An Experiment In BlackBerry Development 207
ballwall writes "We've all read the stories about how lucrative selling apps on the iPhone can be (or not), but what about other platforms? BlackBerry accounts for twice as many handsets shipped as Apple, according to Gartner, so I decided to find out. I wrote about my experiences developing my first BlackBerry application including sales, platform issues, and a bunch of other things I thought new mobile developers might want to know about."
Sure there are more blackberries (Score:5, Informative)
But, there more are corporate users without the right to install anything...
Re:Sure there are more blackberries (Score:5, Informative)
I develop applications for BlackBerry and I've talked to RIM about what restrictions corporate users will see. According to RIM, only 40% of BlackBerry users are on BlackBerry Enterprise Networks (BES) and over 90% of BES installations use the default settings. The default BES settings do not impose any restrictions on the device.
Re:Sure there are more blackberries (Score:5, Interesting)
You almost hit the nail on the head. My company decided to go with iPhone development rather than Blackberry development for the simple reason that our target demographic enjoys iPhones for personal use and only carries Blackberries if their management requires/provides them. With that kind of a trend, and with users willing to use their personal devices for work, it makes much more sense to go the Apple route. It didn't really help that RIM's people were aggressive and obnoxious on a conference call with our president, though...
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BTW, it's the only software I have ever paid for - desktop or mobile. (does not mean I pirated all others - open/free is sufficient for my needs).
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Depends largely on the game, I think. As far as I know there's no graphic or 3d acceleration available on any of the BlackBerry devices.
Blackberry's problem (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Blackberry's problem (Score:4, Informative)
I thought Java was already quite open.
Doesn't mean it's easy. But it's open.
Re:Blackberry's problem (Score:4, Informative)
Did you RFTA? RIM doesn't totally open up their API to 3rd party developers.
You are not communicating that right. The RIM specific API (ie: device specific functionality) is open to developers but different generations of functionality from these APIs are available only on certain devices.
If you want to access the entire market you have to stay plain vanilla and use straight java.
The author does a good job explaining it if anyone would care to RTFA.
Re:Blackberry's problem (Score:5, Informative)
Just correcting you, i'm a BlackBerry developer so have some insight here. The number of users using pre4.0 is miniscule, v4 OS onwards offers everything you need. The vast majority of developers code using the 4.2.0 API. As more and more users migrate to the newer devices developers change the API they code against accordingly.
The requirements for AppWorld are 'BlackBerry® Device Software version 4.2 or higher' so this is what most developers code against as it's their primary sales channel.
Developers are free to code using the more recent API to get the added features and the JDE has PreProcessor definitions for this... The BlackBerry is an old platform, new devices appear and old ones stop being supported. You'd be crazy to still make sure your software works correctly on a 7230.
'If you want to access the entire market you have to stay plain vanilla and use straight java.' this is complete uninformed nonsense.
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The main complexities seem to have to do with the sheer diversity related to the multi-carrier and multi-hardware aspects of the BB platform (e.g. the author mentions 10 different ways of getting a network connection and shortcomings of the built-in SDK UI wi
Thank you (Score:5, Insightful)
Interesting read, ballwall, and I truly wish you luck with your efforts.
I'm not much of a programmer, but as a SysAdmin (*nix by preference, win* by necessity) I was struck by some parallels I've observed. I find blackberries to be painful. Making them work as a mobile email device tied to Exchange requires a shiat-ton of ugly third party software.
If a client bothers to ask, (and they don't), I tell them iPhone first, WinMobile second, blackberry distant third.
BES is, IMHO, a steaming pile - java, dot.net, 32-bit only. Feh. Recent iPhones handle active sync nicely and don't bitch about self-signed certs. WinMobile is a bit harder, but install your certs and you're done. blackberries (I refuse to capitalize) give me pain.
My clients pay $$ for BES CALs, the devices get stupid and need to be factory reset often and re-activated, costing my client more $$ for my time.
A colleague says "blackberries are great, they help me spot THOSE people". I tend to agree. I honestly cannot see the attraction when there are better solutions to talk to an Exchange server - previously mentioned iPhones, WinMobile or a laptop with RPC over HTTP(S) all work more simply and more reliably, and I tell my clients so. Nevertheless, I still hear "but I've got to have a blackberry"!
