BlackBerry is introducing a new smartphone platform in the middle of perhaps the fiercest battle for consumers on the market for mobile devices. For all of the primary purposes of a modern phone, Blackberry seems to have nailed the experience in Blackberry 10, not to mention the additional features. What it hasn’t got or at least hasn’t appeared to have, is a collection of killer apps. These are the apps that people will pick up a Z10 or a Q10 for because the apps either are not available on other devices or performs poorly on them.
A lot of people use Instagram’s seeming lack of interest in BlackBerry 10 as an excuse to talk down the platform. It’s certainly an easy one to bring up as Instagram had become one of the biggest must-have apps for mobile platforms in this increasingly documented world. Filtered photography seems to be all the rage since Instagram debuted in 2010.
Recently though, a source told AllThingsD that Instagram won’t be making a native BlackBerry 10 app, at least for the time being. This may sound like it’s dismissing the platform but Instagram didn’t make its debut on Android until it had more than 30 million users after almost a year and a half being available exclusively on iPhone. Even now it still doesn’t have an app for the iPad and Windows Phone. Instagram’s problem doesn’t seem to be the platform but its own lack of resources.
While Instagram may have Facebook as its parent company now, it doesn’t mean that co-founder Kevin Systrom can just call up Mark Zuckerberg and have him assign a team from Facebook to create Instagram for BlackBerry 10. After all, even Facebook’s BlackBerry 10 app was made by BlackBerry engineers.
Uphill battle
This isn’t just about Instagram. You can replace Instagram with the name of any other major app company and it applies just the same. Netflix for example, is absent and while Netflix may mean absolutely nothing for the greater International market, North American consumers rely on Netflix quite heavily for their entertainment and the company echoed the sentiments expressed by Instagram regarding native apps for BlackBerry 10.
Aside from Instagram and Netflix, there’s a lack of top apps on BlackBerry 10 such as Spotify, Gmail, Yelp, Pandora, Path, Google Maps, Line, KakaoTalk, Tumblr, Photoshop, and so on, but the company said that it has received commitments from Skype, Amazon, WhatsApp, and Rovio, among others, to create apps for BlackBerry 10.
We’re also hearing that the BlackBerry team in Indonesia is desperately trying to get their North American counterparts to persuade Path to create a native BlackBerry app due to the app’s popularity in Indonesia. Path CEO and co-founder Dave Morin earlier today tweeted that Path only does native apps, which means ported Android app for Path is pretty much out of the question for BlackBerry 10.
Converting consumers
Commitments to build apps don’t mean immediate availability and until the most wanted apps appear on BlackBerry World, it will be a steep uphill journey for BlackBerry to win over consumers. When presenting a new or alternative platform, it has to go beyond an existing product’s ability to captivate a market. Unless it delivers a much better experience, it stands little chance.
Software developer evangelist Deddy Avianto said, “Android users are the easiest to convince to use BlackBerry 10 because they are far less loyal to the platform than iOS users. All it needs is to get them to use the Z10 for a short while and they’ll want to switch. iOS users are much harder to convince, they’re already happy with what they have”. Avianto himself is platform agnostic. He carries multiple devices running multiple platforms including iOS, Android, Windows Phone, and BlackBerry.
We wrote about the challenges facing BlackBerry 10 in the market and pricing is a significant factor in its adoption. The Z10 may offer the ultimate Blackberry 10 experience but it is out of the range of most Indonesian’s purchasing ability. Unless this situation is rectified very soon, BlackBerry will find itself being pushed further back.
At the moment, a lot of Indonesians especially in major cities are carrying multiple devices. They carry at least two, one BlackBerry and one iOS or Android device. Most say that they carry the BlackBerry because it’s for work. They tend to have little use for it other than keeping in touch with people, both personally and professionally, through BlackBerry Messenger (BBM).
Many are saying that if they can get their friends off BBM, they’ll ditch their BlackBerry phones and go full time on iPhone or a high end Android. For a lot of people this is already happening thanks to WhatsApp and to a lesser extent, Line and KakaoTalk, although people still see the two Asian messaging apps as for personal use only due to the playful image they present.
It’s still the apps
A lot of compelling apps are being found on iOS and Android platforms. Even Windows Phone, regardless of how good the devices are, still lacks this factor as well although Windows Phone now has some of the best mapping and navigation apps on mobile thanks to Nokia’s HERE apps. So what does BlackBerry 10 offer?
BBM Video is a late entrance. It’s something that should have been introduced years ago but perhaps due to the focus on the enterprise market, it was deemed unnecessary. On top of that, BlackBerry’s pre-Z10 devices don’t seem like great devices for video communication. Today, video calls are already native on iOS as well as Android thanks to FaceTime and Google Hangout. Video messaging is available on chat apps as well, so there’s no strong argument for BBM Video.
The recently introduced BBM Money however, might play a larger role than BBM Video in getting people to adopt BlackBerry 10 devices. It makes transactions a lot easier especially when splitting bills at the restaurant and since it only runs on BlackBerry Messenger, non-BlackBerry users might feel a little envious. Bank transfers may be the alternative but it’s highly impractical and there’s no such thing as PayPal or its equivalent in this country.
Timeshift photography and the built in photo editor do make photography even more practical on BlackBerry 10 but those are already available on Windows Phone especially on Lumia devices. A self-learning keyboard that can detect a switch in languages immediately and offer word suggestions? It’s actually pretty impressive.
Perhaps the combination of all the above features in one device could sway certain people to not only switch but keep using BlackBerry 10 as their primary platform. For many Indonesians, the ability to run their favorite apps alongside BBM is a significant factor, which means BlackBerry had better get going and add those apps to its ecosystem.
