[BBMore]

Just a curious question, Is Blackberry still aggressively pursuing developers for their app store? or is Blackberry going to abandon 3rd party app development?

I really don't care either way but I just noticed that I constantly get app updates on my Nexus 7 but rarely receive app updates in Blackberry app world.

[divakar]

I just have the same feeling. My iPad mini consistently receives updates. But who knows what there strategy is. Very ambiguous!!

Posted via CB10

[Ment]

Outside of devs that also have a presence here I'd say updates are like ghosts.

[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

I think the Amazon deal was an end to aggressively pursuing developers... didn't they close down that whole department and let everyone go?

Anyway there are still developers working on updating their apps in BlackBerry World... but there are also a number of "dead" apps there too.

[LostOnThePianoRoll]

I rarely ever install updates... I only acquire the new versions of apps when use an autoloader and have to redownload.

If it does what I need it for correctly then I don't bother with updates

Posted via CB10

[ubizmo]

Just a curious question, Is Blackberry still aggressively pursuing developers for their app store? or is Blackberry going to abandon 3rd party app development?

This isn't quite the same as the question in your title.

Are there developers still building and improving native BB10 apps? Yes. There aren't many, but there are some. bPod is an app that continues to received updates, and Watcher has recently been revived.

There is still some incentive for the developers of BB10 utilities to stay active, since these tend to be specific to the platform (although Clean Master, an Android utility, is also handy on BB10).

But as to the other question, Is BlackBerry still aggressively pursuing developers for BlackBerry World?, I think the answer is a definite no.

[BBMore]

This isn't quite the same as the question in your title.

Are there developers still building and improving native BB10 apps? Yes. There aren't many, but there are some. bPod is an app that continues to received updates, and Watcher has recently been revived.

There is still some incentive for the developers of BB10 utilities to stay active, since these tend to be specific to the platform (although Clean Master, an Android utility, is also handy on BB10).

But as to the other question, Is BlackBerry still aggressively pursuing developers for BlackBerry World?, I think the answer is a definite no.

Hey ubizmo, your right, looking at it again the questions are not the same but thanks for answering both!

So I hope the Amazon Fire and their app store has some success.

[geekcy]

Just to mention my experience. I work in a greek-cypriot media group. We were interested in developing a news app for Greece and cyprus. After trying some greek developers no one was realy interested in making the app for us. I asked for help from BlackBerry dev and after some emails I realised that they are not interested on supporting media for content developing for the platform. Just to add that we have 24 apps on iOS and Android. It's really shame that after focusing on the business segment they should have been focued on business news and content with push notifications. BlackBerry is not supporting even uban airship push plug-in... pitty!

Posted via CB10

[paulwallace1234]

We are still around, not many of us really but still ticking along.
Only made one App myself, kind of ran out of ideas for BB10.

[Skatophilia]

I would if I could! But I don't know how to code so that's unfortunate...

Posted via CB10

[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

We are still around, not many of us really but still ticking along.
Only made one App myself, kind of ran out of ideas for BB10.

I just tried to check out your app.... but when I click on the app name in BBW to get the details on it, I get an error. Maybe it is just a temporary problem with BBW or with Chrome?

[paulwallace1234]

I just tried to check out your app.... but when I click on the app name in BBW to get the details on it, I get an error. Maybe it is just a temporary problem with BBW or with Chrome?

Yeah it's happening on FireFox too, some Java exception, BB probably broke something


EDIT:
Seems to work if you try reloading it a few times,

[Bla1ze]

We are still around, not many of us really but still ticking along.
Only made one App myself, kind of ran out of ideas for BB10.

Build me a bit.ly link shortener that allows for custom domains and appears as a menu item in the BlackBerry 10 browser. eg: Open in 'app name' to shorten lol. All the current ones suck, are broke or are Android.

( I have more ideas as well but I'm no app dev heh)

Posted via CB10

[itzJustMeh]

I have one lined up, but it's 10.3+ only so it's coming after 10.3.1 release sometime

Bla1ze, if you have ideas for apps, why don't you make a place where we could pick ideas from and implement them?

[SunshineStateFlyer]

It's really sad but I guess the situation with native BlackBerry apps isn't getting better, maybe it even got worse with the introduction of the Amazon app store.

From my experience, developers take care of BlackBerry apps very half-heartedly, with maybe a few exceptions.
Lots of major apps still don't exist at all in BBW and if they do, it's either a poorly implemented Android port or a native app which misses functionality and regular updates. No comparison to Google Play unfortunately.

There's also a lack of new apps and I feel like whenever I visit BBW, nothing has changed at all.

