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

blog.jamiemurai.com

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

#71

Post by jarek »

ascendant wrote: post #53
veeti wrote: post #26

"Knowing what a pleasure it is to use Apple and Google’s tools," I haven't used the iOS SDK, but the Android SDK is far from "a pleasure to use". The 3.0 emulator is so unusably slow that it makes it practically impossible for me to adapt my app to the new tablet UI without going insane in the process.

I haven't done Android dev lately but I wrote a few apps in the 1.5/1.6 days and it was really nice once you got used to the tools.

I'm not sure that's a useful metric. Before you got used to the tools, could have you written a rant like the one in the article?

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

#72

Post by hrabago »

The way I understand it, the $200 price is for 10 submissions, not 10 applications. So if your app has a bug, and you submit a version of the same app which fixed the bug, and/or added features, that counts against the limit.

Think of it as a $20 fee for app review, bought in blocks of 10.

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

#73

Post by laujen »

lallysingh wrote: post #57
jammur wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a question of whether you CAN make it work, but whether you should have to. RIM is in competition for developers with Apple and Google. Why would a developer choose to go with RIM when the experience is much better elsewhere. I think we can all agree that apps are one of the things that will make or break a smartphone platform in the current market conditions. If RIM can't attract talented developers to writ…

RIM's got two nice advantages to it: (1) Employers often pay for the BB, and the data plan. You're getting access to a lot of users who wouldn't otherwise be customers in the smartphone arena. (2) As the phones are already part of the business's primary operations, you have some nice opportunities to sell apps that integrate with the business. Considering that RIM's product isn't even out the door yet, and the specif…

#1 is a big disadvantage. Those devices are all locked down by IT staff and software won't install. RIM is a tricky platform. I found that the market is split mostly between consumers who text and corporate/government employees who have their devices locked down.

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

#74

Post by mgkimsal »

jammur wrote: post #61
lallysingh wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

RIM's got two nice advantages to it: (1) Employers often pay for the BB, and the data plan. You're getting access to a lot of users who wouldn't otherwise be customers in the smartphone arena. (2) As the phones are already part of the business's primary operations, you have some nice opportunities to sell apps that integrate with the business. Considering that RIM's product isn't even out the door yet, and the specif…

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 they can be 'locked down' to the 'enterprise's' needs - even be allowed to purchase apps on their own?

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

#75

Post by uptown »

hrabago wrote: post #72

The way I understand it, the $200 price is for 10 submissions, not 10 applications. So if your app has a bug, and you submit a version of the same app which fixed the bug, and/or added features, that counts against the limit. Think of it as a $20 fee for app review, bought in blocks of 10.

So they're essentially discouraging improvements to the apps in their ecosystem because it costs the developer money to push out upgrades/patches/fixes?

Genius.

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

#76

Post by alexbell »

fleitz wrote: post #45
jarek wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Why not just say Mac is unsupported? A friend of mine's company spent months developing a BlackBerry app, when he got me to do their iPhone app it took half the time and worked 100s of times better. Why? Because their developers were busy writing code trying to figure out what kind of connection the device had so they could open a TCP/IP connection, seriously the network interfaces aren't abstracted away from the dev…

This. The way networking is done on BB devices is positively archaic unless you pay RIM $2K for BIS access. ;deviceside=fuck you RIM.

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

#77

Post by tjarratt »

All of this rings true, with the exception of having some forms notarized.

My name on my forms did not match the name on my credit card when I paid for my Apple Developer account. A short time later Apple deactivated my account and left it in that state until I could provide them with notarized proof of my identity. That is not terribly unusual, as far as I am concerned.

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

#78

Post by kokon »

lallysingh wrote: post #57
jammur wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not a question of whether you CAN make it work, but whether you should have to. RIM is in competition for developers with Apple and Google. Why would a developer choose to go with RIM when the experience is much better elsewhere. I think we can all agree that apps are one of the things that will make or break a smartphone platform in the current market conditions. If RIM can't attract talented developers to writ…

RIM's got two nice advantages to it: (1) Employers often pay for the BB, and the data plan. You're getting access to a lot of users who wouldn't otherwise be customers in the smartphone arena. (2) As the phones are already part of the business's primary operations, you have some nice opportunities to sell apps that integrate with the business. Considering that RIM's product isn't even out the door yet, and the specif…

Depends on the employers. Lot more employers now are willing to switch away from BB. There were some reports few months ago that was showing how the BB market on corporate/enterprise was declining.

For me personally, I own both Droid and iPhone, and bought lots of apps as well, with my own money. There's no way I will do that on BB.

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

#79

Post by Locke1689 »

jarek wrote: post #69
Locke1689 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Until RIM makes its own desktop operating system I don't think it's comparable at all. And, once again, iOS is the market leader. They get to be different. RIM doesn't.

Except iPhone OS was also different back when Symbian was the market leader and Blackberry was the #2. People complained then. It still rose.

False dichotomy. Everyone knew that RIM and Nokia weren't even playing the same game. This is clear from the fact that neither had App Stores. You'll also remember that when the iPhone was introduced there was only web development, meaning iPhones had no special restrictions.

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

#80

Post by spacemanaki »

tmountain wrote: post #63
spacemanaki wrote: post #25

If you think that's bad, try writing an app for a BlackBerry phone. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1959433

Indeed, writing Blackberry mobile software is an exercise in futility. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1463000

I feel your pain... I wish I'd read that comment about six months ago when I started in a similar situation you were in.
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