[BBNation]

Here is message from one of DEV

RIM has Written the Book on How to Grow a Mobile App Ecosystem Published on January 15th, 2013 Written by: Ross Cheriton
mlmexpert2001 by mlmexpert2001 . Jan 15, 2013 9:43 PM . Permalink
BlackBerry�s commitment to their third party developers is admirable and the gold standard (and perhaps even beyond that) of how developers should be treated. Under the leadership of Alec Saunders and the Developer Relations team, RIM has essentially written the book on how to grow a third party mobile app ecosystem.

Today, RIM is sending out emails to confirm the payment information for developers who participated in the first BlackBerry All-Aboard Port-a-thon which saw developers submit about 4,000 apps to BlackBerry World. The second Port-a-thon broke all records with a staggering 15,000 app submission total. The final Last Chance Port-a-thon will be taking place Jan 18th and should bring in many more thousands of apps.

The cash reward is 100$ per eligible app, and I�ve received my e-mail confirmation today for my Cascades apps I have submitted.
The rewards, (at least the cash) should be distributed within 4-6 weeks. Other rewards, like the Dev Alpha devices and the Trips to Amsterdam may come at different times.

As a BlackBerry developer myself, I have seen first hand the lengths RIM has gone through to actively cater to our every need. Instead of paying Apple for the privilege (and having to buy an iPhone AND a Mac) to write applications for iOS, many developers are moving to BlackBerry 10. The apps look better, the apps are more powerful, developing is free, you can use whatever machine you want, the tools are excellent, and the developer support team is legendary. Mix this in with potentially tens of millions of subscribers and BlackBerry World should explode.

If the launch of BlackBerry 10 is successful, and millions of devices are sold, you can bet the continued commitment to developers should help bring the remaining big name apps to the platform.

[BergerKing]

Sounds a whole lot better than the experience was in days gone by. I've heard more than a few complaints from the previous few years, and making the process as friendly and convenient as possible should help growth substantially. Thanks for the post.

[Dapper37]

Thats what I like to hear! keep up the good work RIM!

[web99]

Great topic. Alec Saunders and the RIM Developer Relations team have definitely pulled out all the stops to make it very attractive for developers to create apps on the new BB10 platform.

Sent from my BlackBerry 9800 using Tapatalk

[G-bone]

Yeah, Baby!
(gotta love Ross Cheriton )
It's a Brand New BlackBerry!
Rebirth of the CrackBerry!!!!!!!!!!
#BB10Believe

[bb10_fan]

Sorry to spoil your excitement guys, but after seeing this thread I went to General Support Forums - BlackBerry Support Community Forums to check how developers are happy there. And you know what? They are not happy at all. We all know about 10K commitment RIM announced to attract developers to BB10. It doesn't have big effect on us, end users of the BB10 platform, because any big software house will earn more than 10K for any of their apps in one year. But it could support smaller teams and individual developers. The more worrying thing I discovered while browsing that forum was this thread:

Rejected app for built for Blackberry without spec... - BlackBerry Support Community Forums

It seems there are no Build for BlackBerry apps exists yet! 2 weeks to launch! We have countless number of garbage-apps but none good apps. Cool, just what I was waiting for all these months. I could simply stay with MeeGo platform to get the same result. Well, of course big names will have BFB sticker attached to them, but I want to see apps from small teams and individual developers too. I don't want to scroll through all that garbage they produce during their successful porthatrons to find a dissent app. I hoped for BFB section where only good apps are listed. But it seems that BFB section will contain only big names. RIM is risking to repeat the same mistake that Nokia did, abandon developers (not big software houses). For FS, I don't want another trilogy (or better say N-logy) of Angry Birds, I want some nice small logical games, nice neat apps that serve one simple task, but do it properly and in a very optimized way. No wonder people move to Android or iPhone (developers and users)...

[chrysaurora]

Rejected app for built for Blackberry without spec... - BlackBerry Support Community Forums

Read through the thread. Pissed off @ RIM. Before reading that thread, the impression I had was that RIM is moving mountains to support developers. Now, I am not so sure.

[bb10_fan]

Read through the thread. Pissed off @ RIM. Before reading that thread, the impression I had was that RIM is moving mountains to support developers. Now, I am not so sure.