Re:Thank you (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, as we are all aware, nobody cares how hard the admin's job is. The Enterprise is BB's target market and they're dug in deep. Just the ability to sync with Exchange calendars, contacts and email is 99% of why Blackberry exists - because BES is great if you're a user. If you're an admin, your job is to support the business and the business wants Exchange sync. Sorry BES admins.
Blackberry has continued to innovate, their phones are really very easy to use. But the Business will gladly quit paying for BES server and the people to run it the instant something better comes along.
Re:Thank you (Score:4, Informative)
Well, as we are all aware, nobody cares how hard the admin's job is. The Enterprise is BB's target market and they're dug in deep. Just the ability to sync with Exchange calendars, contacts and email is 99% of why Blackberry exists - because BES is great if you're a user. If you're an admin, your job is to support the business and the business wants Exchange sync.
Read what he said again. The blackberry requires a whole bunch of 3rd party software to do that in a vaguely okay way, all of which is limiting, and a pain in the ass. By contrast, the iPhone does exchange calendar, contact and email syncing straight out the box, with extra faffing about.
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Re:Thank you (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Thank you (Score:4, Informative)
Blackberries on BES offer enterprise features simply unheard of with Winmobile or iphone devices.
Maybe unheard of to you. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb123484.aspx [microsoft.com] I count well over 100 group policy settings that can be applied through Activesync to a Windows Mobile 6.1 device. Some of these actually do work on an iPhone as well, such as the password and phone lock policies.
Windows mobile only recently got the much needed security features such as remote device deactivation and wiping.
Windows Mobile + Exchange 2003/2007 have had this functionality since 2005 at the release of Exchange 2003 SP2 http://www.microsoft.com/DOWNLOADS/details.aspx?familyid=535BEF85-3096-45F8-AA43-60F1F58B3C40&displaylang=en [microsoft.com]. It even works on an iPhone. I'd hardly call 2005 "recent" in the IT world.
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I'm pretty sure iPhones can do all of this... I own one.
- remote wipe - through exchange and MobileMe
- full data encryption
- proxies
- security policies, including what apps you can / can't have
- even throw-away phones do "logging," as in recent calls - I'm sure there's some way to save that list - worst case-scenario, look at the itemized bill. The iPhone does log time-usage for sure.
Although: MDS; I don't know what that is...
Also, the iPhone does not feature:
- a Perl trackball or that awful "are you sure?"
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I'm sorry, are you kidding me? The blackberry requires all your corporate communications to go through their third party server. That's the big security hole you need to be worried about, right there.
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Sounds like most of the 'features' you recommend are the reason most business users think that their admins are Nazis.
Google Maps? (a *far* better app than the shitty garbage installed by default on BBs) Sorry, no installs allowed.
Ebook reader for all those hours I spend in airports traveling for your goddamned company? Sorry, no installs allowed.
Opera, so I can make more business flight arrangements reasonably easily, instead of the crappy BB default browser?
As an email reader, it's the bomb. As a 'mul
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When your phone provides its operator access to your email and a host of applications with access to potentially every bit of confidential data about your company, setting a password is only step 1.
The ability to click a button and wipe everything off that device is a MUST, for the occasions when your phone, either forcefully or accidentally, becomes someone else's phone. The ability to encrypt the phone's contents so that the 'new user' must manually go through all of the data and copy it down by hand is q
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...setting a password is only step 1.
Reading Comprehension: You're Doing it Wrong.
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While I half-agree with the rest of your post, your 911 point was non-sense. Federal law bars cellphone manufacturers from preventing 911 dialing in any way. That's why you can always dial 911 on any cellphone whether its activated or not, whether the screen's locked or not, no matter what. Remote bricking someone's phone with RIM's tools won't stop you from using 911.
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It can actually be an issue. A wiped Blackberry will still place 911 calls. A Blackberry being wiped, however, will not. And the last time I had a Blackberry wiped from under me (I had a dispute with our Asset Management group; they won), it took about 60 minutes, due to security policies and scrubbing memory. During that time, the Blackberry was useless for any purpose, including placing 911 calls.
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Lets not allow an incompetent sysadmin get in the way of trashing a platform that works great for millions though. Right?
