7 ms·

120,000 Apps in BlackBerry World, 47,000 by one developer

38 points by casca 13y ago

cpplinuxdude 13y ago
"Developers in all app stores employ a number of different monetization tactics. BlackBerry World is an open market for developers and we let market forces dictate the success or failure of these tactics" Damn right. It's completely hypocritical that on one hand we point fingers at Apple for their closed market policy, then laugh when a developer floods an open market with apps. Make your mind up.
- Karunamon 13y ago
  Talk about a false dichotomy. There are miles, worlds of difference between "Free for all where one guy can flood the market with literally 47 thousand crapware apps", and "Opaque and arbitrary approval process".
- mmahemoff 13y ago
  It's unrelated. OP is making the point that app numbers mean nothing, given that someone can just find some RSS feeds and turn the handle to produce thousands of apps. Fine if BB wants to allow such apps, but it weakens the point of the CEO proclaiming the number in a keynote. Apple does make some attempt to block blatant cookie-cutter apps, so I'd give Apple's app figure (900K) more credence on that basis. If apps like those 47K BlackBerry apps are allowed, maybe that's a Good Thing or not, but either way, it renders the app count completely arbitrary.
- tn13 13y ago
  You are right. I myself earn my bread and butter by making those kind of apps. But then they are massively successful have high organic growth and make good amount of money on Android. I am targeting the niche segments. Spam will happen in open markets and it is perfectly fine.
sridvijay 13y ago
Try adding color to the app? Don't only use the default assets given by Apple? I'm guessing that'll add just enough for them to approve it, but still compared to other things on the store that looks like it should be approved, but hey it's Apple's famous app store approval team.
- ihuman 13y ago
  Wrong discussion? This is about the BlackBerry App store, not Apple's.
  - batuhanicoz 13y ago
    I guess this[1] was the post he meant to comment. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6619690 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6619690
Touche 13y ago
Is it really necessary to pile on at this point?
kunai 13y ago
Blackberry really could have still made it. They really could have. They didn't. What they needed was to improve software and keep new devices and pushing for touch, pushing for a better operating system. I mean, we've still been stuck with the ancient BB software for YEARS until FINALLY QNX came out this year. THIS YEAR. Competitors have had modern operating systems for over half a decade. Blackberry couldn't keep up. How I wish they had; the keyboard is one of the biggest selling points I can think of. I'll miss them. I predict that by this time next year, Blackberry will cease to exist as the company that it is (or was). It may be a subsidiary, but you can expect that we're not going to see any innovation from the struggling company anymore.
- hablahaha 13y ago
  In case anyone missed it: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/the-inside-story-of-why-blackberry-is-failing/article14563602/?page=all http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/the-inside... There are apparently some factual issues with this article, but it's good for getting a general feel of what was going on with the development side of things, why they couldn't have advanced UIs, etc..
taspeotis 13y ago
120,000 Apps in BlackBerry World, 47,000 by one developer (allthingsd.com) 16 points by casca 1 hour ago | flag | share | 7 comments It's probably 470,000 by now. 120,000 Apps in BlackBerry World (Spoiler: 47,000 Made by One Developer) AUGUST 21, 2013
obsession 13y ago
Does anyone know a way to contact BlackBerry World? Somebody copied my html5 game and is making money from it. It's been two years and my DMCA requests have been ignored. I have both tried email and Twitter. http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/41515/?countrycode=FI&lang=en http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/41515/?count... (The same author has several other ripoffs as well)
- yareally 13y ago
  If suing is too costly or not worth the time for ignoring DCMAs, perhaps shame them on Twitter?
- x0054 13y ago
  You should write a DMCA demand letter and send it via registered mail to BB. If you have a friend who is an attorney, ask them to send it on their stationary. You should get a response quickly. If you need more help, email me.
zainny 13y ago
This article is from August. About a week ago, the situation got much much worse. S4BB, the offending company, submitted another 138,792 apps: http://crackberry.com/s4bb-submits-additional-138792-apps-blackberry-world http://crackberry.com/s4bb-submits-additional-138792-apps-bl... BlackBerry is an embarrassing joke of a company for permitting this (and from quotes I've read, even encouraging it).
Avalaxy 13y ago
If you want to see something similar, search for "1st4fans" in the Windows Store. Looks like this: http://i.imgur.com/XlkSF5K.png http://i.imgur.com/XlkSF5K.png. I believe this guy has even more apps than I can find here.
to3m 13y ago
Brief article, light on detail, about S4BB: http://crackberry.com/thinking-big-worlds-most-prolific-app-developer-s4bb http://crackberry.com/thinking-big-worlds-most-prolific-app-... The figure of 47,000 apps really surprises me, let alone the additional 140,000-odd they've added ;) Even if whole swathes of them are auto-generated, this represents a substantial amount of maintenance in terms of metadata alone. I have never worked on a product that required 47,000 of anything, let alone even 4,700, because of the amount of effort required to keep on top of that much stuff. 4,700 minutes is nearly 80 hours, for example... Assuming you can keep on top of the organisation, though, as a business model, this seems like a good one! Given the race to the bottom for mobile app pricing, might in fact be the only good one ;) (I often wonder about some mobile developers, and how they ever reliably make money off their work. Those that I know personally do it part time, seem to be funded by a one-off previous success, and/or have client work that pays the bulk of their bills. By contrast, I don't wonder about these guys...) [EDIT: re-reading the article, and checking their web site, it turns out they are based in Hong Kong. I'd got the wrong end of the stick and assumed they were based in Europe. So that might explain the metadata issue: perhaps they just do it the hard way anyway, taking advantage of cheaper mainland labour to keep costs down.]

