We've all heard of successes by small-time software developers on the iPhone App store. Has anyone actually had success selling applications in the Blackberry
+3
A:
Blackberry has always been perceived as a high-end smartphone for the business world. They are currently aggressively attempting to change this perception, see the Pearl and its many different colors.
Due to their business image, and a highly device fragmented mobile market, not too many developers make the Blackberry devices a priority. But, I do see an opportunity for small developers to leverage Blackberry's efforts to become more consumer friendly.
Fostah
2008-09-24 11:51:58
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A:
Also not selling exactly, but the majority of my development work has for some time been devoted to developing business specific Blackberry software. I've looked at the iPhone distribution model and it eliminates the iPhone as a platform for us. I can put code on the corporate or IT support web site under our control for distribution to users we decide. I know there would be no support for putting corporate tools on iTunes.
Richard
2008-09-29 02:47:32
Not to mention that it's not a good idea to depend on Apple's approval for your corporate app.
Alexander
2008-09-29 10:27:27
I think for corporate app you should buy an Enterprise license, and be independent from Apple...isn't it that way?
2008-11-25 14:25:40
That's correct - but your company needs to have 500 full time employees to get an Enterprise Program account with Apple. See here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1329813/apple-delays-in-submitting-an-app-to-the-app-store-closed
Dan J
2009-12-09 01:02:45
+2
A:
Because there is no "central" app store it is a bit hard to have accurate measurements of blackberry sales. Since Blackberry is J2ME based, it is relatively simple to convert an existing Jave ME product to Blackberry so you see a lot of traditional cell phone software providers offering Blackberry ports.
That being said, I think the iPhone App Store has caused the mobile market to re-evaluate distribution, with a larger push to centralized software repositories and OTA purchases. See the Android market for an example.
I think there is a great market opportunity for an easy-to-use Blackberry marketplace with OTA downloads and purchases.
Christopher Lang
2008-10-14 00:14:15
+1
A:
I've had a lot of success with a few companies - but all selling enterprise software. Until recently the story for consumer applications was a lot stronger on iPhone than on BlackBerry. I agree with Richard that the app store doesn't really work for business specific or in-house software, but it's great for consumer oriented stuff. Sites like bplay, Handango, etc are great (and not a bad way at all to get software distributed), but don't have the universal reach of the iPhone app store.
Fortunately for all you independent BlackBerry developers out there, RIM has an answer to the app store coming soon (in March according to this):
Anthony Rizk
2008-12-19 14:41:15