5 ms·
RIM tries to attract BlackBerry 10 developers with awful music video
- martythemaniak 14y agoInstead of this low-quality garbage, why not post something newsworthy about BlackBerry 10, like the first look at their next OS? http://www.theverge.com/2012/9/25/3386444/blackberry-10-beta-3-hands-on-photos-video http://www.theverge.com/2012/9/25/3386444/blackberry-10-beta...
- chucknelson 14y agoLooks very "android-y" from that video. I'm not sure how they going to differentiate. So far it seems like the Windows Phone stategy of "cool and different" isn't working, so maybe BB's strategy is to have consumers thinking that BB 10 and Android look and act similar, so they might as well go with either one!
- bebna 14y agoThey can android apps on the playbook. Having a Android like styling, makes the foreign apps look more native.
- madrona 14y agoWow. VB wastes no time in editorializing, it's right there in the headline.
- davidw 14y agoThis is definitely material for a future version of "N years of high tech marketing disasters", which, by the way, is a pretty good - and entertaining - look at the history of computing from the point of view of the various errors and screwups along the way: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001G0OANQ/?tag=dedasys-20 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001G0OANQ/?tag=dedasys-20 I think the other commenters are right that we ought to be focusing on the technology that they are releasing. And yet, sometimes something like this is really emblematic of what is otherwise a long, drawn out, slow motion failure without any really moments where it's easy to say that is when things blew up. Edit incidentally, I went and had a look at the links showing actual information about the launch, and I don't see anything that would cause me to switch from Android.
- rescripting 14y agoThis story has just the right mix of condescension, editorialization, and an absence of meaningful journalism. Forgive my cynicism but do a search for RIM or Blackberry 10 on HN and its easy to see why this is on the front page instead of something discussing the merits and flaws of the OS that was shown during the keynote today.
- trusko 14y agoI found this video funny
- basicxman 14y agoWent to BlackBerry Jam in Waterloo with a co-worker who did a co-op at RIM previously. They played a similar music video and the key joke from my co-worker was "The cost of that music video could've paid the salary of the guy who used to be beside me."
- ktusznio 14y agoIf this video gets the ball rolling in getting bb10 a chunk developer mindshare - and we are talking about it - then it's likely worth the cost.
- eropple 14y agoFor me, "BlackBerry 10" no longer sits on the "laughable boondoggle" shelf. Now it's on the "meltdown in progress" shelf. That's not better. Bad publicity is not good publicity.
- SG- 14y agowhy would this video get any ball rolling?
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- veemjeem 14y agowhen was the last time a bad video inspired a bunch of developers to start working with the product?
- cryptoz 14y ago> RIM CEO Thorsten Heins guaranteed developers that their BlackBerry 10 applications would make at least $10,000 in their first year. If those apps don’t generate $10,000, Heins said RIM would make up the difference. Wait. That can't be right. Last I heard, you had to make $1,000 on your own first. Is this new item a misquote, or can I release a free app, get 0 downloads, and have RIM pay me $10,000 a year later? No way, it's gotta be an incorrect quote. Edit: They updated the article with sources. The situation has not changed. "Any developer that makes $1,000 from a BlackBerry 10 app submitted by January 23rd is eligible for a payout from RIM for up to $9,000."
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- stephengillie 14y agoAre there other restrictions? What's to stop someone from putting together something and putting it on the store for $1000, having a friend buy 1 copy (which makes $1000 in sales for your company), then split the $9000?
- ghshephard 14y agoThey need to be certified by RIM ahead of time. This is a no lose situation for RIM. A) They only certify Apps that pass their arbitrary quality test. B) They don't have to market your apps initially. C) If you can get enough money from your likely already reasonably quality apps, then RIM can then market them in the store, and easily push you over the $10K line. Everybody comes out a winner. Very difficult to game, though.
- chucknelson 14y ago"...then RIM can then market them in the store, and easily push you over the $10K line." I don't quite agree with the assumption that their app ecosystem will be popular enough to make this happen "easily". First let's see if BB 10 is released successfully...
- timkeller 14y agoGenuinely the saddest marketing stunt I've ever seen.
- scrrr 14y agoNah come on. Why so serious. There's worse music in the charts. This is kind of cute.
- adriand 14y agoLooked at in an alternative light, this video can be seen as rather courageous. It acknowledges the problems that developers for the BB platform have faced, and directly addresses some of the doubts and fears developers must be experiencing. For example: * "A whole new mobile platform may be one tough proposition" * "And though I know you're all wondering, when? It won't be forever." I'm not really all that opposed to the rather human and self-deprecating approach taken here.
- WiseWeasel 14y agoThat would be assuming they haven't closed the tab in disgust by that point.
- Angostura 14y agoAgreed. Thought it was clearly a self deprecatory parody. And putting Steve Jobs on guitar was a nice touch.
- disordinary 14y agoYep, clearly tongue in cheek.
- pjmlp 14y agoI never understood why companies think developers would care for their platforms with such type of videos.
- sergiotapia 14y agoIn my short 5 year career as a software developer, my absolute lowest point was working with Blackberry creating applications. This was around July 2010-ish. The development environment: Sucked. Eclipse with some rubbish plugins that didn't work all the time. Each change in the UI, I had to compile, publish to my BB device (which took about 20 minutes each time) and see how it ran there because the simulator was nowhere near to the actual representation on the phone. Using Java to make BB apps wasn't so bad, I mean, I was only used to C# at that point, and the transition wasn't that painful. It was the god damn awful developer tools. I wouldn't go back to making Blackberry apps ever again; I value my happiness much more these days and I can afford to pick and choose my jobs. I wonder if they have made things easier this iteration. It's been 2 years since I've seen things in the ecosystem after all. My absolute favorite platform to make Mobile apps is Windows Phone 7 (I hear 8 is pretty much the same). You just can match the developer tools for it. It's so simple.
- icefox 14y agoYou were targeting the Java devices (probably BB5, BB6?) Unlike those devices, the BB10 devices (like the Playbook) are based upon the QNX OS and so the overall development experience is significantly better. But don't just take my word for it, click any of the BB10 links that talk about the development experience for a more in depth discussion.
- veemjeem 14y agoI watched a friend write an app for the playbook, and he kept firing up a virtual machine to do something. Why would the dev environment need a virtual machine running every time you need to run a test?
- ricardobeat 14y agoBecause you need to test it in the actual runtime environment, not your machine? That's how mobile development works.
- Tichy 14y agoThese videos tend to go viral - just for the wrong reasons.
- sjbach 14y agoThe casual negativity in the headline is really too bad. I kind-of enjoyed the video, even though I'd been primed not to.
- eddanger 14y agoAll I can say is they have hit Rock n' Roll bottom.
- tibbon 14y agoWas the video that bad really? I didn't even know about BB10 at all (I honestly didn't even know it still was being made). I'm not going to watch it again, but I wouldn't call it awful.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- HorizonXP 14y agoHaters gonna hate. - Sent from BlackBerry 10
- modarts 14y agoA very desperate and sad move by RIM. It's decision making like this that continues to cost RIM jobs.
- dbecker 14y agoTongue in cheek or not, it reeks of desperation. If I developed for the Blackberry, this would increase my skepticism that RIM will be around for a long time, and thus make me less inclined to continue developing blackberry software.
- mratzloff 14y agoI feel bad for them. I mean, at least they're trying. Maybe I'll make a pity app.
- uvTwitch 14y agoRIM should probably cut the crap and laser-focus on whatever the hell it is they're good at, instead of trying to battle apple, google, and microsoft. This video just makes the blackberry seem pathetic, and who would want to develop for a pathetic platform?