RIM has the apps it needs for successful BlackBerry 10 launch
Does RIM have the apps it needs to have a successful launch? RIM’s VP of Global Alliances and Business Development, Martyn Mallick, answered with conviction:
“Yes.”
RIM’s VP of Developer Relations, Alec Saunders, added that the company had achieved its goals both in total numbers and in landing the most important, top apps people want. Saunders said that December’s announcement of the launch date “changed the flavour of the conversation [with potential developers] dramatically,” leading to an uptick in apps.
Mallick said that RIM has directly reaching out to a vast array of developers in multiple categories and widespread regions with the goal of getting their apps on BB10.
“If there’s an obstacle in the way, we try to remove it,” he told me, “Whether that’s technical, so be it. If that’s business, so be it.”
Saunders was just as direct:
“Nobody treats developers better than RIM does right now.”
The lead-up to any launching any product usually involves a complicated game of managing expectations. So hearing RIM’s blunt answer about whether it had the apps it needed was surprising. I would have expected RIM to try to subtly lower expectations so that it could beat them with even modest app support. Instead, Mallick claims that RIM had set goals for itself for the launch and that the company has “exceeded even our most optimistic metrics.”
It wasn’t all bluster.
“At the end of the day,” Mallick said, “you’re not going to have every app.”
Saunders added a hint that it’s likely that some big name apps will likely be missing,
“Even if a particular app isn’t there that the user would want, there will be other credible substitutes.”
On the bright side, RIM isn’t (yet) enmeshed in an ecosystem war like we’re seeing between Microsoft and Google. BlackBerry 10 will support CalDAV and CardDAV for syncing Google contacts and calendar. It also has a very fast WebKit-based browser, which should help ensure it won’t be locked out of the increasingly webkit-optimized mobile web.
