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RIM's Future Hangs On Developer Support For 'New BlackBerry'

Posted by Soulskill on from the if-you-build-it-they-may-or-may-not-come dept.

alphadogg writes "With its future up for grabs, Research in Motion at its annual BlackBerry World conference next week will focus on simplifying development for its soon-to-be-unveiled BlackBerry 10 operating system. HTML5 is one key technology in that strategy to create a viable ecosystem of applications for a new generation of mobile devices expected to ship by year-end. The simplicity is needed because BB10, based on a real time kernel acquired with RIM's buyout of QNX Software Systems in 2010, is a complete break with the software that runs on standard BlackBerry smartphones. 'It's a bit of a challenge,' says Tyler Lessard, formerly a RIM vice president in charge of the global developer program, and since October 2011 chief marketing officer at mobile security vendor Fixmo. 'There's very little or no compatibility between the old and new operating systems. Existing apps can't be carried forward to QNX and BB 10. The question is, once the BlackBerry 10 smartphones launch, can RIM have an adequate catalog of apps?'"

10 of 148 comments (clear)

  1. Doing it wrong. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Embrace Android, become a hardware power house. License BES tech, advertise battery life.

    1. Re:Doing it wrong. by plazman30 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Agreed. Layer your services on top of Android and be done with it. Why develop an OS, when a free one is there waiting for you to add to it.

    2. Re:Doing it wrong. by goombah99 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Agreed. Layer your services on top of Android and be done with it. Why develop an OS, when a free one is there waiting for you to add to it.

      Why would I buy a RIM when and LG or HTC or Samsung behaved the same? That's a recipe for death. It won't be long before google offers the same enterprise e-mail that rim does. What is the distinguishing feature?

      --
      Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
    3. Re:Doing it wrong. by Sipper · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Agreed. Layer your services on top of Android and be done with it. Why develop an OS, when a free one is there waiting for you to add to it.

      Yeah, that way you can fragment development based not only on what the hardware manufacturer does to the version of Android shipped with the phone, but also fragment as time goes on with various versions of Android. :-/

      The issue isn't that they didn't go with Android -- the issue is that there's no compatibility between their old OS and their new OS. Historically that kind of departure doesn't usually work out well.

      An example of where this kind of transition works is the migration Apple went through between OS 9 and OS X. OS X shipped with an emulator, "OS Classic", to allow people to run OS 9 applications -- and sometime they later dropped support for this. They also shipped 'Rosetta' to simultaneously support PowerPC and Intel architecture -- and now they're dropping support for that, too. But during the transitions they supported applications, at least for a couple of years. With no similar "transition support", RIM is taking a big risk, and there's a good chance they're going to get burnt, because in terms of application support they're starting from scratch again.

    4. Re:Doing it wrong. by muon-catalyzed · · Score: 4, Insightful

      > What is the distinguishing feature?
      Unlike LG, HTC or Samsung, RIM is a North American company, I would still prefer RIM and I want RIM to develop their own OS. Android and Apple-iOS have lots of drawbacks and problems, as a consumer I want more options.

    5. Re:Doing it wrong. by wisty · · Score: 3, Insightful

      If RIM supplies a better enterprise email client / server package, then enterprises will buy it. Just like they used to.

  2. WebOS versus Android Round 2, Fight! by SlashdotWanker · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They're going to be stuck in the same position that Palm was only 3 years further down the line in technology. QNX is pretty slick but they're going to have to encourage (bribe) developers and keep pushing the way Microsoft has with Windows Phone if they want to have a prayer... Every day they wait on hardware is a slightly smaller chance of any kind of success.

  3. IOS, or... this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    So I'm making an app, i can chose to develop for iOS.... or the BB10?

    Seriously, why would i spent any time and resources on that platform, when I could just target iOS, and take advantage of the app store and the entire ecosystem that doesn't exist for the BB10?

  4. "...can RIM have an adequate catalog of apps?" by MyFirstNameIsPaul · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Answer: does RIM currently have an adequate catalog of apps?

    --

    I once took an excursion to Reddit, and later HN. Unlimited up/down voting sucks when dealing with a hive-mind.

  5. Re:Could be worse by Barbara,+not+Barbie · · Score: 1, Insightful

    You also can't compare android to an iPad - which is why Amazon sells more Kindle tablets than all the other Android makers combined.

    In other words, there's the iPad, the Kindle, and "everybody else", which explains why manufacturers are abandoning the tablet market as unprofitable. Only the iPad can command iPad prices from the masses ... because everything else really is a crappy, poorly-supported wanna-be knock-off.

    But back on-topic - there is no way in H*** that RIM is going to survive - not by switching to Android, and not by sticking with QNS and hoping that they get any developer traction. The market has spoken.

    --
    Let's call it what it is, Anti-Social Media.