Well, they still move mountains to have more apps in store for launch. Last estimation I've heard was 140 000 apps. But who the **** needs all those garbage apps and a long line of pissed off developers (real one, not those who can use App Generator)?

[RubberChicken76]

Read through the thread. Pissed off @ RIM. Before reading that thread, the impression I had was that RIM is moving mountains to support developers. Now, I am not so sure.

How about we wait and see what happens Jan 30th?

[bb10_fan]

How about we wait and see what happens Jan 30th?

They will announce BB10 with 100K apps and say developers were super excited and that's the reason they have so many apps. Few days later, some tech blogs will count all garbage apps in store and present it to the public. Then they will find those forums where developers complain about fake commitments and the whole bubble they have created about "developers excitement" will blow away. The rest you can imagine yourself RIM should avoid to give any chances to media to kick their balls

[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

Why did RIM need to go an reinvent the wheel and write a book about growing a Mobile App Ecosystem.... There are a couple of other companies that already know how to do that. They should have just copied them.


While I'm glad to see the numbers and the interest in the BB10 platform. Most of the Apps that I want are not created by some third party developer that is going to care about a $100 bonus, or the fact that they have to buy a MAC or an iPhone.

Most of them didn't jump on porting apps for the PlayBook, so I'm worried they might be taking a wait and see attitude with BB10 also. We will soon know the true state of the BB10 Ecosystem!

[cjcampbell]

Read through the thread. Pissed off @ RIM. Before reading that thread, the impression I had was that RIM is moving mountains to support developers. Now, I am not so sure.

I read almost all of this thread and yes, buy looking at just that, I can see your view but I do have one small issue with that.... It's a very small subset of the number of dev's doing work and developing... I started poking around and found this one (I won't post his name but his statement was really quite thought out and truly valid) .....

"I have no intention of actual getting the $10K payout.



Given what I've seen on the PlayBook with my own and some other apps, and thinking about the relative volumes we should expect for the phones (i.e. far far higher), I think that the apps I'm planning and building will earn more than $10K all on their own.



This is simply an insurance policy. You don't buy life insurance planning to take advantage of it (I hope). You're forced to buy car insurance, but you hope you never need it. I hope I don't need to "make a claim" against this policy either, and don't expect to.



The other point I want to make is that RIM is clearly encouraging development of native BB10 apps that show off the OS. Android apps do NOT do that. AIR apps may do that somewhat, but probably not and maybe never to the extent the others can. Also, having written a few of them, I conclude that the responsiveness, footprint, and performance of AIR apps will likely never be on par with the Native or even WebWorks apps. (Remember, WebWorks may currently be built on AIR but that's not expected to last... once it's fully native they should be even snappier than they are now, not to mention smaller footprint and launching faster. Edit: I'm told WW in BB10 is already native-based, not AIR.) I'm comfortable with RIM not encouraging their use, and not insuring the developers who choose to use them.



It also occurs to me that it would be unwise for RIM to bet this same way on Android or AIR apps, given that discerning users can tell the difference. Over time it seems likely to me that market forces from BB10 users will gradually discourage their development for this platform.



Truly "Built For BlackBerry 10" apps will outperform the others, with better integration possible, and a better user experience, resulting in greater success for vendors of those apps. I believe that, and to me this 10K commitment program shows me that RIM does too. I think that's a very good sign"

[THBW]

They will announce BB10 with 100K apps and say developers were super excited and that's the reason they have so many apps. Few days later, some tech blogs will count all garbage apps in store and present it to the public. Then they will find those forums where developers complain about fake commitments and the whole bubble they have created about "developers excitement" will blow away. The rest you can imagine yourself RIM should avoid to give any chances to media to kick their balls

Well first, I think RIM is well beyond 100K at this point. As I have discussed with you several times on other threads, the App game was invented by Apple and like it or not RIM has to play along. Consumers are trained to want "lots of Apps" despite the fact that most will never use more than 20 (market research analysis). So RIM is going to give consumers what they want "a large number of Apps". This is the correct strategy. They also have to deliver quality/high use Apps. In this regard, RIM has stated that they will deliver around 94% of the top 600 iOS/Android Apps to their BB10 platform. Nice to see that you stayed clear of this inconvenient point unlike previous postings where you were dutifully corrected.

