Will BlackBerry 10 suffer for lack of apps?
I was listening to NPR on the way in to the office today and they were talking about the launch of BlackBerry 10. Whoever it was being interviewed pointed out that there would be far fewer apps available for the BB10 than either Android or Apple devices enjoy, and they thought that would be a problem for RIM. I don't know - I mean, yeah, sure more apps is generally a good thing, but there must be literally hundreds of thousands of apps out there that I've never seen, even though I check Google Play daily. Plus many apps are worthless. Is the number of apps really a significant factor in whether BB10 sails or fails?
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Yeah, but it's not only quantity of app, it is quality of apps. I'm not a BB user, so I can't attest to it personally, but there was a pretty negative picture of how poor the current BB World app selection is in an article by Matthew Miller. No Pandora, no Instagram, no Spotify, no Google Voice, etc. I assure you, no matter what they want you to think, up in the C-level offices they are not constantly looking at spreadsheets and planning how to lay off the next round of employees. They like to have fun with their toys too, and BlackBerry best acknowledge that, even if they don't do so openly.
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Yes, that will be a problem for BlackBerry even though, as you point out, many apps are worthless. (Plus, really, how many do you need?)
But the issue is whether BlackBerry can pry away iPhone and Android customers. Those people need a reason to abandon their mobile platforms. Offering fewer apps won't be a compelling reason. In fact, I'm not sure there is one, despite some good reviews for BB10. BlackBerry's only realistic target market (at least in the U.S.) is disaffected iPhone and Android users. At this point that's probably a small market.
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Quick point, RIM is no longer RIM; they changed the company name to BlackBerry. As to your point about apps, maybe it will suffer a little, but as long as there is a good selection of the apps that people want, whether exclusive to BB or multi-platform, I doubt apps will be THE deciding factor. However, that isn't to say it won't matter at all. BB10 doesn't have a lot of apps that I would have thought would have been no-brainers. Netflix, CNN, Expensify, for instance, are not to be had.
Battery life and security are going to matter too. One thing that is great is the built in personal/work profile feature that completely segregates data between the two profiles. That will help alleviate a lot of BYOB concerns. You can easily wipe the work portion of that disgruntled former employee's device while leaving all their cat photos intact. Nice feature.
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I think it will, indeed, suffer. It's a dying platform. Most developers will go where the eyeballs are, Android or iOS. What exactly is going to motivate them to create Blackberry apps at this point?