Re:Thank you (Score:5, Informative)
OK, fair enough to yours and all of the above replies. I'm replying to yours as it is the harshest, but no hard feelings.
I should have mentioned that I provide services to small and almost medium-sized businesses and orgs. If I was in an "enterprise" admin role my feelings would be different, and so would the needs and realities my clients face. Picture a law office with 8 users, a business with 20 users, an org with 40 users - that's my space. For this space, licensing and labor cost far more than hardware.
For this market segment, BES is not, IMHO, the way to go. Licensing and maintenance will bleed my customers dry. Exchange is the cheapest "groupware"-ish solution I can provide for them. For their mobile devices, the same logic applies - keep licensing and maintenance to a minimum. I appreciate that for "enterprise" the added security and logging of BES/blackberry are desirable. Where I live, selling a decent backup solution is a hard task.
And for those about to suggest it - yes, I have tried the open source route. Hate to say it - they want Office, they want Outlook, they want their calendars/contacts/tasks/etc. That means Exchange. Pains me a bit, but I get over it.
Yes, the web and email and other internet facing servers are on linux VPSs - not gonna put Exchange or Sharepoint on a public IP, but in the LAN I have to go win*. Don't like it, would prefer otherwise, hope to see the day...
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It tends to be the really big shops that (a) have the cash and (b) draw the attention of the regulators meaning they have to have devices and systems that follow the regulations. I believe, but am not authoritative on this, that the BB system is the only mobile email device that's certified for use unde
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For what it is worth, when you do get to the twenty user level, you can sometimes get RIM (or your vendor) to thrown in a free BES license. And with Verizon at least, for an order of twenty BBs or larger, they throw in the BES CAL for free. Now, you still will still want to pay for (some sort of) support contract with RIM. And THAT is a yearly renewable charge. So my point is that at the larger quantities, it's not too expensive, and 'larger' may not be as big as you think.
We have a support contract with
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How in the world is Exchange, and the Windows environment you need for it, plus all clients *having* to be Windows (at least MS licensed, for money), cheap?
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I've had a Bold 9000 since a couple weeks before it hit the US market. Sure, the early pre-release firmware (4.6.0.125, I think) was flaky. But every upgrade since has been pretty solid.
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Reminds me of the week when we had all sorts of "issues" with our blackberry server. We had a tech who rebuilt our BES system three times in the week only to find out that after the week long blaming of us it was actually a problem on their end. First they claimed it wouldn't work in a whole heap of situations, claimed we didn't build the server right and then claimed that it wouldn't work properly in a virtual machine. This is after we'd had it running smoothly for a few months. Turns out they had a fault
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I have not worked with BES 5, but it was certainly commonplace on 2.2, 3.6, and 4.0 to have to reset the devices on occasion because they would just stop syncing. I was present for numerous calls involving a help desk person, RIM support, and the carrier to try to get some traveling exec's blackberry working.
The BES is a steaming pile of shit layered upon several other steaming piles of shit. It hammers the crap out of mail servers. The install process involves magical incantations and occasionally modifyin
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BIS pisses me off even more. Why provide an IMAP client when you can force people to provide their login credentials to their honest and trustworthy cell phone carrier? Not to mention that well into 2008 the idea of syncing e-mail (as opposed to POP3 download) was looked at as some sort of freak request. It's not like anyone would want to get their mail from both their phone AND their PC.
Yeah, I wasn't too fond of that either. That's why I decided to go ahead and write my own IMAP/POP client (LogicMail [logicprobe.org]) for the BlackBerry.
Of course now I'm stuck to the BlackBerry, since I do want to continue working on and supporting the app. But overall its been a pretty good experience, albeit way too much of a time sink.
Re:Thank you (Score:5, Informative)
BES is, IMHO, a steaming pile - java, dot.net,
Ok, BES does use many technologies. The new BES 5 even requires activeX plugins for some web-based admin tools.
32-bit only. Feh.
Ummm, not true. BES has supported 64-bit windows and 64-bit databases for quite a long time.
Recent iPhones handle active sync nicely and don't bitch about self-signed certs.
