If a developer could increase the reach of his apps (and thus make more money), you don't think he/she will take an extra 30 mins and submit to Blackberry App World?
If you are developing for iOS or Android, you can replace the entire preceding two paragraphs with one sentence: Press the button that says Build and Run (or the equivalent button within Eclipse for Android).
snort Sure, or at least that's what happens after you've gone through provisioning hell on the iPhone. (I don't know how the Playbook works, that may be a problem as well).
For what it's worth, the iPhone SDK was much less developer-friendly early on than it is today - an unpolished developer experience, by itself, won't be a showstopper. What will really matter is how many people buy the Playbook.
For iOS you have to provision the device and then sign the app as part of the build process. For the Playbook, you only sign the app so there are fewer things to go wrong. The tools run from the command line, but work well if you follow the instructions. My biggest complaint is that it can be tough to find documentation when you do have an error.
I'd just like to add my data point here: setting up a vendor account in the App World took less than 24 hours and was much easier than Apple. I just had to fill out a web form, email (not fax!) in some documents, and they emailed it was ready the very next day.
Mostly, the required fax machine (much less convenient than emailing a PDF) and the really badly timed phone call from their support staff to confirm me (although, admittedly that is probably my own fault).
(I'm also probably a bad data point with Apple, though: I'm sure they took longer than normal considering I am currently somewhat-visibly contributing to Cydia and some jailbreakst.)
Homestly, though, neither was particularly difficult. (Palm webOS was equally pain-free, fwiw.)
My only concern is paying $100 to another publisher. If you're developing free apps (or your apps just aren't selling that well) that's a deterrent from submitting.
http://blog.jamiemurai.com/2011/02/you-win-rim/