[smart548]

Eigth months ago BB10 was launched,with high expectations and lods of promises. Now,in August, OS problem are going to be fully solved thanks to 10.2 release in October, as battery problems have already been solved months ago. What everybody is complaining is the lack of apps in the BBworld. But,are you so sure it si just that? I mean,in every forum I visit everybody is saying that Android offers so many apps and games. Right,but how many Android devices can run them all? Trust me,a few. Does it make sense to buy a 300 bucks phone that does run 50% of the 800000 available apps? Isn't better to buy a faster and reliable phone like the Q5? No apps either way. Better phone

Posted via CB10

[qbnkelt]

Eigth months ago BB10 was launched,with high expectations and lods of promises. Now,in August, OS problem are going to be fully solved thanks to 10.2 release in October, as battery problems have already been solved months ago. What everybody is complaining is the lack of apps in the BBworld. But,are you so sure it si just that? I mean,in every forum I visit everybody is saying that Android offers so many apps and games. Right,but how many Android devices can run them all? Trust me,a few. Does it make sense to buy a 300 bucks phone that does run 50% of the 800000 available apps? Isn't better to buy a faster and reliable phone like the Q5? No apps either way. Better phone

Posted via CB10

What I like about BlackBerry is that it's got different devices for different needs/wants. Personally, because I'm a geek, I'd get a red Q5 AND a white Q10 AND my Z, but most people have a specific preference. For me, the lack of apps is an issue. None of my banks have an app, one hasn't got a web app, and I hate the inconvenience of having to use the browser. I also would love to have native Instagram because I won't sideload.

So yes, apps are needed.

[Roo Zilla]

It's not the just the apps. The apps are part of problem. The problem can be boiled down to this:

Too little, too late and too expensive.

Same thing with the Palm Pre in 2009. The Palm Pre was a great device, and in many ways significantly better than the both iPhone and Android devices of the time. The problem was, too little, too late, and too expensive. The Pre offered nothing disruptive, and was significantly lacking in apps and other ecosystem components. It was a device with great potential, but relegated to history as a footnote. Too little, too late, too expensive.

[ranzabar]

Business 101: find a need and fill it. Not try to fill every need. Market was/is too tight. BlackBerry needs to find its niche, not be the next AppleDroid.

Posted via CB10

[Bbnivende]

The only niche that BlackBerry has for the QWERTY phone. All the other smartphones can do what BlackBerry does, some better, some worse.

Here though :

-Too expensive and screen is too small - say it again, too small
- Should have kept the trackpad
- Need a slider
- Did not need to develop such a complicated OS - BBOS like OS running QNX would have been excellent
- Should have sold the devices at near cost to businesses
- Have a BIS model

[sk8er_tor]

Apps are needed for sure but I don't think that's the reason why the phone isn't selling. Marketing must realise they have this app problem and they must advertise the features that make BlackBerry 10 worth switching to even if you lose your favourite app. I really think that if they advertised just the time shift camera (and I mean advertise it properly on its own in 30 seconds), then that would get a lot of people buying this phone. Same goes with file sharing capability. Same thing for hub. I don't know why they don't pick one great thing that sets BB10 apart from the rest and take advantage of it by advertising *properly.*

[Rello]

Not sure about your statement that some of the phones can only run 50% of available apps. Even if it is, it doesn't really matter cause the more recent phones still have all the more important apps available to them that BlackBerry doesn't

I still think that brand perception issue is their biggest problem by far

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[undone]

Lack of apps is a symptom of a Brand/Company perception problem. If they can fix the perception, they can sell bags of poo and people will buy it.

[anon(3310921)]

Not sure about your statement that some of the phones can only run 50% of available apps. Even if it is, it doesn't really matter cause the more recent phones still have all the more important apps available to them that BlackBerry doesn't

I still think that brand perception issue is their biggest problem by far

Posted via CB10

Having popular apps could possibly be the only thing that can save BB's brand perception . . . in the US anyway . . .

[xandermac]

Mmmm. Nope, I still think its the apps.

Apps are needed for sure but I don't think that's the reason why the phone isn't selling. Marketing must realise they have this app problem and they must advertise the features that make BlackBerry 10 worth switching to even if you lose your favourite app. I really think that if they advertised just the time shift camera (and I mean advertise it properly on its own in 30 seconds), then that would get a lot of people buying this phone. Same goes with file sharing capability. Same thing for hub. I don't know why they don't pick one great thing that sets BB10 apart from the rest and take advantage of it by advertising *properly.*

Sent from my 4s using TapaTalk

[Wiki Cydia]

I mean,in every forum I visit everybody is saying that Android offers so many apps and games. Right,but how many Android devices can run them all?

The high-end phones can run pretty much all of the apps. It's the lower-end devices running dated software that have compatibility issues, but even those devices have a broader selection than that of BB10.

Does it make sense to buy a 300 bucks phone that does run 50% of the 800000 available apps? Isn't better to buy a faster and reliable phone like the Q5? No apps either way. Better phone

50% of 800000 is still 400000, so your "no apps either way" claim doesn't really hold up. And as to what's "better," that's almost entirely subjective.

[sergey_IL]

The problem is not only with current apps, but with the future apps also. If tomorrow some really useful app will appear, it has much better chances to get it android.

[JasW]

Apps and brand perception. Fatal combination IMHO.

[heymaggie]

The apps are a problem if there's nothing that special about the hardware or the OS. That's right - there's nothing special about Blackberry hardware or BB10. There are people here who are of the opinion that BB10 is a uniquely great experience but that opinion is certainly not shared by the majority.

Palm fans thought that there was something special about the webOS experience and the rounded hardware but in the end it was the apps.

