[11pts]

We’re committed. �BlackBerry Developer Blog

We�re committed.

Over the last twelve months, I hope you�ve all seen the changes in how we interact with you, our BlackBerry� developers.

You�ve seen us commit to you in a way that many have remarked upon, starting last year with initiatives including BlackBerry� DevCon Americas, the BlackBerry� PlayBook� tablet and BlackBerry� 10 Dev Alpha seeding programs, hackathons, BlackBerry� 10 Jam in Orlando, and the BlackBerry 10 Jam World Tour that we�ve been running across 23 cities. Some of you have even said that this �new� Research In Motion� (RIM�) is the best platform company for developers to work with today.

Earlier this year when Thorsten Heins took the reins as our new CEO, he was very open about the approach the company would be taking to this new platform launch. Yesterday, he delivered some tough news: a shift in timeline for the launch of the BlackBerry 10 platform until the first quarter of 2013.

When we in the Developer Relations group were informed of the news, our first thoughts were with you � our development community � who are continuing to work with us to build great new applications for BlackBerry 10. You�ve got businesses to run, rent to pay, and investors to answer to. You are the folks who have skin in the game now, and aren�t just waiting for a new phone personally. We know this delay affects you, and we�re sorry.

Despite yesterday�s announcement, I want you to know that we remain strongly committed to you. While RIM continues to work towards the launch of BlackBerry 10, our engagement levels and plans for our joint success have not changed.

The BlackBerry 10 platform is designed to offer developers the tools they need to drive a successful business, including simplified rich development; the ability to create, deliver and share powerful visually stunning content, quickly; and multiple paths toward monetization. We are committed to this launch, and to continuing to work with you to make this launch a success. We will work to ensure that the launch is executed brilliantly, with a complete platform that delivers the best experience for our customers.

Over the last few months, the level of excitement, dedication and pride from our developer partners and from our employees has been both gratifying and humbling for me.

My pledge to you is that we will continue to work with you, to invest with you, to create opportunities with you, to be successful with you, and to be worthy of the trust and support you have given us.

Alec Saunders, VP Developer Relations
Research In Motion

[BaconMunch]

06.30.12 Alec Saunders

He's posting from the future!
To add some commentary of worth, I think they acknowledged that the time and energy developers put into BB10 needs return, people are living and supporting families off this income, income that has been delayed.

My concern isn't so much the 3-4 month blip, it too shall pass. The question is, can the internal developers REALLY and TRULY make a phone OS based on QNX?
The PlayBook OS serves as a starting point for speculation:

• notifications are limited in content
• minimal background running processes
• apps do not communicate/integrate well with one another

Android 4.1 and IOS6 are only getting this down now, I don't think RIM can afford to start without it since it led the way with BBOS. Have the devs built on an architecture that allows this? Mind you we still haven't seen BBM on QNX yet...is the NOC confirmed as the transport channel? Have we identified NOC email vs. Active Exchange...too many technical hurdles that we assume the devs can put on QNX...and nothing is guaranteed.

What I see on my 32GB PlayBook is a bunch of app silos running independently and concurrently, which is great, but seems lacking as a phone. When someone asks me what perfect BB10 looks like? I'm thinking of the reinvention of the integrated, reliable, crackberry BlackBerry experience on an indestructible, workhorse microkernal OS, that and a boot time less than 3 minutes.

[PineappleUnderTheSea]

Apparently not engaged enough to meet their timelines. Excuses excuses, but this level of sucking up doesn't change anything.

Sounds like the same old crud that our executives told us everytime a layoff was looming (i.e. we're firing all these people so that the ones that are left can have a bright future). In this case the developers are promised a bright future....mmmm...m'kay.

I may sound negative, but every single company I've worked at has gone through what RIM is going through, and I've heard it all. Nice words don't mean it'll get better, trust me...one of those companies is now bankrupt, another one got sold off...happy endings only happen in massage parlors.

[amazinglygraceless]

The OP is in Australia! It is 6/30 there right now!!

If you click the link, the statement is dated 30 June 2012.

[WinningWithLogic]

While Alec may be sincere, with no device there is no market. No users. No opportunities. Nothing. It's really that simple.

I don't base my decision on what to develop platform to develop for on good wishes, and kind-hearted letters. The idea of building an app for BB10 right now reminds me of that old chestnut "What is the sound of one hand clapping in the forest when no one's there to hear?"

