>...a large number of little hurdles add up to a big hurdle. Maybe not for them,
>developers who have already committed to this platform and have a stake in it
A quick perusal of the BlackBerry developer forums will show how much this nonsense matters to individuals who have already developed their applications and have a large stake in the platform. Yes, getting started with BlackBerry is a pain, but the minor errors continue to compound the longer you develop for the devices. This adds up to an impression of institutional incompetence and leaves one considering whether time spent developing for a BlackBerry device is a waste of effort.It's not as though any of these issues are a surprise to RIM. Just running a search on their own forums will show the same topics appearing over and over again through the years as developers find themselves bitten by bureaucratic quirks, frustrating quests for direct internet access, or surprises due to poor App World implementation. No, these problems cannot be corrected overnight, but one would think they would be addressed in some manner. This thread alone gives an example of how RIM's developer-oriented initiatives seem to completely miss the mark: http://supportforums.blackberry.com/t5/Java-Development/New-... Android and iPhone have shown the value small and mid-sized developers bring to a platform through quality applications, but RIM remains completely out to lunch on developer support. It's gotten so bad that RIM has had to offer a free PlayBook just to get developers to bother with the device, and now there's talk of providing Android app compatibility on PlayBook's release to make up for the lack of professional BlackBerry developers addressing the tablet: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/top-busine... Seriously RIM? Why should I go through the pain of developing a BlackBerry app when spending the same effort developing for Android will give me access to both Android and RIM devices? Should I just abandon the platform now and focus 100% on Android? |