Ummm, that's called a security flaw by most competent admins. Frankly, if you can't afford $12.99/year (with coupon code) to get a godaddy signed certificate, maybe security isn't what you're looking for. Is it possible to install your own certificate authority on iphone (or is it that apple doesn't let you)? You can install your own certificates on blackberry, and even manage them all centrally on the BES. You can even use S/MIME & PGP for additional email encryption.
My clients pay $$ for BES CALs, the devices get stupid and need to be factory reset often and re-activated, costing my client more $$ for my time.
Well, then you & your clients don't know how to administer a BES & blackberries. The devices are extremely solid, and almost never need a factory wipe. Of course, most problems will be resolved by a factory wipe & reactivating, but there is almost always a far easier & faster way to resolve the issue, but it seems you don't know that.
When something goes wrong with a windows pc, do you wipe your hard disk & reinstall every time? That will resolve the issue, but there is almost always a simpler, easier & faster solution.
Reactivating a blackberry user on a BES is REALLY HARD! How hard is it? On the BES 4 series, you run the BES console, find the user, right-click on the user, and set the activation password to whatever you like. Then, on the blackberry, go to options, advanced options, enterprise activation, enter your email address, enter the activation password you just set, and click activate. Wasn't that hard?
Frankly, if your clients can't activate a blackberry by themselves, then maybe they aren't smart enough to use email.
I honestly cannot see the attraction when there are better solutions to talk to an Exchange server
Better? How many other solutions have real push email? None (windows mobile comes close with their fake push). How many other mobile email solutions have remote lock, remote unlock, remote wipe, solid AES encryption, certification by many governments [blackberry.com] and other agencies?. Can you force your users to have a password? Can you force your users to always encrypt the blackberry contents? Does your iphone overwrite freed memory so that the contents can't be read by disassembling the device? Nope.
Do you need to restrict your user from browsing the web? Do you need to centrally track SMS, email & phone calls? All this is easy on the BES.
iPhones, WinMobile or a laptop with RPC over HTTP(S) all work more simply
Ok, that's true. The BES platform is complex, but that is because it does so much.
Look, BES isn't for everyone - there is a lot of complexity & a lot to learn. You may be better off with an outsourced BES provider (there are many). Or choose the Blackberry Professional Software (BPS), which is a simpler, easier to use BES-lite.
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Ummm, not true. BES has supported 64-bit windows and 64-bit databases for quite a long time.
OK, I'll look into that.
Well, then you & your clients don't know how to administer a BES & blackberries. The devices are extremely solid, and almost never need a factory wipe. Of course, most problems will be resolved by a factory wipe & reactivating, but there is almost always a far easier & faster way to resolve the issue, but it seems you don't know that.
Well. since you are posting AC, I've no
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Verizon...
Sim card...
What's that smell?
Troll shit.
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You know, bitching about self signed certs is actually a Good Thing. I'd rather my device/client told me that a cert is only self signed, then that gives me an indication of the level of trust (a self signed certificate just says "i'm ok, trust me").
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You know, bitching about self signed certs is actually a Good Thing. I'd rather my device/client told me that a cert is only self signed, then that gives me an indication of the level of trust (a self signed certificate just says "i'm ok, trust me").
Well, a signed cert just says someone else vouched for their identity. It has nothing to do with trusting the person presenting the certificate. I'm not just nitpicking, that's a really huge difference. There aren't really many "levels" of trust. There's "Hi, you look great *hug*", and there's "I hope Sxball694 is really a chick." What will the "are you sure" dialog accomplish? What would a certificate stating that its name really is Sxball694 mean? With cryptography, it's black and white. Do we hav
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I worked for a small company that subscribed to an outsourced BES+Exchange hosting service on a per-user subscription basis.
I have to say, my experience as a user was fabulous. The syncing across calendar, mail, and contacts "just worked". Most sync tools have hidden reset options to clear you local version and restore from remote, clear the remote version and restore from local, or some kind of complex manual conflict reconcilation mechanism.
With BES, there are no such options, and you don't need them. The
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The obvious error here, is that you have to use Exchange as the e-mail server (if you can still call that e-mail). ^^
Put some CourierIMAPS on there, if you can.
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Making them work as a mobile email device tied to Exchange requires a shiat-ton of ugly third party software.
