

RIM Rant Follow-Up - jammur
http://blog.jamiemurai.com/2011/02/rim-rant-follow-up/

======
charleso

      >...a large number of little hurdles add up to a big hurdle. Maybe not for them,
      >developers who have already committed to this platform and have a stake in it
    

A quick perusal of the BlackBerry developer forums will show how much this
nonsense matters to individuals who have already developed their applications
and have a large stake in the platform. Yes, getting started with BlackBerry
is a pain, but the minor errors continue to compound the longer you develop
for the devices. This adds up to an impression of institutional incompetence
and leaves one considering whether time spent developing for a BlackBerry
device is a waste of effort.

It's not as though any of these issues are a surprise to RIM. Just running a
search on their own forums will show the same topics appearing over and over
again through the years as developers find themselves bitten by bureaucratic
quirks, frustrating quests for direct internet access, or surprises due to
poor App World implementation.

No, these problems cannot be corrected overnight, but one would think they
would be addressed in some manner. This thread alone gives an example of how
RIM's developer-oriented initiatives seem to completely miss the mark:

[http://supportforums.blackberry.com/t5/Java-
Development/New-...](http://supportforums.blackberry.com/t5/Java-
Development/New-Alliance-Program-a-good-thing-for-
developers/m-p/340907/highlight/true#M62467)

Android and iPhone have shown the value small and mid-sized developers bring
to a platform through quality applications, but RIM remains completely out to
lunch on developer support. It's gotten so bad that RIM has had to offer a
free PlayBook just to get developers to bother with the device, and now
there's talk of providing Android app compatibility on PlayBook's release to
make up for the lack of professional BlackBerry developers addressing the
tablet:

[http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/top-
busine...](http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/top-business-
stories/rim-said-planning-to-bring-android-apps-to-playbook/article1903317/)

Seriously RIM? Why should I go through the pain of developing a BlackBerry app
when spending the same effort developing for Android will give me access to
both Android _and_ RIM devices?

Should I just abandon the platform now and focus 100% on Android?

------
billswift
>Maybe not for them, developers who have already committed to this platform
and have a stake in it, but it matters to developers just arriving at the
Blackberry platform.

Especially when you unexpectedly get hit by all of them at once. Also note
that, on a larger scale, this is why many large, established companies love
government regulations - they raise roadblocks that help keep out a lot of
would be competitors.

ADDED: Before someone downvotes me for being too much off-topic I should say
that I meant to point out that the incentives of existing developers and of
the platform owners are not particularly well aligned here. The platform
benefits from more developers, but existing developers don't.

~~~
flashgordon
Actually as bitter as that sounds (does it?), to me it sounds like an active
strategy. Perhaps blackberry does not want to get in the consumer space. Why
else would they shoot themselves in the foot with a ridiculous $20/app
publishing "fee"? Perhaps they just want enterprises that may actually be
happy to fork out money to consultants and IT departments as somehow more
money implies better quality!

------
wheaties

      > After reading my post, Brandon Watson, head of Windows
      > Phone developer experience, reached out to me to offer me
      > some help getting started with WP7 development. Again, a
      > really great reaction by someone who knows how to take
      > advantage of this kind of press.
    

I liked that comment the most. That's a gutsy move and tells you that
Microsoft wants to attract as many people to their platform as possible.

------
knowtheory
> I did, however, put a decent layer of sarcasm on it, because I wanted it to
> be funny, and I think the comedy was one of the main reasons it got so much
> attention.

Sarcasm is not, in of itself, funny. Your post was certainly not funny. It was
sardonic and overbearing. Your tone was only tolerable because your experience
was interesting and not written up previously in a place like HN. If anything
your post was modded up in part because of how enraged you sounded.

Charlie Sheen doesn't get attention in his interviews because he's funny. He
gets attention because he's unhinged, and everyone wants to watch the train-
wreck unfold.

(To be clear, my intent is not to compare you to Charlie Sheen, instead i
think we should be very clear on what it was that was that media sources and
the blogosphere thought was notable, in general, and in the specific case of
your post, for better or worse)

~~~
jammur
Thanks for the comment, but I'm going to have to disagree. If you read the
comments on the main article, I think you'll see that quite a few people found
it funny. As did many of the people who emailed me directly. You're right,
sarcasm isn't funny in and of itself, but it is used as a comedic tool very
frequently. I'm not sure I've ever seen a stand up comedian who didn't use
sarcasm as part of his tool set. Did my frustration come through? Absolutely.
Did I sound enraged? I don't think so. It was more like bewildered. Obviously
you're open to your own interpretation, but as the author I think I have a
better idea as to what the tone of my writing was.

------
maxharris
RIM just doesn't have what it takes to compete in the market Apple created
with the iPhone. What you've done is to make this obvious to a lot of people
that didn't know or care enough to try to figure this out for themselves.
RIM's done all the work to kill themselves, and all you've done is spread the
truth. And that's good for everyone, including RIM (as long as they act to
correct their myriad errors rather than to continue to evade reality.)