QNX isn't really powerful or efficient, either. It certainly hasn't demonstrated it. People just repeated it enough around here that others started to believe it.

When reviewers say that they like the hardware and software, they are saying that it might be as good as the Android or iOS. Minus the apps.

[LROBLES46]

Apps apps apps

[McIrish]

I oversaw 100 Blackberries in our company. We used Blackberry almost exclusively till two years ago. Now, we have only one. For us, it came down to apps that we needed and were not available. I'm not talking games here. We switched mail servers due to Microsoft's huge price for keeping current with Exchange. We went to Kerio for mail. Well, Kerio worked great on iPhones and Android, but the connector to BES was horribly buggy and would crash continuously. Was that Blackberry's fail? NO, but that is beside the point. We need email on phones more than we needed Blackberries. Same with remote access through our firewalls. There wasn't a client available for Blackberry but there was for Android and iPhone. I preferred so much about the Blackberry but in the end, I couldn't do my job with it. So, in our case, 50% of the company went with iPhones and the rest went with Androids. I still hope Blackberry makes a huge comeback and gets up to 20% of the market. I think that is good for everyone. Competition in a free market is what drives innovation.

[LWKING]

In my circle, I'm probably the last person that would ever leave BlackBerry, but I almost did because of APPS and social reasons. I'm over that now though. I want my phone to help me do everything i need it to do as fast as possible. For apps, I'll just pick up the new Nexus 7. I think it's best to keep work separate from play because it eases the temptation. To answer your question, it's an app problem. The security of knowing that there is an app available if you were to ever need it is huge. It's bigger than existing top apps.

[rodan01]

I agree, It's not an App problem, many people use only the basic apps and they aren't buying a BlackBerry.

It's something related to the perception of the product. Does anyone think that the next big thing will appear in a BlackBerry? No, probably will be Google or Apple.

The OS is less intuitive than iOS and Android, there is a learning curve for the current BBOS user.

[undone]

If the perception was that BlackBerry made the best product and everyone had to have it, the app developers would line up. Who wants to develop for a 'DOA' product, no one.

RIM back then failed to control the message (as BlackBerry today is doing) and now are paying the price of that failure.

[adamschuetze]

It is absolutely an apps problem. That, and brand perception, which could be fixed with.. you guessed it! APPS! And a ****load of advertising. Like 500 million USD worth. Their advertising team has been almost completely useless. It's a total disappointment.

And it's not just the apps that people are trotting out here on the forums like Instagram and Netflix, but lets address those first, shall we?

As of February 2013, there are 100 million active Instagram users (Instagram Blog) I'll let that sink in. 100 million people, that will not buy a BlackBerry because they can't use their favorite app on it. For all of BlackBerry's posturing about their 80 million active subscribers, in one fell swoop they have insulated themselves from 100 million potential buyers.

As of July 2013, there are 37.6 million streaming Netflix users (By The Numbers: Netflix subscribers). There's another 37.6 million people. It's not possible to know the Venn diagram for Netflix and Instagram users, so you can't really add 100 million and 37.6 million, but it's still very bad for BlackBerry.

Then there's the Kindle app. Yes, it's available on BB World (for Z10 only so far, so I sideloaded it on my Q10). Android Player apps are just a stopgap. They don't worth as smoothly as native apps, and for an Android or iOS user coming to BlackBerry, the performance and user experience of Android apps on BlackBerry are severely sub-par. I don't have numbers for Kindle app users, but Amazon is a behemoth. The development cost for a BlackBerry 10 native app would be chump change to Bezos' firm. If this monstrous company hasn't spent the development time to build a native app for BlackBerry 10, clearly BlackBerry is doing something wrong.

And then consider the smaller stuff. The little services that are growing. In particular growing segments such as the "read it later" crowd like Pocket, Instapaper, and Readability. I use Pocket, and I converted and sideloaded it on my Q10 (10.2.0.1323 currently). It works okay. It won't synchronize over mobile network though, it only works over WIFI. Buzzkill. While these smaller services don't have the tens (or hundreds) of millions of active users behind them, they still form the overall user experience.

For the average user, when they go into a cell shop, and if they deign to pick up the BlackBerry (which is unlikely given how bad the name brand recognition is right now), the first thing they'll do is ask the salesperson about apps, or they might do a search on BB World. If they don't find their favorite apps, they put it down and move on to the Android or iOS device. Simple as that. And all the posturing about "great user experience" and "get things done" will be completely irrelevant. You can't "get things done" if you don't have your favorite apps to do it with.

[Coachbulldog]

I oversaw 100 Blackberries in our company. We used Blackberry almost exclusively till two years ago. Now, we have only one. For us, it came down to apps that we needed and were not available. I'm not talking games here. We switched mail servers due to Microsoft's huge price for keeping current with Exchange. We went to Kerio for mail. Well, Kerio worked great on iPhones and Android, but the connector to BES was horribly buggy and would crash continuously. Was that Blackberry's fail? NO, but that is beside the point. We need email on phones more than we needed Blackberries. Same with remote access through our firewalls. There wasn't a client available for Blackberry but there was for Android and iPhone. I preferred so much about the Blackberry but in the end, I couldn't do my job with it. So, in our case, 50% of the company went with iPhones and the rest went with Androids. I still hope Blackberry makes a huge comeback and gets up to 20% of the market. I think that is good for everyone. Competition in a free market is what drives innovation.

Intelligent comments and insight.

No matter how a thread on apps begins, there is almost always someone who will respond with "tools not toys", a reference to "fart apps", I don't need apps, etc... But as you point out, BlackBerry is using their core business sector of customers because of the lack of apps they need. The app discussions should move beyond Instragram and Netflix because the lack of apps is much more than either of those.