

RIM tries to attract BlackBerry 10 developers with awful music video - stdclass
http://venturebeat.com/2012/09/25/rim-bb10-music-video/

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martythemaniak
Instead of this low-quality garbage, why not post something newsworthy about
BlackBerry 10, like the first look at their next OS?
[http://www.theverge.com/2012/9/25/3386444/blackberry-10-beta...](http://www.theverge.com/2012/9/25/3386444/blackberry-10-beta-3-hands-
on-photos-video)

~~~
chucknelson
Looks very "android-y" from that video. I'm not sure how they going to
differentiate.

So far it seems like the Windows Phone stategy of "cool and different" isn't
working, so maybe BB's strategy is to have consumers thinking that BB 10 and
Android look and act similar, so they might as well go with either one!

~~~
bebna
They can android apps on the playbook. Having a Android like styling, makes
the foreign apps look more native.

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cryptoz
> RIM CEO Thorsten Heins guaranteed developers that their BlackBerry 10
> applications would make at least $10,000 in their first year. If those apps
> don’t generate $10,000, Heins said RIM would make up the difference.

Wait. That can't be right. Last I heard, you had to make $1,000 on your own
first. Is this new item a misquote, or can I release a free app, get 0
downloads, and have RIM pay me $10,000 a year later? No way, it's gotta be an
incorrect quote.

Edit: They updated the article with sources. The situation has not changed.
"Any developer that makes $1,000 from a BlackBerry 10 app submitted by January
23rd is eligible for a payout from RIM for up to $9,000."

~~~
stephengillie
Are there other restrictions? What's to stop someone from putting together
_some_ thing and putting it on the store for $1000, having a friend buy 1 copy
(which makes $1000 in sales for your company), then split the $9000?

~~~
ghshephard
They need to be certified by RIM ahead of time.

This is a no lose situation for RIM.

    
    
      A) They only certify Apps that pass their arbitrary quality test.
      B) They don't have to market your apps initially.
      C) If you can get enough money from your likely already reasonably 
         quality apps, then RIM can then market them in the store, 
         and easily push you over the $10K line.
    

Everybody comes out a winner. Very difficult to game, though.

~~~
chucknelson
"...then RIM can then market them in the store, and easily push you over the
$10K line."

I don't quite agree with the assumption that their app ecosystem will be
popular enough to make this happen "easily". First let's see if BB 10 is
released successfully...

~~~
ghshephard
Just have them as a featured app (or whatever Blackberry's version of that
will be) for a few days - it would be pretty hard _not_ to be pushed over the
$10K line. And, if a couple days as a featured App won't get you $10K, then
RIM is dead, and this is all for naught anyways. An extra $10K for the
900-1000 developers they chose won't make a difference one way or another.

------
sergiotapia
In my short 5 year career as a software developer, my absolute lowest point
was working with Blackberry creating applications.

This was around July 2010-ish.

The development environment: Sucked. Eclipse with some rubbish plugins that
didn't work all the time.

Each change in the UI, I had to compile, publish to my BB device (which took
about 20 minutes each time) and see how it ran there because the simulator was
nowhere near to the actual representation on the phone.

Using Java to make BB apps wasn't so bad, I mean, I was only used to C# at
that point, and the transition wasn't that painful. It was the god damn awful
developer tools.

I wouldn't go back to making Blackberry apps ever again; I value my happiness
much more these days and I can afford to pick and choose my jobs.

I wonder if they have made things easier this iteration. It's been 2 years
since I've seen things in the ecosystem after all.

My absolute favorite platform to make Mobile apps is Windows Phone 7 (I hear 8
is pretty much the same). You just can match the developer tools for it. It's
so simple.

~~~
icefox
You were targeting the Java devices (probably BB5, BB6?) Unlike those devices,
the BB10 devices (like the Playbook) are based upon the QNX OS and so the
overall development experience is significantly better. But don't just take my
word for it, click any of the BB10 links that talk about the development
experience for a more in depth discussion.

~~~
veemjeem
I watched a friend write an app for the playbook, and he kept firing up a
virtual machine to do something. Why would the dev environment need a virtual
machine running every time you need to run a test?

~~~
ricardobeat
Because you need to test it in the actual runtime environment, not your
machine? That's how mobile development works.

------
adriand
Looked at in an alternative light, this video can be seen as rather
courageous. It acknowledges the problems that developers for the BB platform
have faced, and directly addresses some of the doubts and fears developers
must be experiencing. For example:

* "A whole new mobile platform may be one tough proposition" * "And though I know you're all wondering, when? It won't be forever."

I'm not really all that opposed to the rather human and self-deprecating
approach taken here.

~~~
Angostura
Agreed. Thought it was clearly a self deprecatory parody. And putting Steve
Jobs on guitar was a nice touch.

~~~
disordinary
Yep, clearly tongue in cheek.

------
rescripting
This story has just the right mix of condescension, editorialization, and an
absence of meaningful journalism.

Forgive my cynicism but do a search for RIM or Blackberry 10 on HN and its
easy to see why this is on the front page instead of something discussing the
merits and flaws of the OS that was shown during the keynote today.

------
davidw
This is definitely material for a future version of "N years of high tech
marketing disasters", which, by the way, is a pretty good - and entertaining -
look at the history of computing from the point of view of the various errors
and screwups along the way:
<http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001G0OANQ/?tag=dedasys-20>

I think the other commenters are right that we ought to be focusing on the
technology that they are releasing. And yet, sometimes something like this is
really emblematic of what is otherwise a long, drawn out, slow motion failure
without any really moments where it's easy to say _that_ is when things blew
up.

 _Edit_ incidentally, I went and had a look at the links showing actual
information about the launch, and I don't see anything that would cause me to
switch from Android.

------
sjbach
The casual negativity in the headline is really too bad. I kind-of enjoyed the
video, even though I'd been primed not to.

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basicxman
Went to BlackBerry Jam in Waterloo with a co-worker who did a co-op at RIM
previously. They played a similar music video and the key joke from my co-
worker was "The cost of that music video could've paid the salary of the guy
who used to be beside me."

~~~
ktusznio
If this video gets the ball rolling in getting bb10 a chunk developer
mindshare - and we are talking about it - then it's likely worth the cost.

~~~
SG-
why would this video get any ball rolling?

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timkeller
Genuinely the saddest marketing stunt I've ever seen.

~~~
scrrr
Nah come on. Why so serious. There's worse music in the charts. This is kind
of cute.

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madrona
Wow. VB wastes no time in editorializing, it's right there in the headline.

------
tibbon
Was the video that bad really? I didn't even know about BB10 at all (I
honestly didn't even know it still was being made). I'm not going to watch it
again, but I wouldn't call it awful.

------
pjmlp
I never understood why companies think developers would care for their
platforms with such type of videos.

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mratzloff
I feel bad for them. I mean, at least they're trying.

Maybe I'll make a pity app.

------
trusko
I found this video funny

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uvTwitch
RIM should probably cut the crap and laser-focus on whatever the hell it is
they're good at, instead of trying to battle apple, google, and microsoft.
This video just makes the blackberry seem pathetic, and who would want to
develop for a pathetic platform?

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dbecker
Tongue in cheek or not, it reeks of desperation.

If I developed for the Blackberry, this would increase my skepticism that RIM
will be around for a long time, and thus make me less inclined to continue
developing blackberry software.

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modarts
A very desperate and sad move by RIM. It's decision making like this that
continues to cost RIM jobs.

------
Tichy
These videos tend to go viral - just for the wrong reasons.

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eddanger
All I can say is they have hit Rock n' Roll bottom.