38 points by casca 13y ago

"Developers in all app stores employ a number of different monetization tactics. BlackBerry World is an open market for developers and we let market forces dictate the success or failure of these tactics" Damn right. It's completely hypocritical that on one hand we point fingers at Apple for their closed market policy, then laugh when a developer floods an open market with apps. Make your mind up.

Karunamon 13y ago
Talk about a false dichotomy. There are miles, worlds of difference between "Free for all where one guy can flood the market with literally 47 thousand crapware apps", and "Opaque and arbitrary approval process".
mmahemoff 13y ago
It's unrelated. OP is making the point that app numbers mean nothing, given that someone can just find some RSS feeds and turn the handle to produce thousands of apps. Fine if BB wants to allow such apps, but it weakens the point of the CEO proclaiming the number in a keynote. Apple does make some attempt to block blatant cookie-cutter apps, so I'd give Apple's app figure (900K) more credence on that basis. If apps like those 47K BlackBerry apps are allowed, maybe that's a Good Thing or not, but either way, it renders the app count completely arbitrary.
tn13 13y ago
You are right. I myself earn my bread and butter by making those kind of apps. But then they are massively successful have high organic growth and make good amount of money on Android. I am targeting the niche segments. Spam will happen in open markets and it is perfectly fine.

sridvijay 13y ago

Try adding color to the app? Don't only use the default assets given by Apple? I'm guessing that'll add just enough for them to approve it, but still compared to other things on the store that looks like it should be approved, but hey it's Apple's famous app store approval team.

ihuman 13y ago
Wrong discussion? This is about the BlackBerry App store, not Apple's.
- batuhanicoz 13y ago
  I guess this[1] was the post he meant to comment. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6619690 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6619690

Touche 13y ago

Is it really necessary to pile on at this point?

kunai 13y ago

Blackberry really could have still made it. They really could have. They didn't. What they needed was to improve software and keep new devices and pushing for touch, pushing for a better operating system. I mean, we've still been stuck with the ancient BB software for YEARS until FINALLY QNX came out this year. THIS YEAR. Competitors have had modern operating systems for over half a decade. Blackberry couldn't keep up. How I wish they had; the keyboard is one of the biggest selling points I can think of. I'll miss them. I predict that by this time next year, Blackberry will cease to exist as the company that it is (or was). It may be a subsidiary, but you can expect that we're not going to see any innovation from the struggling company anymore.

hablahaha 13y ago
In case anyone missed it: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/the-inside-story-of-why-blackberry-is-failing/article14563602/?page=all http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/the-inside... There are apparently some factual issues with this article, but it's good for getting a general feel of what was going on with the development side of things, why they couldn't have advanced UIs, etc..

taspeotis 13y ago

120,000 Apps in BlackBerry World, 47,000 by one developer (allthingsd.com) 16 points by casca 1 hour ago | flag | share | 7 comments It's probably 470,000 by now. 120,000 Apps in BlackBerry World (Spoiler: 47,000 Made by One Developer) AUGUST 21, 2013

obsession 13y ago

Does anyone know a way to contact BlackBerry World? Somebody copied my html5 game and is making money from it. It's been two years and my DMCA requests have been ignored. I have both tried email and Twitter. http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/41515/?countrycode=FI&lang=en http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/41515/?count... (The same author has several other ripoffs as well)

yareally 13y ago
If suing is too costly or not worth the time for ignoring DCMAs, perhaps shame them on Twitter?
x0054 13y ago
You should write a DMCA demand letter and send it via registered mail to BB. If you have a friend who is an attorney, ask them to send it on their stationary. You should get a response quickly. If you need more help, email me.

zainny 13y ago

This article is from August. About a week ago, the situation got much much worse. S4BB, the offending company, submitted another 138,792 apps: http://crackberry.com/s4bb-submits-additional-138792-apps-blackberry-world http://crackberry.com/s4bb-submits-additional-138792-apps-bl... BlackBerry is an embarrassing joke of a company for permitting this (and from quotes I've read, even encouraging it).

Avalaxy 13y ago

If you want to see something similar, search for "1st4fans" in the Windows Store. Looks like this: http://i.imgur.com/XlkSF5K.png http://i.imgur.com/XlkSF5K.png. I believe this guy has even more apps than I can find here.

to3m 13y ago

Brief article, light on detail, about S4BB: http://crackberry.com/thinking-big-worlds-most-prolific-app-developer-s4bb http://crackberry.com/thinking-big-worlds-most-prolific-app-... The figure of 47,000 apps really surprises me, let alone the additional 140,000-odd they've added ;) Even if whole swathes of them are auto-generated, this represents a substantial amount of maintenance in terms of metadata alone. I have never worked on a product that required 47,000 of anything, let alone even 4,700, because of the amount of effort required to keep on top of that much stuff. 4,700 minutes is nearly 80 hours, for example... Assuming you can keep on top of the organisation, though, as a business model, this seems like a good one! Given the race to the bottom for mobile app pricing, might in fact be the only good one ;) (I often wonder about some mobile developers, and how they ever reliably make money off their work. Those that I know personally do it part time, seem to be funded by a one-off previous success, and/or have client work that pays the bulk of their bills. By contrast, I don't wonder about these guys...) [EDIT: re-reading the article, and checking their web site, it turns out they are based in Hong Kong. I'd got the wrong end of the stick and assumed they were based in Europe. So that might explain the metadata issue: perhaps they just do it the hard way anyway, taking advantage of cheaper mainland labour to keep costs down.]