BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) has seen its application vendor number shoot up three-fold in the past year, which it argues debunks the belief that the group cannot keep up with its competitors in the app development space.
Newly appointed MD for RIM in SA and Southern Africa, Alexandra Zagury, says RIM's statistics in terms of app growth and developer enthusiasm around the company's platform speak for themselves.
Zagury points to recent statistics: “In the last fiscal [year], RIM's app vendor number grew by 254%, while apps submitted on BlackBerry App World grew by 226% in the last quarter and PlayBook apps submitted grew by 240%. I can't think of a lot of industries that have triple digit growth rates.”
She says RIM has done a lot of work with the developer community, to ensure the platform caters to their particular aspirations as much as possible. “We have a whole organisation and developer evangelists that are spread out globally and we have a lot of support from the developer community.”
Mobile Developer Report, RIM is falling behind on the app front. This while Apple dominates in terms of developer interest and Android continues to fight for its second place in the popularity poll.
Appcelerator points out that developer interest is a useful indicator of broader support for a platform as consumers are drawn to devices that can perform certain tasks, such as checking news or stock prices, tracking jogging distances or finding restaurants.
Poor perception
World Wide Worx MD Arthur Goldstuck says that, while the BlackBerry platform faces challenges and has particular snags, the South African developer landscape is also built on poor perception.
The main problem with BlackBerry apps, says Goldstuck, is that they do not integrate as seamlessly into the BlackBerry ecosystem as do other apps in other ecosystems. “For example, you can install or delete an app on most other devices and carry on uninterrupted. With BlackBerry, you have to reboot your phone for the addition or removal to take proper effect.”
He says the stigma that BlackBerry apps are not as cutting-edge as its competitors is fixed. “Actual availability of apps has become far less of a problem, as most core apps are now available for BlackBerry, but until all apps are developed simultaneously for BlackBerry as for other platforms, it will carry the stigma of not being app-to-date.
“In SA this is a particular problem, as the typical developer wants to develop for iPhone first, because it is perceived as the coolest - despite it having the smallest penetration of all smartphone operating systems. Poor perception, consequently, results in very poor economics in the local apps environment.”
A rung in RIM's ladder, says Goldstuck, is its inclusion of FM radio on lower-end devices, which meets a “very real” market demand.
“High-end users tend to miss the fact that the most popular application on a phone across Africa is FM radio, built into the phone. BlackBerry just introduced a Curve model, the 9320, that incorporates FM radio. On most high-end smartphones, you can only listen to FM by downloading an app and incurring data charges for every minute of listening time.”
Burdensome buttons
Mike Sharman, owner of digital communications agency Retroviral, says the biggest challenge for BlackBerry app development is the buttons on the majority of the devices.
“Steve Jobs was very strategic in his decision to manufacture a mobile phone device without buttons, because of the blank canvas that a touch-screen provides - both Apple from an interface point of view, and developers conceptualising apps. Buttons break, become unresponsive, and are not geared for 'everyman'.”
While Sharman concedes that BlackBerry has a large developer base - with over 100 000 apps in its store, according to RIM - he says there is “so much more beauty you can produce” as a developer on Apple's operating system (iOS) or on the Android OS.
“The store model of Apple - serving over 315 million mobile devices as of May 2012 - and an abundance of free Android apps in the market, ensure that BlackBerry apps are a distant third in the app hierarchy.”
Share