It’s all BlackBerry 10 at BlackBerry Jam Asia as Alec Saunders, VP Developer Relations, kicked off the two day event in Hong Kong amid massive uncertainties surrounding the company’s future outlook. With a botched BBM launch and a huge layoff on the horizon, Saunders put up a brave face and highlighted BlackBerry 10’s achievements.
“We remain dedicated to providing the best mobility experience for our customers, our focus is unchanged”, Saunders said early in the keynote speech. He noted BlackBerry’s history in providing a strong communications medium for companies and employees beginning with the pager, the transition to email, and eventually adding real time communication BlackBerry Messenger.
Saunders, who joined Research in Motion back in September 2011 focused on nothing but BlackBerry 10. He openly compared the platform’s ability to attract over 131,000 BlackBerry 10 apps to the App World in just seven months to Apple’s 17,500 apps. Saunders also mentioned that nearly 40 percent of those came from Asia and apparently nine out of 10 developers in Asia recommend BlackBerry 10 as the platform to target in building apps and services.
The comparison to the App Store is hardly appropriate though, given the significant differences in smartphone market conditions between 2008 and 2013 and the familiarity of software developers with mobile applications. On the other hand, having that many apps available from the App World in just seven months does show a significant interest in the platform, at least from the developer side.
While the company has yet to convince the likes of popular and high profile consumer oriented apps such as Instagram, Path, Tumblr, or even Vine, the company did mention major apps such as Bloomberg, Flipboard, Evernote, Citrix Receiver, and WeChat.
Additionally, Martyn Mallick, VP of BlackBerry World and Global Alliance took the time to highlight the games section of the App World and underlined the importance of the presence of major apps on the platform. “BlackBerry has a strong lineup of top brands building great applications for BlackBerry 10. We remain focused on bringing relevant, sought after apps to the BlackBerry World storefront”, Mallick said.
The Built for BlackBerry certification is one strategy that the company has employed to assist developers in highlighting their apps as well as increase their potential revenue. According to Saunders, apps with Built for BlackBerry 10 badges receive 71 percent increase in downloads for free apps and 14 percent increase in downloads for paid apps. BlackBerry 10 apps also receive seven times the revenue per user for each download, Mallick said on stage this morning.
Saunders said that with 30 percent of apps originating in Asia, 33 percent of the revenue for Asian developers come from the US, 26 percent from Europe, and four percent from MIddle East and Africa.
Saunders ended the keynote by demonstrating the use of BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) on a Windows desktop environment with Chris Smith, VP of Handheld Application Platform and Tools. While a number of mobile messaging apps have launched desktop app counterparts, BlackBerry decided that the best way to do desktop access for BBM is to tether a BlackBerry 10 device tp the desktop machine via USB or Wi-Fi. While this method works on Windows and OS X, there was no word if it will work for the Android and iOS versions which have yet to be rereleased following the launch disaster last weekend.
