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RIM Doesn't Want 200 Fart Apps
andylim writes "Just when you thought it was safe to dev a fart app for a BlackBerry, RIM's VP of platform product management, Alan Panezic, is making it clear that that's not want RIM is looking for. 'We don't need 200 fart apps in App World. Those are apps you'll use three or four times then never open again. You're not looking at ads, clicking on ads or buying premium upgrades, and the app isn't adding any value to your device.' Turns out RIM wants 'SuperApps', ones that keep you coming back for more because they add something to your life — be it ongoing entertainment value or doing something for you. Most importantly for developers, these are the apps that will garner the most revenue; whether it comes from premium upgrades, in-app advertising, or additional-cost content."
...many of its customers actually want fart apps, because some people think they're entertaining.
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Wait... you actually LIKE Xcode?
So far I've never met anyone who didn't have the urge to jump off a building after being forced to use it.
I actually happen to also like XCode. You don't happen to work at a psychiatric hospital with a large number of patients on suicide watch, would you? If so then I think there could be other explanations for your observation than XCode.
This just in - RIM's VP of platform product management, Alan Panezic, wants RIM to have it's cake and eat it too. "Yes, we'd like to have nothing but amazingly popular, 100% killer apps right out the gate. This is brilliant! Why hasn't anyone else thought of this before?"
Alan Panezic sez: "We don't need 200 fart apps in App World. Those are apps you'll use three or four times then never open again."
The very fact that your developers want to write them and your customers want to download them means nothing to you?
Everyone knows that if a PDA can't fart, it can't do shit.
You can block my 200 fart apps but I only need one vuvuzela app..
did you forget to take your meds?
"You're not looking at ads, clicking on ads or buying premium upgrades, and the app isn't adding any value to your device"
Um, no. I'm using my device as I see fit, which includes using apps that don't have ads, don't have premium upgrades, and don't force me to click on ads. And I'm sorry, but having ads in my apps doesn't increase MY value, but it increases my value TO YOU.
I really, really dislike this fantasy that ad-based companies are pushing that involves them "helping" me by providing me ads. You are not "helping" me. You are gathering revenue based on the supposition that an ad happened to distract me from what it was I wanted to do.
And by the way, am I going to be paying for the bandwidth overages your ads are going to ad to my bill? I certainly hope so.
Notice how the only people advocating Xcode are anonymous cowards?
> One reason why Microsoft and Apple take the walled garden approach is because of Joe and the dancing bunny security problem.
This is utter nonsense as demonstrated by the Mac.
Microsoft and Apple take the walled garden approach because they like monopolies and control.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
WTF is wrong with these people. Advertisements do NOT enhance anything, and I'm sick of them as they are everywhere..
---- Booth was a patriot ----
'200 fart apps' is a side-effect of a huge creative force called a non-restricted (or nearly-unrestricted) army of free developers.
Sure, they do what the market wants, rather than what RIM's CEO deems is of a personal opinion could be useful.
pro: huge app base, huge choice of vendor for the same kind of app, unique idea apps (turn iPhone screen into a break light for a bicycle? etc etc).
con: fart apps. Seriously, big whoop.
They go in a tight package. Ask Linus. Ask Bill. Ask Steve.
RIM is not a platform for any 3rd party software dev that isn't actively being paid by RIM. It's not a platform - it's a standalone niche product.
The con might give your platform -1, but the pro gives it +100.
Which is why RIM will never crawl out of its corporate niche.
PS
Had a bb from work for 2 years. Now have i
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but in my experience most of the places I've worked (smaller installs, 25-100 handhelds) don't use them and are constantly hammered for requests to support ActiveSync devices.
Which is exactly what the GP said.
The management tools are a requirement for bigger shops - the ability to remote-wipe and specify granular security options are HUGE for organizations with more than a few devices to worry about.
When companies break 10,000 users and somebody installs a wallpaper app which sends your customer list to china or decides to take down your mail servers they're typically wishing they went with a platform designed for business.