1. k8bushlover's Avatar
    Besides Amazon appstore: Netflix, Bank of Montreal, RingCentral VOIP, MessagEase keyboard.
    02-04-14 02:02 PM
  2. keepthetorch's Avatar
    On the android apps you people have downloaded, is the functionality of said apps quite good? Battery drain, freezes?
    02-04-14 02:40 PM
  3. keepthetorch's Avatar
    Because it isn't money that developers want; it's MARKETSHARE.

    Many developers have faith that Microsoft, with its billions in the bank, suite of web services, and Office, will gain enough traction, especially in the business market, that development (initial and on-going) and support of WinPhone apps can be justified. WinPhone's marketshare, while small, has been continuing to grow for the last year. At least VZW if offering z30 for $99 on a 2 year contract.

    BB's marketshare continues to fall, their legacy phones continue to out-sell BB10 by 3:1, and now, most devs will simply say "let them run our Android app" and assume BB is taken care of. And even if it's not, the BB10 marketshare is 0.1%, which is too insignificant for devs to care about.

    While initial development of an app certainly costs money, apps continue to cost money to maintain, keep updated, and support, and for a good-sized company, adding another platform to their supported platforms list may mean having to hire 3-10 full-time employees, which could mean as much as $300k-1M a year in costs, indefinitely. Few companies are going to spend that kind of money to support 0.1% of the market, ESPECIALLY if basic functions are available via a web app or an Android app to that same market. This is basic economics.

    And if you think BB can afford to give other companies millions of dollars to develop BB10 apps, you have little understanding of the financial situation BB is in. BB burned through a HUGE amount of its cash in just the last quarter, forcing it to borrow $1.25B dollars. That's not chump change, and remember, they're also paying interest on that money too. And the cash burning is not over.

    BB simply didn't have the ability to get BB10 apps made, which was the whole point of their investment in the Android runtime, but that was always going to be limited considering they aren't going to have access to the Google Services Framework, which more and more Android apps are using, and which all paid apps require.
    I agree with you. Do you think BB users would pay a higher price to the devs for native versions of the most popular apps to cover such a low volume of users? IMHO - yes. Sad the market share is so bad and can't get NEW users to buy the hardware. Other threads have covered the reasons along with comments here. It has to be worth it and that is the problem.
    02-04-14 02:46 PM
  4. antoscimento's Avatar
    Because it isn't money that developers want; it's MARKETSHARE.

    Many developers have faith that Microsoft, with its billions in the bank, suite of web services, and Office, will gain enough traction, especially in the business market, that development (initial and on-going) and support of WinPhone apps can be justified. WinPhone's marketshare, while small, has been continuing to grow for the last year.

    BB's marketshare continues to fall, their legacy phones continue to out-sell BB10 by 3:1, and now, most devs will simply say "let them run our Android app" and assume BB is taken care of. And even if it's not, the BB10 marketshare is 0.1%, which is too insignificant for devs to care about.

    While initial development of an app certainly costs money, apps continue to cost money to maintain, keep updated, and support, and for a good-sized company, adding another platform to their supported platforms list may mean having to hire 3-10 full-time employees, which could mean as much as $300k-1M a year in costs, indefinitely. Few companies are going to spend that kind of money to support 0.1% of the market, ESPECIALLY if basic functions are available via a web app or an Android app to that same market. This is basic economics.

    And if you think BB can afford to give other companies millions of dollars to develop BB10 apps, you have little understanding of the financial situation BB is in. BB burned through a HUGE amount of its cash in just the last quarter, forcing it to borrow $1.25B dollars. That's not chump change, and remember, they're also paying interest on that money too. And the cash burning is not over.

    BB simply didn't have the ability to get BB10 apps made, which was the whole point of their investment in the Android runtime, but that was always going to be limited considering they aren't going to have access to the Google Services Framework, which more and more Android apps are using, and which all paid apps require.
    I agree with you. It was just a thought for a solution, maybe doing apps like iGrann for instagram. Real nice third party clients that makes the job done. All am saying is its not in the number of apps but by their quality and some particular apps. If Blackberry was able to make some native third party apps that are as good and smooth as iGrann then the app Gap can be close to be over.

    Posted via my Q10/Playbook/Curve
    keepthetorch likes this.
    02-04-14 03:06 PM
  5. Borough's Avatar
    I downloaded one, blackboard mobile
    02-04-14 03:08 PM
  6. Troy Tiscareno's Avatar
    I agree with you. It was just a thought for a solution, maybe doing apps like iGrann for instagram. Real nice third party clients that makes the job done. All am saying is its not in the number of apps but by their quality and some particular apps. If Blackberry was able to make some native third party apps that are as good and smooth as iGrann then the app Gap can be close to be over.
    The problem is that InstaGram and many other big apps don't have 3rd Party APIs, so no official third-party clients can be made. iGrann is a hack, and is essentially using man-in-the-middle techniques to post content to IG, exposing your account info and all your content to that developer. I get it - that's the only way it could be made to work, and I don't fault the developer for that, but if you think this is secure in any way, you're mistaken.