[berklon]

Commitment means nothing if you don't have the talent and business sense.

RIM has proven time and time again that they can't play with the big boys of the industry.

They can talk until they're blue in the face, but it's time to put up or GTFO. RIM isn't putting up anything, so the consumers are telling you to GTFO.

Coming from RIM, a "commitment" has absolutely ZERO value.

[anthogag]

What about the playbook. Devs can concentrate on making apps for this. It should work on BB10 right?

We're getting great games but we could use more quality non-game apps

Like wtf?????

[sosumi11]

We apologize again for the subtitles. Those responsible for sacking the sacked have been sacked.

Monty Python & The Holy Grail

[Blacklatino]

I believe Alex was passionate and truly honest in the words he has spoken or the words that was scripted for him. IMHO, those words should have come from Thorsten to help calm the situation. Those of us here still want RIM to succeed. No Doubt, but, god damnit, lets not start offering up excuses.

[app_Developer]

They can show their commitment and move development along if they will release Cascades (full version) to Playbook users so we can put cascades apps in the store now.

[rickbansal]

At this point, they have no credibility left with me. They have been lying for weeks (at least) maybe months. All of my RIM goodwill is now depleted.

[11pts]

It's definitely tough news to swallow. Our expectations definitely haven't been managed well and in return a lot of us are disappointed.

Looks like another long road ahead for us BB users.

[lnichols]

What about the playbook. Devs can concentrate on making apps for this. It should work on BB10 right?

We're getting great games but we could use more quality non-game apps

Like wtf?????

Playbook right now is a bastardized mess running some AIR and Native apps. Eventually they will dump this AIR garbage and be all cascades for the OS itself. It will still run AIR stuff but the OS won't heavily rely on it. The Playbook will not get BB10 till after released for the phones, and apps written for BB10 will not work on the Playbook till its gets BB10. They should just release BB10 on the Playbook first since we've been beta'ing qnx for over a year anyways. 2.1 has been beta for a while and it isn't super stable. They definitely need to work on non-game apps.

[MasterOfBinary]

Do people here like being depressed?

[kraski]

At this point, they have no credibility left with me. They have been lying for weeks (at least) maybe months. All of my RIM goodwill is now depleted.

I can identify. But, at the end of the day, your 94 posts and my 1000+ posts aren't going to influence much. Especially when it comes down to a glorified cellphone, not a device that changes life or protects the integrity and safety of the nation. If we switched from BB OS whatever to [insert alternate device OS name here], we wouldn't likely be missed much. And it probably wouldn't take very long to find all the apps and tweaks to make the new device do most of what we need. We're talking the delay of a cellphone for Pete's sake! Not the end of all life as we know it! Time to wake up and smell the coffee.

[kfh227]

This is just some PR hack talking. He said nothing. All he did is restate what we already know and phrase things politely in hopes that developers don't jump ship.

[gord888]

Of the replies here.. How many people are actually developers? Yes the bb10 platform is delayed, but the fact of the matter is that it is a fresh start for a developer and a chance to stand out in the crowd... Many devs understand that and are truly interested and invested in bb10 regardless of the delays.

[meltbox360]

I think what Alec Saunders was trying to say was that they were not aware of the delay. I hope everyone realizes it is possible that developer relations had no idea of this and perhaps the engineers hid something from everyone for a while. I do not know what is going on in RIM but it's unfortunate. They do not exactly have the luxury of firing people who screw up since getting someone new up to speed on the current state of things is a lot to ask for.

Point is I think Alec Saunders is truly sorry and wishes he could do something to help developers but BB10 is not in his hands.

[Sucroid]

Of the replies here.. How many people are actually developers? Yes the bb10 platform is delayed, but the fact of the matter is that it is a fresh start for a developer and a chance to stand out in the crowd... Many devs understand that and are truly interested and invested in bb10 regardless of the delays.

If you're a big shop (in the sense that your survival is based on mobile development), you're already doing things cross-platform unless you do only BBOS dev. The effect of the delay is that you might simply wait and see and so there is not much damage there. One might think that new devs will totally forget about BB10 given the news because the risk of wasting time on a platform that might not see the light of day seems a bit high. However, the fact that you can develop in html5, C / C++, and even Android means that you can still give BB10 a try in your spare time because the skills required are transferable.

