[Mr_Bunny]

And specifically, do you think that I should remove my very successful non-native app form sale in order to make it easier for people to find ones that you approve of?

I don't want to chime in on this touchy subject, but I do want to take the opportunity to thank you for your wonderful app "What's up" it's the first app I purchased and defiantly one of my favorites, when I'm lucky enough that my son gets home we take some beer out back to the patio and use your app to figure out what we're looking at, funny think though after several beer the font gets fuzzy and the buttons get smaller or are thumbs get bigger, but thanks for the time and effort you've put into this great app.

[BuzzStarField]

I don't want to chime in on this touchy subject, but I do want to take the opportunity to thank you for your wonderful app "What's up" it's the first app I purchased and defiantly one of my favorites, when I'm lucky enough that my son gets home we take some beer out back to the patio and use your app to figure out what we're looking at, funny think though after several beer the font gets fuzzy and the buttons get smaller or are thumbs get bigger, but thanks for the time and effort you've put into this great app.

I do appreciate your comments - I love astronomy and I love programming and it pleases me no end to hear how my app brings families together in the pursuit of knowledge.

Just to put the thread back on topic though, I get so weary of people like the OP and allies who figure it's OK to slander the accomplishments of developers who, for whatever reason, chose RIM's much maligned Air SDK or the Android Runtime for BlackBerry as a means to bring their apps to the PlayBook. There is nothing inherently wrong with either of these platforms and both have their place in a vibrant app ecosystem.

It irks me that some folks never tire of blaming these platforms for all that ails App World. In my mind it's just plain wrong. While it is true that there are good developers and there are horrible ones, and quite a few somewhere in between, no one should fault RIM for providing a wide variety of development platforms and working towards integrating them seamlessly into the unified operating system known as BB10.

That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it.

[rcm1301]

Thanks for the input. Development and marketing are complex issues and I am not certain that any of your three suggestions will help me make the OP any happier. I don't want to bore you by writing a book, but here are some of the thoughts off the top of my headr:

1. Customers often make invalid suggestions and request support in reviews instead of contacting the developer' via the support email address. User error or user inexperience are common reasons why the customer felt an obligation to write a poor review. For this reason, reviews are not a particularly good source of ideas or useful information. Many, if not most, of the ones that criticize performance are misinformed and/or lack an understanding of challenges facing developers. For example, I just got this one: "The compass is not great (slow to orient and sometimes plain wrong. ) but otherwise this is worth every penny." The writer obviously did not read the volumes of troubleshooting information contained within the app and does not know that any other compass app using the sensor at that particular moment would have shown exactly the same symptoms. Such reviews (and a get a lot of them) provide no useful information and actually mislead potential customers that read them. I could cite other problems, but suffice to say you suggestion to always heed reviews and act on the advice, is flawed at its core.

2. Of course developers who charge a fee for their products are in it for the money. It could also be demonstrated beyond a doubt the developers who lack pride in their work and ignore the requirement to respond in full to requests for support, will not do as well as those who do. So while your second suggestion is valid, it is strictly a motherhood statement and therefore does not help me improve my app or determine if the OP would be willing to purchase it.

3. When a customer makes a request, sometimes the response has to be that what the customer is asking for is not practical, is not possible or does not fit into the app's mission. A developer can't possibly be all things to all people and one who attempts to do so will not be able to focus on core competencies and excel in areas where the competition is weaker. There is no such thing as one size fits all when it comes to apps and it would be impractical to comply with every single consumer request.

Good ideas. Maybe these points should be mentioned as a topic in the app forum so customers will know specific feedback to developers help more than just criticizing the app.