[jmurph66]

Sorry to spoil your excitement guys, but after seeing this thread I went to General Support Forums - BlackBerry Support Community Forums to check how developers are happy there. And you know what? They are not happy at all. We all know about 10K commitment RIM announced to attract developers to BB10. It doesn't have big effect on us, end users of the BB10 platform, because any big software house will earn more than 10K for any of their apps in one year. But it could support smaller teams and individual developers. The more worrying thing I discovered while browsing that forum was this thread:

Rejected app for built for Blackberry without spec... - BlackBerry Support Community Forums

It seems there are no Build for BlackBerry apps exists yet! 2 weeks to launch! We have countless number of garbage-apps but none good apps. Cool, just what I was waiting for all these months. I could simply stay with MeeGo platform to get the same result. Well, of course big names will have BFB sticker attached to them, but I want to see apps from small teams and individual developers too. I don't want to scroll through all that garbage they produce during their successful porthatrons to find a dissent app. I hoped for BFB section where only good apps are listed. But it seems that BFB section will contain only big names. RIM is risking to repeat the same mistake that Nokia did, abandon developers (not big software houses). For FS, I don't want another trilogy (or better say N-logy) of Angry Birds, I want some nice small logical games, nice neat apps that serve one simple task, but do it properly and in a very optimized way. No wonder people move to Android or iPhone (developers and users)...

I think you're being a bit too pessimistic when looking at that forum. Sure there are a few devs that have not got their apps approved, and it seems there is a general complaint that they do not get enough info for why their apps were rejected. But if you look at who the forum posters were you'd see that many of the people complaining were the same people with legit complaints but there are a select few. So when you say that the developers are not happy at all that is a huge overstatement.
The way I see it is the Built For Black Berry program is a highly subjective and highly scrutinized program, and the forum postings that you bring up might have only highlited a handful of developers that have not passed that high of requirements. Think of it RIM needs to be assured that the app you bring to the table is worth 10 000 bucks. If it were me I would be carefully selecting and inspecting those apps for quality before potentially handing over that amount of cash.
And as you pointed out there have been no mention of developers on that forum site that have passed the requirements for BFB, but that does not mean that no one has passed it as you stated. The forum site that is provided was established to help developers when they are trying to get certified BFB, not a place for them to come back once they have been certified and brag about to all the other devs.
I think you need to look on the bright side of things as opposed to saying we are not going to have many BFB apps. Because if you were correct and no developers were happy wouldn't that community forum be overflowing with more negative posts then it is?

[BBNation]

One dev's opininon does not change the world. The fact of matter is that what alll seen RIM is doing everything to attract devs including garbage apps so why won't RIM approve or allow the app built for BB. There has to be good reason and we will not know unless we all information. May it was compliances, security or policy issue.

[cjcampbell]

One dev's opininon does not change the world. The fact of matter is that what alll seen RIM is doing everything to attract devs including garbage apps so why won't RIM approve or allow the app built for BB. There has to be good reason and we will not know unless we all information. May it was compliances, security or policy issue.

There is good reason... It needs to fit and fill all the requirements. If it doesn't, odds are it will not receive downloads, not make money, and RIM would be out 10g's. This program wasn't a gift to dev's, it was there to say "hey, you build a quality app built to our specifications, and you will make money. If you don't, we'll guarntee you a base minimum." That doesn't mean you can just toss an app in, hope for $1000 over the next year, and cash in later.

[chrysaurora]

Ok. Guys.
I did something about this - I messaged Alec Saunders and sent him link to that thread with upset developers.
Alec said he'd do something about it. He'd add some clarity about it tomorrow. For today, please be patient.

So, I guess, that's good news!

[lorax1284]

Read through the thread. Pissed off @ RIM. Before reading that thread, the impression I had was that RIM is moving mountains to support developers. Now, I am not so sure.

I think most of those posters are looking for a quick buck... There seems to only be about 15 unique "commiserator" IDs amongst all the posters.

Here's how to scam RIM.

Throw together an app that qualifies for the 10k guarantee.