So what does this all mean? It means that RIM might not have the big BB10 apps that some say everyone wants when it launches. They are already working with some 100 big devs. It will be interesting to see how many of them still show interest in BB10.

BTW, the work by dev relations has been excellent. I wish them all the best.

[Sucroid]

I think what Alec Saunders was trying to say was that they were not aware of the delay. I hope everyone realizes it is possible that developer relations had no idea of this and perhaps the engineers hid something from everyone for a while. I do not know what is going on in RIM but it's unfortunate. They do not exactly have the luxury of firing people who screw up since getting someone new up to speed on the current state of things is a lot to ask for.

Point is I think Alec Saunders is truly sorry and wishes he could do something to help developers but BB10 is not in his hands.

I think there is no need to read between the lines. RIM screwed up once again and its employees are giving their final fight. They are climbing a cliff without safety harness. It will be sad to see them fall to the ground.

[flash24]

Hopefully BB10 will win the media's heart.

[whitbags]

Hopefully BB10 will win the media's heart.

It will have to be absolutely amazing for that to happen. Unless it does stuff iOS, Win8 and ICS (or whatever) cannot do, it will be reviewed as another RIM so-what effort.

I, for one, want it to be dazzling. I'm getting tired of my 9800, but don't want to commit myself to BB7 device for too long.

Come on RIM.

[filmgirl]

I think what Alec Saunders was trying to say was that they were not aware of the delay. I hope everyone realizes it is possible that developer relations had no idea of this and perhaps the engineers hid something from everyone for a while. I do not know what is going on in RIM but it's unfortunate. They do not exactly have the luxury of firing people who screw up since getting someone new up to speed on the current state of things is a lot to ask for.

Point is I think Alec Saunders is truly sorry and wishes he could do something to help developers but BB10 is not in his hands.

Yeah, I'm not sure about that. It would have been clear at BBWorld that a delay was necessary. It was certainly clear at BB Jam in NYC last week. Alec wasn't there but I asked his colleagues and counterparts directly and on the record in a press capacity about the timeline and was assured Q4 2012 was still the plan. I asked because I had reservations, especially with the emulated demos. RIM lied to my face. Sadly, it's what I expect out of them. For the last 5 years they have consistently lied. New regime is no different.

Being committed isn't enough to get the actually talented mobile devs willing to invest in the platform. And for what, a measly $10k guarantee? That's great for amateur devs, but for people who do this as part of their livelihood, it isn't worth the time investment for what will probably be a bankrupt company.

[lnichols]

Yeah, I'm not sure about that. It would have been clear at BBWorld that a delay was necessary. It was certainly clear at BB Jam in NYC last week. Alec wasn't there but I asked his colleagues and counterparts directly and on the record in a press capacity about the timeline and was assured Q4 2012 was still the plan. I asked because I had reservations, especially with the emulated demos. RIM lied to my face. Sadly, it's what I expect out of them. For the last 5 years they have consistently lied. New regime is no different.



Being committed isn't enough to get the actually talented mobile devs willing to invest in the platform. And for what, a measly $10k guarantee? That's great for amateur devs, but for people who do this as part of their livelihood, it isn't worth the time investment for what will probably be a bankrupt company.

Yep RIM has a bad rep now for lying to users/developers. This is the second time Alec has been burnt by upper management. The first was when he was telling playbook devs that native PIM, e-mail and Android player were still on track for a fall 2011 release and then Mike and Jim changed it to Q1 2012 like a day after that tweet. I really feel sorry for the guy because he works for a truly incompetent company that is not keeping him informed and making him look bad. If you look at all the tweets to him from devs over past couple days about being lied to he is doing major damage control and Thor just have to avoid questions on phone calls that happen once a quarter.

Sent from my BlackBerry 9900 using Crackberry App!

[BallRockReaper]

I think it's all over.
I am a teammember of blackberrybase.net, a german blackberry board, and we are discussing about that too.
Most of our readers and board members believe RIM does not listen to their consumers, developers and what else.
I was writing apps for playbook and yes I was hoping BB10 will arrive soon, but for now I stopped most of my work because I do not see any future in RIM anymore.
All I hear and read from RIM are only empty phrases.
There is going to come something, but noone knows when and noone knows if anyone needs it when it is going to be offered.
Can someone give me something that makes me believe in RIM for the future?


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