

One App Developer Responsible for 47,000 Apps in BlackBerry World? - zainny
http://www.berryreview.com/2013/08/20/one-app-developer-responsible-for-47000-apps-in-blackberry-world/

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alokm
I was involved in a Blackberry portathon. They were offering USD 100 for each
of the approved apps submitted at that time. This incentive surely didn't
help. I remember participants there, raising concerns about 20-30 different
apps by same user converting one currency to another. But it seems BB wanted
quantity so badly that they are ready to compromise on the quality side.
Infact they were actively promoting a 3rd party tool Blackberry app generator
(or something similar). Which was just a app generator packaging single RSS
feed as an app.

~~~
logn
Whoa, 47,000 * 100 == 4,700,000

~~~
alokm
But it was only for the 48 hour period of the portathon. And IIRC their total
budget was only 2,000,000.

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HorizonXP
As a BlackBerry 10 developer, this is pretty bad. It pollutes the store with
garbage apps like the Play Store. The difference with the Play Store is that
there are enough good apps there that they rise above the noise. It seems like
BlackBerry needs to work on getting more significant apps on the platform, and
needs to work on filtering out crap like this.

I'm making what I consider to be "good" apps, but I'm just one dev. It's a
really crappy problem of the fact that phones aren't selling due to lack of
apps, which doesn't incentivize developers to create apps because there aren't
many customers.

It's really an unfortunate problem to have that I don't have a good solution
for them to get out of. It's a fantastic development platform, and a fantastic
OS that really blows Android, Windows Phone, and even iOS out of the water in
many ways.

I'm more excited for BlackBerry's future than ever, but I'm also more worried
than ever. _sigh_

~~~
BellsOnSunday
> I'm more excited for BlackBerry's future than ever, but I'm also more
> worried than ever.

What exactly do you think is exciting about BB's future (as a platform)?

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zainny
According to discussions I've been reading about this [1], it seems that more
than _half_ of the applications on BB App World come from just four
developers: a staggering 67,500 apps.

[1] [http://forums.crackberry.com/news-rumors-f40/one-app-
develop...](http://forums.crackberry.com/news-rumors-f40/one-app-developer-
responsible-47-000-apps-blackberry-world-841408/index3.html#post9045550)

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yetAnotherrrrr
Could it be that maybe there's some kind of quirk in the BB API that turns out
to be conducive to developing BlackBerry apps in a declaritive fashion?

So like, what if you dump a bunch of API calls into a table, and then
aggregate the varying permutations with a SQL query, and wrap it all up in
appropriate XML markup, programatically, and the call each variant an "app"?

The reason I'm pondering this, is because I think Microsoft has a similar
situation, where even something as trivial as an RSS feed might be counted
among the "app" statistics:

[http://www.itworld.com/software/369727/microsoft-updates-
win...](http://www.itworld.com/software/369727/microsoft-updates-windows-
phone-app-studio-after-developer-projects-soar)

...and then there's also Firefox OS to consider. Where do you draw the line
between an "app" and somebody's crappy web page?

~~~
Someone
That is a tricky line, indeed. Assuming
[http://photos.appleinsider.com/App%20Store%20Review%20Guidel...](http://photos.appleinsider.com/App%20Store%20Review%20Guidelines%20-%20App%20Store%20Resource%20Centerai.pdf)
is the real deal, Apple tries to do it with the following rules:

2.20: Developers "spamming" the App Store with many versions of similar apps
will be removed from the iOS Developer Program

12.4: Apps that are simply web clippings, content aggregators, or a collection
of links, may be rejected

Notice the 'may' in that last clause.

~~~
Aqua_Geek
Sadly, I don't think Apple enforces these guidelines very much — the top three
(by number of apps) developers in the iOS App Store are [1]:

* Libriance Inc (2,100 apps): [http://itunes.apple.com/artist/libriance-inc/id336845065?uo=...](http://itunes.apple.com/artist/libriance-inc/id336845065?uo=5)

* NTT Solmare (1,600 apps): [http://itunes.apple.com/artist/ntt-solmare/id291585690?uo=5](http://itunes.apple.com/artist/ntt-solmare/id291585690?uo=5)

* Tobit.Software (1,300 apps): [http://itunes.apple.com/artist/tobit.software/id284971906?uo...](http://itunes.apple.com/artist/tobit.software/id284971906?uo=5)

A lot of the apps for each of these companies are very similar or are basic
web clips.

1 — Source: iTunes Enterprise Partner Feed dump from a month or so ago.

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linker3000
I immediately thought of this site/person:

[http://www.cebeans.com/](http://www.cebeans.com/)

~~~
Cyph0n
If that was all done by one person (heck, even a few): impressive.

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eksith
BlackBerry needs to seriously weed out the rubbish. Besides the fact that
browsing App World is a nasty experience on my 9930 (sorting is the most
awkward I've ever seen), finding something I'm actually looking for is nearly
impossible. I always end up browsing on my laptop and then scanning the QR
code to install.

It's not style, not the call quality or even battery life that really can make
or break BB. It's the available applications. If they can't get rid of the
hackish nonsense, not to mention the equally unhelpful "reviews", nothing will
change.

I know BB is rushing to fill this gap, but quantity over quality will tarnish
the brand and make App World a joke. It looks like it's already done a lot of
damage.

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drill_sarge
Windows Phone has (had? Haven't used a while) the same problem. There are tons
of the same apps which are basically just wrappers for the mobile version of a
website (facebook, youtube etc.) in the marketplace.

~~~
Tichy
I've heard the same about the Apple App store, not sure if Apple did anything
to prevent that in the meantime.

Not sure if it should be prevented. In any case there will be more apps than
anybody can browse manually, so all the app stores need good app discovery
mechanisms anyway.

~~~
johnpowell
Just using UIWebView to mirror a mobile site will get your app rejected.

2.12 Apps that are not very useful, are simply web sites bundled as apps, or
do not provide any lasting entertainment value may be rejected

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ChrisAntaki
I wonder if he/she pulls in significant revenue. How else would they be
motivated to create 47,000 apps? Perhaps there are lesser app juggernauts on
the Google Play and App Store as well.

~~~
cpayne
I'm guessing it will be a decent sized company, but with one account to
publish the apps.

Imagine trying to support that many apps?

~~~
rogerbinns
They don't have to support the apps, only the ones that end up with traction,
hence revenue. If all 47,000 became popular then that would be a nice problem
to have!

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level09
Do they have API for app submission ? looks like this guy have automated app
creation/submission.

