[The_Adventist]

I recently emailed a developer regarding their app "Bible Verses Active Wallpaper for BlackBerry". I wrote:


Hello,

I have been using the trial version of the Bible Verses Active Wallpaper for BlackBerry and I am about to purchase the full version.

I noticed that there hasn't been an update since May of last year.

My question is will you be developing this program for the new BlackBerry 10 platform coming out later this year?


The answer I received back did shock me:

The last update for the full app was in feb 2012 and the free was in april 2012. We haven't decided on a release for Blackberry 10 version yet, but there are two big negatives. First Blackberry ten requires us to completely re-write the app. We can't use any of the existing code. Second, the blackberry platform is dying. Nobody wants one and even the company has acknowledged that the blackberry device is dead as they are actively looking to sell their assets.

I certainly hope that this is just one opinion from an unhappy developer. Had I received this email back before I bought the app I would not have supported the developer. I really do like his app, just not his opinion.

Sent from my BlackBerry� PlayBook� using Tapatalk

[Thunderbuck]

This developer's opinion seems to be misinformed. In no way has RIM acknowledged that "the blackberry device is dead"; they are restructuring, and in the course of that restructuring they may well sell off assets no longer needed.

You can see this on the developer side, too. RIM is, yes, laying off thousands of people, especially those who had been working with the "old" OS. They are also advertising many openings for developers who can work with the technologies underlying BB10.

If this developer is seeing sales fall off, that's maybe understandable, but Blackberry isn't a "dying" company. It's a question of characterization.

[addicted44]

I think the dev's words make more sense if they mean BB7 when they say Blackberry platform is dead.

In that case, both their statements are largely true. Bb10 does require a rewrite (although the better tools,means it shouldn't take that long) and BB7 will be supplanted by BB10 and is a dead end for most devs. (while bb7 might still be sold in low end devices, that is not a viable market for 3rd party devs).

[otacon]

Wow... what an unhappy developer... I'm just starting to get myself into development for BB10...