    IG lets this happen because the developer is a single guy who isn't making any money off it, but if a big company like BB tried to make non-authorized third-party apps, they'd get a Cease and Desist very quickly, and would be sued if they didn't comply immediately.

    It's one thing to make an app if there are public APIs to use for that purpose (such as, for example, Google offers for Google Maps, or what Twitter offers), but without a public API, it's up to the company to make their own app.
    02-05-14 10:12 PM
  7. qwerty4ever's Avatar
    Zero.

    Posted via the BlackBerry Q5 using CB10.
    02-05-14 10:24 PM
  8. PhillipFrank's Avatar
    I've got 18 APK'S on my phone right now and I've deleted a couple, I don't use all of them every day but I do use about 8 to10 of them on a daily basis and i have 41 apps from the BlackBerry World (not including the stock application's) 3 of them are android apps and i use about 15 to18 of these apps on a daily basis, the other apps on my phone get used but not all the time

    Posted via CB10
    02-05-14 11:20 PM
  9. Grafic111's Avatar
    Instagram, Vine, Candy crush saga, flipboard

    Posted from my SuperHuman Q10
    02-06-14 04:24 AM
  10. stlabrat's Avatar
    2.

    Posted via CB10
    02-06-14 05:29 AM
  11. THBW's Avatar
    1Mobile Market, Google Maps, Instagram, Netflix, NBA Gametime, tTorent, Chase Mobile. Not allot of apps, but I use them. Maps, Instagram and Game time I use most every day. Ttorent has been really helpful for delivering and distributing large surveys to huge teams of folks doing diligence around the country. Netflix is great for when I don't have to work on my 4 hour daily commute. As OP inferred, it's not the amount of Apps I think that necessarily made the gap, it's the few apps that people want that they could not get. Not sure why Chen or someone else is not making the talk show (also known as "news") rounds and leaking a question to the interviewers about the ability to directly load Android Apps. It only takes a little bit of momentum to drive itself, then others will want to ask about it as well. It's not the answer that's important, it's that the question was asked so people can hear it. "Can you tell us, now that Blackberries can directly download virtually any Android application from 3rd party app stores, do you think this will cause the share price to continue to rise?" "Well Joe, I'm not free to discuss the fact that Blackberries can now directly download virtually all Android applications at this time." "Why's that? I would think the fact that Blackberry can now directly download virtually all Android applications is something you'd want to talk about?" And so on it goes. Not just CNBC. Push yourself on to The View, Morning Joe, O'reilly etc..
    Agree, I think it has always been about one or two key Apps for people. I have downloaded 6, deleted 5 and use 1. That is it. It is nice to have the option and that is a bonus.

    What the Android Apps have made me Appreciate is the quality of native BB apps. It always surprises me that there size is half that of Android.

    Posted via CB10
    02-06-14 07:05 AM
  12. THBW's Avatar
    Hmm, so it's not about profit, it's about market share? I don't know where you graduated from business school but remind me not to put you on the board of directors.

    I don't want to be picky but many, many companies build products for niche markets. Take Microsoft, where do you think all their new profit is coming from? They have been doing the niche thing for years.

    In terms of Apps, developers will make the App if they can get a good return on investment. The way to do that is to be the first one to market with an effective tool. On the BB10 platform, there will never be 50 iGram but there will always be a few.

    As to Google services, what you proposed is called collusion and anti competitive practices. I would suggest you bush up on your business law as you are likely to end up in court. Not that Google hasn't tried and got its knuckles rapped by the EU. Google doesn't have to directly support BlackBerry compatibility but they can't block someone else from trying assuming it meets appropriate standards. This isn't the 1920s.

    Posted via CB10
    02-06-14 07:31 AM
  13. duboisstephane0's Avatar
    Absolutely agree that Chen should be talking about how 10.2.1 makes this possible... but again, BlackBerry does not appear to quite get how marketing works.....

    Posted via CB10
    02-06-14 07:46 AM
  14. Paul Collins4's Avatar
    6 apps

    Z10STL100-2/10.2.1.1925
    02-06-14 07:48 AM
  15. BitPusher2600's Avatar
    Zero. My usage priorities may be different but the type of apps I need daily are already available, and I'm not at all comfortable with having Android apps on my device in the first place.

    Posted from BitPusher's Q10
    02-06-14 07:53 AM
  16. Richard Buckley's Avatar
    Absolutely agree that Chen should be talking about how 10.2.1 makes this possible... but again, BlackBerry does not appear to quite get how marketing works.....

    Posted via CB10
    Running APKS is not something BlackBerry is currently supporting for general users. It is a feature to assist Android developers port their programs. That's why it wasn't mentioned on the official release announcement, and why it isn't marketed.

    Posted via CB10
    02-06-14 07:58 AM
41 12

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