1. NewcastleRam's Avatar
    Hey everyone.

    Basically im in my final year of a computer science degree and for my final project im creating an iPhone app. Its got a language that isn't accessible to everyone (Objective C) which you can only develop for on the mac etc. The prices on the app store are very low compared to their blackberry counterparts (Beejive, IM+ etc) and Apple takes a bigger cut of the profits!

    Blackberry has Java has its language which is easily accessible for anyone with a PC. You don't have to sell your apps through App World if you don't want to. RIM take a smaller cut also. So why is it that there doesn't seem to be that many developers for Blackberry? Im thinking about making an english football latest score application which also does the lower leagues (the only ones I can find on the Blackberry are for Premier League only). But I can't help but think there is another big obstacle for me to get cracking on it?
    12-14-09 11:15 AM
  2. andiamo's Avatar
    Hey everyone.

    Basically im in my final year of a computer science degree and for my final project im creating an iPhone app. Its got a language that isn't accessible to everyone (Objective C) which you can only develop for on the mac etc. The prices on the app store are very low compared to their blackberry counterparts (Beejive, IM+ etc) and Apple takes a bigger cut of the profits!

    Blackberry has Java has its language which is easily accessible for anyone with a PC. You don't have to sell your apps through App World if you don't want to. RIM take a smaller cut also. So why is it that there doesn't seem to be that many developers for Blackberry? Im thinking about making an english football latest score application which also does the lower leagues (the only ones I can find on the Blackberry are for Premier League only). But I can't help but think there is another big obstacle for me to get cracking on it?
    Though I hate to say it, while Obj-C and iPhone development in general might not be as accessible as say BlackBerry or WinMo, Apple really did do a good job of hyping up the iPhone as a great platform for running and developing third party apps. While BlackBerry has been able to do this for years, the device is just starting to really penetrate into the consumer market, which is where the majority of the app sales are for the iPhone. And on top of that, RIM hasn't really done much to position BlackBerry as a fun, cool device that can run tons of apps that do everything, especially when compared to Apple/AT&T, who have spent a very significant amount of money doing just that.

    Think all of the "there's an app for that" ads, and then compare that to any BlackBerry ads you've seen. I've seen one, a Verizon ad showing off the Tour running Facebook. And the message the ad was communicating was more "Ha ha my Tour has signal and yours [AT&T's] doesn't!" than "Look at this cool Facebook app my BlackBerry has!"

    Now, all of this comes down to one main and important point: While there might be more "barriers to entry" for developing iPhone apps, there is simply a much higher demand (or at least, perceived demand, from app developers' standpoints). As a result, more developers are willing to go buy a Mac, learn/write ObjC code, pay Apple the $100 developer fee, and eat the 30% chunk Apple takes from sales than they will bother to write an app for a platform that they don't see to be as lucrative.

    More iPhone developers = More iPhone apps = More competition among apps that perform the same or similar functions. This competition ultimately drives prices down to the levels you see now and the apps are generally of higher quality (in terms of polish, appearance, functionality, etc) than their (if any) BlackBerry counterparts.

    I've commented about this before in another thread. Unfortunately since BlackBerry apps have less competition among their platform (most developers will obviously hardly care about competing with iPhone apps) there is very often only one app to do a certain function. Take a VNC/PC remote control app. A quick Google search and I found a page listing six of the best VNC clients for iPhone, and there are still others that weren't listed in that article. Heck, I even clicked on one app (vnsea) and found that it was free and open source! By contrast, the only two VNC apps for BlackBerry that I found are priced $29.99 and $19.99!!!

    RIM really needs to step up and push BlackBerry as a viable, lucrative third party app platform. Until then, there won't be as many developers releasing apps for the platform and prices will stay high.

    And while the App World was a good start towards making their consumer-level audience more aware of the selection of apps on BlackBerry, their pricing model is currently stopping a lot of small developers from releasing lower priced alternatives to the overpriced ones already on the App World.

    While RIM takes a lower cut on App World sales, they also charge you $200 (!) to be able to submit your app. This $200 fee gives you up to 10 submissions. If your app is rejected, that uses up one submission. If your app needs to be updated, that's another one. I'm a 17 year-old who's getting ready to leave for college in 6 months and obviously I cannot afford to pay $200 just to list my app on the App World. So my only real options are to post threads for my apps on places like CrackBerry. Though CB has certainly gotten my app out there and into the hands of about ~4200 users, there are many, many BlackBerry users who would never read CrackBerry and therefore do not know of my app.


    I'll stop now, I just realized how freaking long this post is, lol. Sorry about that, I'm sure you didn't expect or want to read such a long answer, I just thought this was a good question and I felt like posting my opinion. Like I said, I'm a 17 year-old high school student so don't take my answer too seriously but I think it's probably pretty close to being correct. :P
    12-19-09 11:15 AM
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