[app_Developer]

I don't think it's fair to say they've "thrown in the towel" on native apps. I think BlackBerry would love developers to keep doing them.

The problem is that developers are going to pay very little attention to the platform until a critical mass of users actually adopt it. I personally think that number is 50 million, but maybe it's less. Seeing as we don't even have a device population of 10 million yet, it's going to take awhile.

Job 1 is to convince the public that BlackBerry is still here and still relevant, because nobody wants to buy a phone from a company they don't believe will be around in a year. Once they've dealt with that public perception, they'll probably get to the 10-20 million a year sales range. If they successfully do that, they'll be back up to that 50 million a year number in 3-5 years. THAT'S the point where major app publishers will start paying attention.

That may be, but in reality by embracing the Amazon store I believe they've made it extremely unlikely.

I guess we'll see how it plays out.

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[anon(6038817)]

THERE WILL STILL BE NATIVE APPS FOR CONSUMERS.

BlackBerry World will still be the default app store.

BlackBerry will still support developers who want to produce consumer apps for native BB10 and even for converted Android ports, if they so wish (though I get there will be less incentive for Android devs to convert their apps).

NONE OF THAT IS CHANGING.

This whole thread sounds like a lot of "sky-is-falling" FUD.

Except developers have even less incentive to develop native BB10 apps now (not that they ever had much to begin with).

Sure, they can still develop native apps, but why? Just develop an Android app, publish it in the Amazon Appstore. You'll have greater reach that way, especially with the Fire Phone coming soon.

You're right, though. Nothing has changed. BB10's native app catalog will continue to be terrible.

[Thunderbuck]

That may be, but in reality by embracing the Amazon store I believe they've made it extremely unlikely.

I guess we'll see how it plays out.

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I'm actually glad they struck the deal with Amazon. It addresses the dreaded "app gap" more effectively than anything else they might have done.

I still believe BB10 is a beautiful platform, and I really like the way BlackBerry has continued to develop it. And once they succeed in selling enough of them, major app publishers will take them seriously.

[app_Developer]

I'm actually glad they struck the deal with Amazon. It addresses the dreaded "app gap" more effectively than anything else they might have done.

I still believe BB10 is a beautiful platform, and I really like the way BlackBerry has continued to develop it. And once they succeed in selling enough of them, major app publishers will take them seriously.

Oh, absolutely. You and I agree this was the right move. I'm glad they did it.

Where we disagree I guess is on the future of third party native apps

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[bobo616]

Except developers have even less incentive to develop native BB10 apps now (not that they ever had much to begin with).

Sure, they can still develop native apps, but why? Just develop an Android app, publish it in the Amazon Appstore. You'll have greater reach that way, especially with the Fire Phone coming soon.

You're right, though. Nothing has changed. BB10's native app catalog will continue to be terrible.

I have to disagree that the native app catalogue is terrible, yes it is missing mainstream apps but third party apps I use are very good.

Posted via CB10

[snpd]

I spent so much efforts in convincing my friends quality family to get a bb10 phone, and I was successful 4 times. They now love the phones and OS, and the native experience. They always go for built for BlackBerry ones. If WhatsApp wouldn't have been available, no chance for having them on board. Is such an app now considered a consumer one?

Wanting to focus on enterprise apps is not understandable to me, there's not even a native Lync client available unless you have BES.

I will and was always paying for native apps, business and consumer. My android experience has never been good on a BlackBerry so far.

I don't understand why BlackBerry is closing doors to native consumer apps. Sad.

Posted via CB10

[Tim Heard]

I suspect that for now, it's part of a survival strategy. ... Trying to reduce their financial bleed significantly, while at the same time gettign as much bang for their buck when doing things to attract users.
Normal native app development takes a long time. Microsoft is still struggling to provide a solid slate of apps for WP8 and even to some degree for Windows 8.
BlackBerry needed a faster solution.
Like I said, I think it's a shame. I hope that if they see considerable success with their upcoming phone releases that they might begin to gradually encourage more development on the consumer side.

I spent so much efforts in convincing my friends quality family to get a bb10 phone, and I was successful 4 times. They now love the phones and OS, and the native experience. They always go for built for BlackBerry ones. If WhatsApp wouldn't have been available, no chance for having them on board. Is such an app now considered a consumer one?

Wanting to focus on enterprise apps is not understandable to me, there's not even a native Lync client available unless you have BES.

I will and was always paying for native apps, business and consumer. My android experience has never been good on a BlackBerry so far.

I don't understand why BlackBerry is closing doors to native consumer apps. Sad.

Posted via CB10

[katesbb]

I don't understand why BlackBerry is closing doors to native consumer apps. Sad.

They haven't literally closed the doors, not yet anyway. They just "encouraged" consumer developers to use Amazon/Android now, and never clarified the implications of that encouragement - leaving everything open to speculation.