Or you need better support/training. Or you're just biased against the BES system. Yeah, it's got its quirks (like most pieces of software that size), but once you figure it out it's not especially difficult, and takes about a minute to create a new user and provision the device.
Also may have been that the guy that taught me how to do it used to do BES SV&V at RIM until he decided he didn't like living in Kitchener-Waterloo any more.
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``Making them work as a mobile email device tied to Exchange requires a shiat-ton of ugly third party software.''
Exchange is a shiat-ton of ugly proprietary software. It does not surprise me that any product would have trouble working with it. Especially if the product is from a different vendor.
Whatever else you can fault Blackberries for, subobtimal integration with Exchange is something you can thank Microsoft for. If they wouldn't hold Exchange's protocols under tight wraps, I'm sure RIM and many others
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Well, as a user, business or otherwise, Winmobile over my dead body.
Seriously, I love my BB, while Winmobile crashed several times a day, usually using all my apps and data. That is "Goods not of merchandisable quality" in my estimation, and the H/W manufactuers did not even allow a paid upgrade when a new version of the OS came out.
I am not saying BB is perfect, but IPhone is not for me, and BB works. (I really wanted an upgra
Bad UI library (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Bad UI library (Score:4, Interesting)
So then it seems like a developer has an opportunity to provide a library/framework/whatever you want to call it to provide a UI as a product.
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I think RIM really needs to get on it. Not having a unified look and feel in only going to hurt the platform in the long run. (Not that I care, personally)
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Yes, it certainly would be a nice opportunity for someone to provide a framework or library for nice looking UI elements. There is also a business opportunity to make a library or possibly a service that takes the pain -- and it is a great deal of pain -- out of implementing BlackBerry's highly touted "push" network feature.
It seems more likely to me in the long run that RIM will simply buy Palm. One of them has good hardware and a solid operating system foundation, and the other has a spiffy user interfa
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Just to pipe in in my defense. I did state with the networking stuff in the article that it can be figured out, but it's a huge hurdle for non-network apps that may need an HTTP request every now and then.
As for the UI, I'm fine extending the base classes and drawing my own stuff (but make no mistake, you're drawing lines and shading rects to make it happen), my point is that I *don't* have any skills in graphic design, I know that. But... all of the other platforms make allowances for that and give you bas
The thing about Blackberry (Score:5, Insightful)
The thing about Blackberry that the business users love most about it is that it works and does exactly what they want it to do. They have their contacts, their email, their to-do list, their notes and a select few other things. They don't need much else. It's perfect the way it is for most users. Adding new software to it is not an entertaining idea for most users.
At the most, they want some mapping... google maps works quite nicely for me, but essentially, Blackberry already does what it needs to do and while some will, most users don't want anything more.
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Maybe I'm weird, but I use my iPhone for business. After looking into and working with other's blackberries, I can honestly say that I want none of that Kool-Aid. the iPhone Just Works(tm). I not only get a full featured "I'm not stuck with mobile sites" browser, but RDP which is extremely useful, Fully Encrypted Cisco VPN, AIM/ICQ Which we use all day at work, IRC which the dev team uses, SSH and VNC which come in quite handy being that I'm a linux admin, as well as many other network tools, including buil
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Yeah, I'm sure you're quite happy with your iPhone. Sounds like a terrific tool. Are you an AT&T subscriber? I guess you are. Blackberry is available to all carriers. iPhone is restricted to AT&T at the moment. Hope that changes.
I'm not saying anything about "blackberry vs. iphone" though. In fact, my original comment didn't even come close to talking about iphone. What I was commenting on was the culture of blackberry users. The users who use blackberry, do so because it does exactly what
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Re:The thing about Blackberry (Score:4, Interesting)
The reason many people, not only IT people, prefer Blackberry is because it is solid and reliable. They don't care if it has access to a software shop online that enables them to buy a zippo lighter simulator or a lightsaber thing. They turn it on, it works. It doesn't nag the user for updates and places the management of the device squarely in the hands of the administrators where it belongs.
And, oh yeah, I can take out the battery if I want to.
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Wait - I thought people were telling us how great the Iphone was precisely because it lacked features, and therefore made it easier to use, or something? That other phone may look better on paper, they claim, but that's just grumpy featurism.
