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RIM promises $10k to devs if BlackBerry 10 app earns $1k
- huxley 14y agoIs there anything new to this program? It sounds the same as the one announced in May ... http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2012/05/02/rimm-promises-10k-per-app-jefferies-says-sell/ http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2012/05/02/rimm-pro...
- HorizonXP 14y agoToday was the official announcement of the details, guidelines, and dates. No difference, just that it's more solid now.
- logical42 14y agojeez.. they just continue to find new and innovative ways to lose money
- kyt 14y agoSo what's the incentive to promote your app past $1,000 in revenue?
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- ori_b 14y agoPresumably, the ability to make more than $11,000.
- dak1 14y agoActually, it looks like RIM is offering to pay the difference between what your app earns and $10,000. So if you earn $4,000, they'd pay you $6,000. So if your app is not going to go past $10,000, there's literally no incentive to promote it beyond $1,000 (except the enjoyment of knowing so many people are using your app). It's not clear what the cutoff date is, although presumably it's the Blackberry 10 launch. So to maximize profit, you should promote it enough to earn $1,000 just prior to launch, take your $9,000, then promote it further.
- delinka 14y agoKeep in mind these numbers are over a 12 month period. And according to the fine print, it's a 12 month period of RIM's choosing. If you only sell $1,000 worth over the course of the first 12 months after the launch of BB10, and RIM decides to hold out for another month, and you sell $6,000 worth in month 13, they might just cut you a check for $3,000 or decide to wait another month and see how you do. IMO, It's not free money though I think it's meant to sound like free money.
- 3JPLW 14y agoMore revenue? It's not clear how the $10K promise works (the official site[0] doesn't have the T&C populated yet[1]), but there's surely some time within which you must earn between $1k and $10k. After that time, I'd guess that more purchases would still be yours. But it's unclear until the official rules and conditions are posted. [0] https://developer.blackberry.com/builtforblackberry/commitment/ https://developer.blackberry.com/builtforblackberry/commitme... [1] https://developer.blackberry.com/builtforblackberry/documentation/10kterms.html https://developer.blackberry.com/builtforblackberry/document...
- RossDM 14y agoBuild $1 app; purchase 1000 copies; profit!
- veyron 14y agoI assume its tied to device, so it's more like: Build $1 app; purchase 1000 blackberry phones on 1000 contracts; purchase 1000 copies; profit???
- HardyLeung 14y agoHow about: Build $1001 app, purchase 1 copy; profit! No?
- talmand 14y agoHow about this: Build $1 app, pay 1000 people $2 each to buy it, collect $8000?
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- ja27 14y agoBuild $1 app; set up Facebook giveaway of a couple iPhones if the app hits $1k in revenue; profit.
- jentulman 14y agoBuild $500 app, purchase twice, profit.
- mindstab 14y agoWell this will totally get cut the rope ported... oh wait... it's free... along with most of my favourite apps....
- chc 14y agoI don't follow your point. Is it that you think the glut of free apps will make it hard for paid apps to compete, or what?
- delinka 14y agoBecause free apps can't earn $1K, there is no additional incentive to port free apps as they'd never receive this $10K prize.
- marcomonteiro 14y agoExactly. For a moment I considered porting one of my client's app for free but then I read the details. No go.
- abk 14y agoI skimmed the article, but it sounds like free apps that make money through in-app purchases are still eligible.
- delinka 14y agoYou are correct. I do not, however, consider an app whose primary functionality is only available via IAP to be a free app.
- copperred 14y agoCut the rope has been on playbook since the beginning of the year.
- HorizonXP 14y agoAnd if they incorporated in-app purchases or in-app advertising, they'd be eligible for this.
- shyn3 14y agoQuality matters. You don't qualify if you earn more than 10k. You qualify if you earn more than 1k. Therefore if you earn more than 1k and less than 10k you have created a quality app otherwise your app is junk. RIM and FAIL are synonyms. Hire someone for PR please. Your previous commercial dissed your future phones. The ones without keyboards.
- dfrey 14y agoRIM must be very confident that nobody will earn more than $1000 from a BlackBerry app in order to make an offer like this. Either that or they are just trying to pump up their stock price for the BlackBerry 10 launch so that the executives can dump their stock before the company goes bankrupt.
- ajross 14y agoActually, this sounds like a good idea to me. The BB ecosystem, broadly, has the system architecture to compete with Android and iOS but it lacks the app availability to make it attractive to customers. Apps have a long tail: there are a small number of hits (Angry Birds, say -- or things like the Facebook app) which have the cash available to develop on multiple architecture already. These will get an extra $10k, which they don't care about and which RIM can afford (who wouldn't pay $10k for Angry Birds on their platform?). Then there are the junk apps that live at the bottom of the list. These come in huge hordes, and are worthless. RIM doesn't want to pay for them and doesn't care about having them. They provide no value to Apple or Google either. But then there's a comparatively small group of "cool" apps that make everything work. This is the stuff that potential RIM customers notice is "missing". And the authors would love to see an extra $10k in sales, maybe enough to consider a port. And there aren't that many of them -- maybe a few thousand at most. So RIM is betting that if they blow a few million dollars on seeding this market that they'll make that back in extra handset sales in the near term. It might work. But I don't think they're at risk of losing a ton of money. How many apps actually make that much even on "first tier" platforms?
- azundo 14y agoThe "Angry Birds" don't even get an extra 10k - if your app makes more than 10k you don't get the payout. I think this is an easy win for RIM for sure.
- serge2k 14y agoor they are hoping apps that hit 1k will hit 10 (or close) on their own.
- HorizonXP 14y ago
- vandahm 14y agoIt is entirely possible that I don't know what I'm talking about, but I don't understand how this plan could possibly work. If developers thought they could make money writing Blackberry apps, wouldn't they already be writing them? Since I don't think $10,000 can cover the cost of developing a native app, I don't see how RIM's bounty would influence a developer's decision to develop for their platform. Am I missing something?
- daliusd 14y agoYes, you are missing Symbian developers ;-)
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- nornagon 14y agoSo... you have to make an app that's $1,000 good, but not $10,000 good. This program should be entitled "mutually assured mediocrity."
- malkia 14y agoMake an app that costs $1000 dollars, ask someone to buy it... Profit!
- albumedia 14y agoMost indie developers would not be able to make an app that earn $1k, especially on Blackberry. Come on, be realistic.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]