BlackBerry 10 developers already losing interest?
Another day, another “report”, this time courtesy of William Power of Baird & Co., who are stating that RIM is “bleeding” developers. The report found that 31 per cent of BB10 developers had shifted their work to other operating systems this quarter, with the main beneficiary being Google’s Android system.
“We believe that many developers who planned to jump ship have already made the move, leaving a BlackBerry developer base that is smaller but increasingly loyal,” Power wrote, in a report that prompted one website to say RIM is “bleeding developers.”
Power’s survey of roughly 200 developers found their long-term view of BB10 slumped this quarter, falling from 4.6 to 3.8 on a scale of 1 to 10. Sentiment on RIM’s existing BlackBerry 7 operating system was even lower, falling from 3.8 to 2.8. In contrast, Apple’s iOS had a rating of 9.3 while Android had 8.7. Microsoft’s yet-to-be-launched Windows 8 was at 6.3.
While I get where these reports are coming from, I don’t believe it’s as bad as they are making it out to be. I attended BlackBerry World and BlackBerry10Jam in Toronto; both were full of eager and excited developers. From all over Canada, US and overseas, these people were proud and excited of what they had created – you couldn’t help but support them. Analysts are riding the waves of recent bad press and exaggerating the truth of what is really going on among the developer community.
Your thoughts? Sound off below.
Full article via TorontoStar
I think the uncertainty of BB10′s release, and in the broader sense, in RIM’s survival (whether reality or bad press creating that perception) is what is contributing to the developers moving to other platforms. While RIM can still come out with a game changing device, and may actually do so, it will take time for BB10 to build a customer base. In the mean time, developers look at Android (hundreds of millions of users) and iOS (also hundreds of millions of customers, and even more able to buy software) and see that BB10 has zero customers as of right now. It isn’t difficult to see why they would be moving to other platforms.
None of the Developer shows would be an accurate gauge of the developer communities. Doesn’t matter if it is WWDC (iOS), Google I/O (Android), or BB World/BB10JAM (BBOSX, BB10). All of the attendees at the shows are committed and enthusiastic about the platform at whatever show they are in. They paid a lot of money (in most cases) and have taken the time to attend these shows; very few who are uncommitted/disenchanted with a platform would do that. If you ever went to a show like this and didn’t have enthusiastic (rabid even) attendees, this would be the sure sign that the platform is dead. In any case, enthusiasm at a platform specific show is pretty much normal. I use enthusiastic as a catch all for proud/excited/eager/pumped up/etc.
Kostas