But now we compare to a phone that you claim has fewer features, suddenly features are worth comparing? Well in that case, let's compare the Iphone to all the other phones, like Nokia's, on features.
Not that I see what the Iphone has to do with this story. I know it's b
love podtrapper (Score:5, Interesting)
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I have looked at getting into bb development as well, but it is just pure hell. I have an old 8700, I can't even find out if it can run application, and I can use it as a developer platform. There is no guide on the bb website to tell anyone this, going to this shitty bb page for the 8700 reveals no useful information.
They have made it so painful I will not be going back, they can go fuck themselves. Useless fuckers can't even produce a simple document detailing what software you need.
Boil it Down (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm sorta cribbing from his summary, but I did RTFA...
Pro:
Con
Most important lesson IMHO: "Everything is marketing."
His issues with the platform and the resources available on a BB really bring the differences with iPhone OSX and BB into relief. An iPhone is guaranteed to have a particular hardware config, and be very capacious in RAM and drive space, and has very teh shiny widgets and will always have the latest APIs; it also provides a brainless e-commerce platform to sell and install your app, to the point where buying a mobile app could be considered impulsive. You pay for all this with the fact that the Apple overmind decides if you can sell your app or not and takes its cut.
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For that specific point, this is one of those features that doesn't make any sense to most developers, but is great if you're a very good BES admin. The idea, from that point of view, is that you have very fine control over how applications (and this includes internal RIM ones) connect to the network so that you can control costs that may arise from downloading large files. For example, you may set it so that you can only download software updates on WiFi or Serial Bypass, but that you can download high-pri
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Every mobile platform has issues (even or especially the JesusPhone). Symbian has issues, WinMo has issues. It just a question your perseverance and if the target platform is willing to deal with you. WinMo is cheap to develop, but the manufacturers don't give you drivers to the nice hardware. Symbian is expensive and difficult, but Nokia has API for every piece of hardware they stick into their phones etc.
As for Apple, well I joined the anti -apple cult...
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be very capacious in RAM
Nope, maybe the new 3gS, but with the older versions you are not guaranteed anymore than 20mb. Try to use more than that and you will get memory warnings, depending on what apps you are running/have run in the past. (Some apple apps run in the background).
And how the hell can lack of an app store be a pro??
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``An iPhone is guaranteed to have a particular hardware config,''
Not anymore, now that there is more than one model. This "advantage" of iPhone will erode further over time as more models are released.
``and be very capacious in RAM and drive space,''
I'll take your word for it. Of course, one day, iPhones, too will seem bitty. Then again, it baffles the mind why one would not just stick a bit of extra memory in a device, as a manufacturer. It's a cheap and easy way to make it better. You really don't want yo
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Now Apple could make updating Applications easier, as it's hidden as a small button in the iTunes Applications panel.
It's hard to miss when your third-party iPhone apps are ready to upgrade, the App Store app gets a big red badge telling you a new version of SuperFoo is available.
The memory point struck me too. BBs are the defacto standard for text messaging, but many of them only have 32 or 64 megs of RAM and maybe a Gig of onboard storage (though with an SD slot). Only the Storm begins to compare to something like the Pre or a 3G (non S) iPhone, and then marginally. I'm not saying BBs are bad, it's just clear how qui
Great article (Score:3, Insightful)
Great article so far. I'm only a fraction of the way through it but one part really caught my attention.
RIM has all sorts of UI widgets they use in their first party applications -- rounded corners, sliding screen transitions, gradient list fields, etc. -- but they don't release any of that for use by third party developers. The results are apps with wildly inconsistent UIs, created by developers who had to spend considerable effort making them inconsistent.
Say what you will about Apple, they really want developers to create great-looking apps that look at home on the iPhone, and they really do a good job of giving developers almost all the tools that they use themselves. (Same with OS X/XCode itself.) Someday an anthropology student will write a great tome on the different development communities and their relationships with the vendors: BeOS, Palm, Apple, MS...
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Amazing, isn't it? How stupid do you have to be to provide a platform with many capabilities, and then allow developers to use only a subset of those capabilities, allowing them to write apps that look ugly and sort of work at best.
And then a competitor comes along that tries to make the developing experience and the end result for third party apps as good as possible and takes your cake. Duh!
