

- I didn't try it with WebWorks, but there was a quick Run and a quick Debug button to send my code to the simulator for testing. And the training webcasts went through step-by-step how to set that up.

- The support all the way through was great. I exchanged tweets with them, and they responded quickly. I posted on the very-active forums and got quick responses. I sent emails and got quick responses. The training webcasts were really well-done and I easily learned enough to get going on an app in an unfamiliar programming language. I'm honestly not sure what they could have done better in that respect.

All in all, other than spending some money and learning a new programming language, the process was super easy. And the software I had to buy I wanted anyway, and the language I learned I wanted to learn anyway. Assuming my app gets accepted - still pending review having been submitted about a week ago - then I have no regrets whatsoever.

[pkcable]

Moved to PlayBook section