Put enough fake purchases through to get $1000, score $9000 profit.

RIM would be foolish to allow that.

The screen shots of some of the apps looked so ugly they shouldn't be in App World at all nevermind qualifying for a revenue guarantee.

...and the app review team is not supposed to be doing basic QA on the submitted apps... Some of the issues discussed show slapdash development and basically only superficial testing. Unacceptable, especially for an "emblem" programme.

Good on RIM for having standards, but maybe they need to me more candid if an app is rejected because "dood, it just sucks. C'mon, man. Make it look good, test it properly ( Which can be hard and tedious work) and try again."

[randall2580]

I too read through the thread and this comment caught my eye and must be shared considering some of the things I have read here. I want to say before I do I am glad @Chysaurora got Alec involved, and I am certain he will add some clarity.

"@jtegen "With the criteria the way it is, none of the core apps would pass BFBB. Maybe if the calendar app farted when you added an event, that would make it entertaining and receive the certification."

Now that's frustration.

[BB_Bmore]

Originally Posted by BBNation<br />
One dev's opininon does not change the world. The fact of matter is that what alll seen RIM is doing everything to attract devs including garbage apps so why won't RIM approve or allow the app built for BB. There has to be good reason and we will not know unless we all information. May it was compliances, security or policy issue.

<br />
<br />
There is good reason... It needs to fit and fill all the requirements. If it doesn't, odds are it will not receive downloads, not make money, and RIM would be out 10g's. This program wasn't a gift to dev's, it was there to say &quot;hey, you build a quality app built to our specifications, and you will make money. If you don't, we'll guarntee you a base minimum.&quot; That doesn't mean you can just toss an app in, hope for $1000 over the next year, and cash in later.

I don't know if I agree with that. The dev who built pop corny and flycraft had flycraft rejected. and I believe flycraft would do well. It already has on PlayBook for as small as the user base is.

[howarmat]

I too read through the thread and this comment caught my eye and must be shared considering some of the things I have read here. I want to say before I do I am glad @Chysaurora got Alec involved, and I am certain he will add some clarity.

"@jtegen "With the criteria the way it is, none of the core apps would pass BFBB. Maybe if the calendar app farted when you added an event, that would make it entertaining and receive the certification."

Now that's frustration.

i laughed hard at that too and he does have a point. Some apps dont need "flare." Some apps just need to get the job done. I am glad that Alec is helping out. I do hope that there are devs that are having better luck. Some of the names from that thread are pretty good devs too, not just your weekend warriors

[lorax1284]

...and this

[chrysaurora]

I think some of you are missing the point -

Developers are upset because:
a) their built for BlackBerry app has been rejected with almost no explaination of what is it that they didn't like. So, they can't re-work on the app and can't improve it as they didn't get any constructive and specific feedback from RIM
b) the rejections are coming at a time when deadline for submitting is almost there so developer's don't have time to make improvements and re-submit in time

Even if apps are **** and only a small subset of devs are the one that are complaining, it's only fair that their complaints get addresses fairly. If an app has been rejected, it's not unreasonable for a developer to want to know 'why was my app rejected? what exactly did you not like'.

Anyway, I forwarded that thread to Alec Saunders and he said he'd add some clarity about this program tomorrow. As long as he addresses developer complaint's in a fair/just manner, it's all good!

By the way,
Somebody also mentioned that developers may be trying to scam RIM. Well, RIM has thought about it and has made it very hard for developers to scam them. Of course, it is still possible. RIM wants you to make not only $1000 (before they give you $9000 as part of $10k commitment) but they also want at least 500 separate purchases. So, if a developer wanted to spend their own $1000, developer would have to arrange it by having 500 different BlackBerry users purchase his/her app. Difficult to do (although, not impossible).

[koolrosh]

Don't forget that Built for Blackberry is supposed to showcase the best BB10 apps, if they accepted everyone it would not make sense.

Case in point. One of the devs posted saying that he submitted 19 apps and 17 were rejected. How can someone make 19 "quality" apps in such a short amount of time? For me quality means that the app has a chance of being top 10 in a category.

[playbookster]

If thorsten ever leaves rim Alec should be the new CEO.

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