My experiences developing on the BlackBerry. (Score:3, Informative)
I actually have a free application on the BlackBerry App World called HP Printer Fun, which lets users mess with the LED screens on the HP Laser Jet printers (plus some inkjet ones too) for fun.
I've written some other apps as well and the experience is not so great. My gripes are as follows:
On the other hand, the docs are pretty good. The support group at BlackBerry dev site is simple superb. Examples are plenty and the API just freaking makes a massive amount of sense. And for the adventurous, you could use a beta version (might be released by now) of an Eclipse plugin.
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If you were using RIM's JDE I feel for you. I definitely should have put this in the article:
Anyone starting development should use the eclipse plugin. The RIM JDE is not an option for writing code. Unless you like writing in notepad.exe, and if that's the case I'd say stick with notepad.
That said, the RIM JDE is the only way to really profile your app for both performance and memory, they haven't implemented those simulator features into eclipse (yet?).
I end up using both. My major development and debuggin
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That said, the RIM JDE is the only way to really profile your app for both performance and memory, they haven't implemented those simulator features into eclipse (yet?).
They have implemented those features in Eclipse, and they've been there for quite a while now. You just have to know where to find them. (basically some additional views you can open) So yes, you can do all the performance/memory profiling on the Debug perspective of Eclipse now. I also recommend looking into the BlackBerry Developer Conference coming up later this year. I went to it last year, and IMHO, it was a very positive experience.
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Re:Total (Score:5, Informative)
Whoops, oversight on my part. Total sales stand at 2382 copies as of the data in the article (at an average net of $8.50 per sale I've made just over $20k). Thanks for pointing that out. I'd update the site but I'm afraid to break at the moment.
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Was it a case of "I want to make money" or "Hmmm, how does this thing work... Oh, money..."
Re:Total (Score:5, Interesting)
Much more on the "This will be fun... Oooh, money" side.
Well, and a lot of "#@$&* why is there no app to do podcasts on BlackBerry?". (Commuting sucks without podcasts, imo).
The interesting part is most of the costs are up front. I took two weeks off of work to write the initial version, and after that I've been tweaking it nights and one or two weekend days (two at first, maybe half of one now).
In hindsight I should have tracked my time better, but I'd estimate I spent just over 250 hours in code, and I probably spend about 6 hours a week doing support these days (much less earlier), so about 400-450 hours to this point. That works out to be somewhere between $45-50/hour.
But... the majority of the work is done at this point and I'm still bringing in an additional $1k/week with the ongoing sales, so the picture is getting continually better. It'll be interesting to see how long it keeps up. This slashdot article (and the waves it makes) will likely be the last bit of marketing hoorah I can get out of this app, so while I'm hopeful, I'm not optimistic. As I said in the article, marketing is really really important. (Well, until the App World gets some marketing of its own, I suppose).
Regardless of how it turns out, it was still a lot of fun. And my users seriously rock.
-Marcus
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Loved the article. There are not many people/companies that will share these kinds of details. Kudos.
Once the slashdoting dust settles could you please update the article with post slashdot data ;-)
Thanks
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When I kicked off my main BlackBerry project, a surprisingly useful app called LogicMail [logicprobe.org], I had some similar motivations. I basically really wanted something that didn't exist (at least in any usable form) for the platform.
Though instead of trying to commercialize it, I went for the F/OSS route. In retrospect, one could say I was short-changing myself, but there are other very important pieces of the puzzle that you need to consider first.
First of all, the moment you decide to sell an app, you pretty much
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A couple of people have asked for that via email.
I set up this forum post [versatilemonkey.com] as a placeholder where I'll post an analysis this weekend (if you want to bookmark or subscribe to it). It's locked so you don't have to worry about errant notices.
-Marcus
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If a serious free competitor came along and it was enough to drive my support costs higher than the revenue (though that's an arbitrary line since my 'costs' are just my time) I'd probably open source it. (Though this may change if I can get some DRM providers like audible on board).
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Except for the fact that you didn't RTFA, where he *said* that marketing ended up being a very important part of the process.
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On what do you base this? It sounds more like a jealous rant than anything else. iPhones work very, very well and have a terrific interface. I have purchased a few really great apps for it and the only marketing needed was me looking for something I needed on the App Store.