I know there is snap but this is not a real cure, it might even make things worse.
If BlackBerry is getting more popular again, maybe developers would reconsider the production of a BlackBerry 10 app. However, as there is plenty of access to Android apps, there's no pressure put on them at all.

This wouldn't be so much of a problem if the Android apps were tested and designed for BlackBerry devices too, but they aren't.
Sadly, a majority of apps that I have downloaded from Snap don't work at all or in a very limited way.

I don't say BlackBerry should abandon the Android runtime environment but currently we are kind of stuck in the middle as no convincing content is coming from either side of the market.

Posted via CB10

[AlaJack]

Android apps are pathetically lousy on BlackBerry. The worst thing BlackBerry could have ever done is open BlackBerry 10 to android apps. They just don't work properly on BlackBerry, and it killed app development for the platform.

Posted via CB10

[ubizmo]

Android apps are pathetically lousy on BlackBerry. The worst thing BlackBerry could have ever done is open BlackBerry 10 to android apps. They just don't work properly on BlackBerry, and it killed app development for the platform.

You're overstating it. It's simply false to generalize like this. There are Android apps that work just fine on BB10. I use the Android version of Tapatalk, for example, with zero problems. I've had no problems with Kindle or Audible either, both of which I use all the time. There are others that work less well, that's true, and that's a problem for BlackBerry because it prevents them from being able to market Android app compatibility in any very robust way. They have to be careful what they claim in adverts, to avoid charges of fraud.

Another problem is, there seems to be a trend of apps requiring Google Play Services as they are updated. The developers of these apps may choose to update the generic versions of the apps in the Amazon store, but then again they may not; there's not much incentive for them to do so. The overall tendency may be for the Amazon apps, and thus the BB10 apps, to be left behind.

But was the Android runtime really the worst thing BlackBerry could have done? I've read this claim over and over, but what I don't read is what they were supposed to do instead. It's easy enough to write the words "Build an inventory of native apps", but how exactly were they supposed to do that? They don't have endless money to throw at developers, especially while they are downsizing the entire company. Even Microsoft, which does have very deep pockets, has had trouble getting apps into the WP market. If Microsoft has problems, why would anyone think that BlackBerry could do better at it?

Everyone who asserts that the Android runtime killed native app development has to ask how you can kill something that was barely alive to begin with.

As apps become more sophisticated, they are more expensive to develop and support. Moreover, our expectations for app performance rise. This makes it harder for small, independent developers to compete. The larger developers have a vested interest in a two-platform world. If a third platform can manage to get a significant foothold, it'll be WP, not BB10, but even WP's success is not assured.

We're actually fortunate to have a few dedicated developers committed to keeping some key native apps alive and well.

[LuvULongTime]

You're overstating it. It's simply false to generalize like this. There are Android apps that work just fine on BB10. I use the Android version of Tapatalk, for example, with zero problems. I've had no problems with Kindle or Audible either, both of which I use all the time. There are others that work less well, that's true, and that's a problem for BlackBerry because it prevents them from being able to market Android app compatibility in any very robust way. They have to be careful what they claim in adverts, to avoid charges of fraud.

Another problem is, there seems to be a trend of apps requiring Google Play Services as they are updated. The developers of these apps may choose to update the generic versions of the apps in the Amazon store, but then again they may not; there's not much incentive for them to do so. The overall tendency may be for the Amazon apps, and thus the BB10 apps, to be left behind.

But was the Android runtime really the worst thing BlackBerry could have done? I've read this claim over and over, but what I don't read is what they were supposed to do instead. It's easy enough to write the words "Build an inventory of native apps", but how exactly were they supposed to do that? They don't have endless money to throw at developers, especially while they are downsizing the entire company. Even Microsoft, which does have very deep pockets, has had trouble getting apps into the WP market. If Microsoft has problems, why would anyone think that BlackBerry could do better at it?

Everyone who asserts that the Android runtime killed native app development has to ask how you can kill something that was barely alive to begin with.

As apps become more sophisticated, they are more expensive to develop and support. Moreover, our expectations for app performance rise. This makes it harder for small, independent developers to compete. The larger developers have a vested interest in a two-platform world. If a third platform can manage to get a significant foothold, it'll be WP, not BB10, but even WP's success is not assured.

We're actually fortunate to have a few dedicated developers committed to keeping some key native apps alive and well.

Thank you, thank you, thank you! People just don't get this! We all love native cascades apps, but very devs were making them. It was either android apps, or NO apps.

[BBMore]

Very well said ubizmo, I agree