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You win, RIM (An open letter to RIM's developer relations)

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Re: You win, RIM (An open letter to RIM's developer relations)

#101

Post by pero »

mgkimsal wrote: post #74
jammur wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure the first advantage really makes a difference though. Corporate users are not buying a lot of apps. This is shown in the latest market share data, where the App Store took in $769 million in revenue, with RIM App World in second place with only $36 million. This is especially significant because RIM has a similar smartphone market share as Apple. So you've got two companies with similar market shares, an…

To add on to your first point, I know people who have company-provided-and-paid-for blackberries, and they buy their own iphone out of pocket and use that more. the BB is just for the bare minimum compliance at work - all their downtime is with their device of choice - and that's where their money gets spent (on apps, add-ons, etc). Would people using company-provided blackberries - the kind companies love because th…

Not to mention this market segment is usually behind a product iteration, or two, due to corporate security policies. This bunch probably won't have the Playbook or whateverphoneisnext--that can actually do anything remotely worth purchasing--vetted for them until RIM's all set and done.

Re: You win, RIM (An open letter to RIM's developer relations)

#102

Post by zabraxias »

westajay wrote: post #60

I went through the same process, but didn't think it was that bad. RIMs web signup download process needs to be cleaned up, and the Mac installer thing was a bit weird, but I thought the docs were straightforward, and only took me a couple mins to get the sample app deployed. My gosh.. A command line program to remote install to the vm image! At least there is a full intel compiled image, and not some buggy emulator.…

It's a shame the term "enterprise" is used as an excuse for poor quality. This isn't an attack on you I see it where I work too. Companies like Apple, Blizzard, and surely others have shown being big doesn't have to impede quality and user experience.

Re: You win, RIM (An open letter to RIM's developer relations)

#103

Post by wazoox »

jarek wrote: post #17
btipling wrote: post #9

The complaints are: $200 price to develop with 10 app limit. Multiple registration forms. Requiring multiple downloads. Requiring to purchase vmware fusion. Installer that just copies an iso. Having to password protect the simulator. Bad documentation on how to load an app on the simulator. The comparative ease with which you can do these things with android and ios.

Isn't the requirement to get VMware Fusion Mac-specific? Might as well complain about not being able to write iOS applications on Windows.

What about using the free VirtualBox, like Palm and Android dev kits do?

Re: You win, RIM (An open letter to RIM's developer relations)

#104

Post by jarek »

icarus_drowning wrote: post #94
jarek wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe they want to attract the huger-still number of developers who aren't flocking to iOS. It's obvious they won't get the rock star developers, but there's a lot more non-rock stars. How is the experience on Windows?

The question is: do they want to compete with Apple for developers? Given Apple's huge success, I can't see how the answer to that question could be anything but "yes". If RIM's strategy doesn't have some component that involves trying to woo iOS developers to their platform, I predict they will fail.

At the risk of sounding xkcd-esque, what is your definition of "fail"? I agree that RIM attempting to duplicate Apple's consumer-focused strategy is unlikely to yield Apple-like results in terms of market share and immediate profit, but let's remember that that's not where RIM started out. There's always a lot of money to be made in B2B, which just happens not to be the competition's strong point.

Finally, the whole smartphone area is ten years old, consumer-focused part of it less than five years old: less than mature, and way less than settled. In another ten years, this all might have turned out to be a silly bubble as Moore's law erases any effective differences between smartphones. Will Apple "fail" when its percentage profit per device and market share falls to current Macbook values?

Re: You win, RIM (An open letter to RIM's developer relations)

#105

Post by parasubvert »

laujen wrote: post #70
lallysingh wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly as an ex-indie PalmOS developer, I'm having trouble being sympathetic. I don't do blackberry myself, and don't have any particular affection for RIM, but this is just a little much. As I understand, RIM's gonna do all the fulfillment & billing for you in the app store? This is the SDK for an unreleased product? On a new, unreleased OS? On a different architecture than your dev machine? Yeah, it may require s…

As an old Palm OS developer and someone who wrote code for BlackBerry OS, I can tell you that BlackBerry is much much much much worse than Palm OS ever was.

ON the bright side, I think the Playbook is based on QNX, and hopefully will have a different experience from BlackBerry OS...

Re: You win, RIM (An open letter to RIM's developer relations)

#106

Post by jarin »

leon_ wrote: post #93
jarin wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I mean the process is a little complicated, but it works perfectly if you just follow the instructions step by step (and you don't need to do any of that to run your app in the simulator). I think it took me about an hour the first time, and it takes maybe 10 minutes to generate the certificates and profile after you do it a few times.

> instructions yeah, if those were available/not just plain wrong when the program started.

They were there. Trust me, I wouldn't have been able to figure out the process on my own.

Re: You win, RIM (An open letter to RIM's developer relations)

#107

Post by krakensden »

rizer wrote: post #98
MattRix wrote: post #81

Ok, as an iPhone + iPad app developer (I created Trainyard), and as a Flash developer who has created a PlayBook app, and as a fellow Canadian, I feel I should weigh in on this. Despite the whiny tone and bizarre "Bueller?" moments, there were a bunch of valid points made. Yes, the amount of forms you have to fill out is ridiculous. Yes, the fact that the simulator .iso has an installer is crazy. With those things, I…

I contacted RIM regarding the whole notarised deal. Here's what they said: Me: As an independent developer I can afford neither to become incorporated, nor to get a notary signature. Could you explain the reasoning behind this? RIM: We require our vendors to be 18 years of age or older. This is why we require a notary form. Me: Is there not a way of proving that I'm over 18 other than spending £200 on a lawyer? I cou…

In California, at least, most cities have 1-2 that sell boxes, packing material, a drop off point for shipping UPS, and notary services. Perhaps that would be cheaper than hiring a lawyer?

Re: You win, RIM (An open letter to RIM's developer relations)

#108

Post by alttab »

leon_ wrote: post #22

Hmm, I expected something ... well ... something really bad. But it looks like the guy has just a very thin skin. I'm an iPhone developer who signed up with the program as soon as it became available and I can tell you: Becoming an iPhone developer was a major PITA. It started with the registration (Apple let you wait for weeks after you purchased the membership), then with taxes formalities (as a non us-citizen I ha…

The great thing about open platforms is that there is no one to get in your way. So if you are going to stand between us and our development, you best make it a good experience.

Re: You win, RIM (An open letter to RIM's developer relations)

#109

Post by Pahalial »

alanh wrote: post #13

Don’t forget Kik ( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1935093 ) and the arbitrary way RIM may decide to not only take your app down, but sue you ( http://www.kik.com/blog/2010/12/a-sad-day-in-waterloo/ ), to boot.

Everything I've read and heard indicates it's really not that cut-and-dried, what with the founder of Kik having been an intern at RIM and then basically re-implementing BBM.

Re: You win, RIM (An open letter to RIM's developer relations)

#110

Post by [deleted] »

jarek wrote: post #104
icarus_drowning wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The question is: do they want to compete with Apple for developers? Given Apple's huge success, I can't see how the answer to that question could be anything but "yes". If RIM's strategy doesn't have some component that involves trying to woo iOS developers to their platform, I predict they will fail.

At the risk of sounding xkcd-esque, what is your definition of "fail"? I agree that RIM attempting to duplicate Apple's consumer-focused strategy is unlikely to yield Apple-like results in terms of market share and immediate profit, but let's remember that that's not where RIM started out. There's always a lot of money to be made in B2B, which just happens not to be the competition's strong point. Finally, the whole…

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