As for your blackberry users doing a "cost-benefit analysis before buying an app" I would say they'd better. The article mentions that most handheld apps that go on the Blackberry are around $30. The apps available for the iPhone are
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
For instance, I have 2 ssh clients for less than half the price of a typical app that would run on a Blackberry.
Having to pay for even one ssh client is pretty absurd in the first place. Only in the apple ecosystem would anyone contemplate paying for an ssh client.
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Having to pay for even one ssh client is pretty absurd in the first place. Only in the apple ecosystem would anyone contemplate paying for an ssh client.
Why, is a SSH client particularly easy to write? I demand a free SSH client now, who do I speak to?! Will you make a free SSH client for me? Snap to it, it's my right to have a free SSH client on platform ${FOOBAR}, why is everyone so lazy? Can I pay you in pocket lint, because I'm out of dollars.
Re:You forgot the most important thing... (Score:5, Informative)
I demand a free SSH client now
Alright, here you go: http://www.xk72.com/midpssh/ [xk72.com]
Oh, it's open source too (GPL). Here's the code: http://www.xk72.com/midpssh/v1.7.3/midpssh.zip [xk72.com]
Oh, it's J2ME too, so it can run on any phone that has java.
Re:You forgot the most important thing... (Score:4, Insightful)
Why, is a SSH client particularly easy to write?
Not so much that its easy to write one, but that several free ones already exist for the platform.
I demand a free SSH client now, who do I speak to?
Speak to Apple.
Snap to it, it's my right to have a free SSH client on platform ${FOOBAR}
In this case ${FOOBAR} is BSD. Its not a new platform, and it already has numerous free and open sourced options for ssh clients.
Only Apple could give you a device with BSD Unix on it, and then block and make you pay extra money to run things like ssh, telnet, ftp, bash, perl, etc...
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Why? Does Apple develop all applications on the app store?
No. Because apple is preventing you from using all the applications that are not in the app store.
You can run all of those for free, either buy getting a (possibly) free app from the app store, or jailbreaking your device (in the case of bash and perl etc).
So in other words you agree with me.
Apple has blocked you from running apps that are pretty much standard utilities on BSD platforms.
Sure you might be able to get some of that functionality in bles
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Mods on crack? I can't see why the above post would be worthy of a troll mod. Between openssh and putty, I have free and Free ssh clients on every platform I use, including blackberry and symbian.
If you disagree, don't mod Troll. Simply reply. The moderation system isn't for determining right from wrong, it's for filtering out the crap. If the parent is wro
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Re:So (Score:5, Informative)
A lot about it. That is a pretty long posting with some insight for people completely unfamiliar with the world of blackberry development.
The story gets an upmod for that, though I suppose it could be seen as a really long plug for the guy's product. He mentions the surge from advertising on blogs and even includes graphs showing his trials vs. sales over time with some bumps pointed out.
A decent read overall.
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Ssshh. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. :)
In all seriousness, while marketing was the goal I wanted it to be a mutual exchange. (I actually mention that in my conclusion). I hope that there's no less value in it as a result. (I did try to mention the actual product as little as possible)
-Marcus
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I, for one, enjoyed the read, and walked away more informed. Thanks for taking the time. I hope your product does well for you.
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IIRC the only podcasts apps created for iPhone by third parties were all rejected by the app store.
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Very true. I wanted to talk about that in the article but had no way to quantify the impact. It's definitely worth noting, though. Thanks for bringing it up.
-Marcus
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Not at all. If that was the impression I gave I think I did a poor job of communicating. I have gripes, definitely, but I had a lot of fun doing it. And, platform wise, this app wouldn't even be possible on the iPhone or Pre. (I am thinking about porting to Android, though, if their user numbers pick up).
I would have loved to know some of the stuff I know now before I started, and help from RIM on the look and feel, but that's about it.
-Marcus
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I probably shouldn't have spoken about the pre, as the only reason I had was the current lack of an SDK.
For the iPhone the lack of background apps and large local-only storage are the issues. (You can store things on the phone, but the stored data is always synced on backup, as far as I know. PodTrapper regularly manages gigs of data on an SD card). After that you have to deal with the app store, but I imagine they'll be lightening up on that soon.
It's probably worth mentioning that the base podcast solutio