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Face it: for some "cool app" developers, BlackBerry draws a yawn

Author:Posted by Russell Shaw @ 4:28 pm

Date:March 21st, 2007

Source Site:zdnet


March 21st, 2007

Face it: for some cool app developers, BlackBerry draws a yawn

Posted by Russell Shaw @ 4:28 pm

Categories: Uncategorized

Tags:

So here I am the other night, at dinner, breakin bread (literally) with several folks who are talking about the future of mobile phone apps.

This was largely an open-source (and open bar) table of influencers. So the talk led to ways that open source development environments leads to cool apps for those carriers and device makers who will let these folks in.

Lots of mentions as well of Windows Mobile, Symbian, Brew, as well as various open source flavas.

But hey guess what. No BlackBerry OS. In fact, when I raised the point, yea, what about BlackBerry," I was politely ignored. The reason? Not only is BB a closed platform with pretty damn tight licensing models, but the cooler-than-you developers still regard BlackBerry as a business device PDA and not a phone.

Then I mentioned the Pearl, and the silence in the room signified the reaction of BFD.

So I am wondering, whats BlackBerrys problem with the cooler than cool developers?

I do have to tell you that I didnt see any of them carrying BlackBerrys, so maybe unfamiliarity with the newer BB devices is part of the issue. And that feeds in to the old stereotype of BlackBerry as a device for the suits.

What do you think is the problem here? Is it what I have just mentioned, or is there a reflexive dislike of proprietary OSs that do the carriers bidding rather than open themselves up to developers with revolutionary and disruptive concepts?

Russell Shaw is an enterprise computing journalist, analyst and author based in Portland, Oregon. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.


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