
120,000 Apps in BlackBerry World, 47,000 by one developer - casca
http://allthingsd.com/20130821/120000-apps-in-blackberry-world-spoiler-47000-made-by-one-developer/
======
cpplinuxdude
"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.

~~~
mmahemoff
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.

------
zainny
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-bl...](http://crackberry.com/s4bb-submits-
additional-138792-apps-blackberry-world)

BlackBerry is an embarrassing joke of a company for permitting this (and from
quotes I've read, even encouraging it).

------
obsession
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/?count...](http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/41515/?countrycode=FI&lang=en)
(The same author has several other ripoffs as well)

~~~
x0054
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.

------
to3m
Brief article, light on detail, about S4BB: [http://crackberry.com/thinking-
big-worlds-most-prolific-app-...](http://crackberry.com/thinking-big-worlds-
most-prolific-app-developer-s4bb)

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.]

------
kunai
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
In case anyone missed it: [http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-
business/the-inside...](http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/the-
inside-story-of-why-blackberry-is-failing/article14563602/?page=all)

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..

------
Avalaxy
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.

------
taspeotis

        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

------
sridvijay
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
Wrong discussion? This is about the BlackBerry App store, not Apple's.

~~~
batuhanicoz
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
Is it really necessary to pile on at this point?

