BT

Facilitating the Spread of Knowledge and Innovation in Professional Software Development

Write for InfoQ

Topics

Choose your language

InfoQ Homepage News A Fist Full of RIM, For a Few Mobile Devs More

A Fist Full of RIM, For a Few Mobile Devs More

All of the ducks are in the proverbial row for the much ballyhooed debut of Research In Motion’s (RIM) Blackberry 10 (BB10) Operating System (OS) line of smart phones that are slated for release at the end of January 2013. Blackberry was the first practical smart phone. But in an industry that cares little for nostalgia, that fact is more of a curiosity than an advantage. It may be an interesting irony that the firm hails from a town called Waterloo. Since most pundits describe this latest offering from RIM as a ‘do or die’ product.

Arch rivals Google and Apple may not be quivering in their bootstraps over BB10. Yet the company apparently landed quite a broadside to Apple recently when they persuaded a big US government agency to back off of a statement that had them planning to switch thousands of employees from Blackberrys to iPhones. RIM further strengthened their position by garnering the coveted Federal Information Processing Standard 140-2 designation known as FIPS. This is an especially cogent feature to the security conscious customer like governments and enterprise organizations that have been RIM’s bread and butter.

Coinciding with the debut of the all new QNX-based BB 10, predicted by a prescient post in the veritable archives of the InfoQ data vaults, will be the introduction of the updated Blackberry Enterprise Server, Blackberry Enterprise Server 10. The new Enterprise Server is being Beta tested by prominent government agencies. As per usual, the community saw through all of the hype to the crux of the matter. -tallbruva over at ZDNet:

I am one of those Android developers they bought by giving free Playbooks to those who ported apps over. They're VERY developer friendly - doesn't cost a DIME to become a developer or submit apps. That makes them very attractive to indi devs and also (is) what made Appl's App Store & Android Market blow up...Microsoft, are you listening?

 

While at the Business Insider, Nshuti Olivier was a passionate defender of the faith:

Blackberry 10 is by far better than any iphone or Android phone currently on the market. That is from screen resolution, connectivity, camera, keyboard, OS, Security, Hardware, and the list goes on... just to let you know that BB10 is the only smartphone on the planet that features a QNX Multitasking micro Kernel. Something that Nasa uses in their Space Shuttle, latest Japanese high speed train, nuclear power plants, ultra luxury car navigation systems and many more. Clearly here i will accept the facts that android and Apple probably are Rich(er) than RIM. But they aren't as innovative as RIM is. On top of that BB10 is offering far many more apps than what Android and Apple had when they first started. Strictly speaking, The upcoming BlackBerry 10's RIM is completely in the class of its own. Ohh i forget to mention BB10 is currently the only phone to feature 2GB of RAM along with fastest Browser on the planet, in facts faster than some of our desktop computers. Now here is a deal, love it or hate it but if you aren't using BB10 this 2013 then you are missing out…

And at the Crackberry forums, Thunderbuck led the charge: jdhooghe: “Ok, so the only thing blackberry has for it to differentiate itself is a predictive keyboard and a hub? While still looking like iOS?” Thunderbuck:

Hmmm, that sounds rather dismissive, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. Benefits of BB10 over iOS: • True multitasking • Easier navigation between running programs • Easier management of running programs • Expandable memory • Time-shifting camera • Constant ability to monitor incoming messages • SERIOUSLY cool keyboard That keyboard goes somewhat beyond "predictive". First off, the keys are much wider than those on iOS, particularly in portrait mode. Much easier to type on, even without the new features. Second, the prediction scheme is apparently more adaptive, and pays more attention to the way you write as an individual. Third, the ability to "flick" words into the output is frankly brilliant, and I can confirm it's a game-changer. It's an honest productivity-booster.

jdhooge:

Genuine curiosity, mathking606. I have some friends that really love Blackberry and I was wondering what it (is that) set itself apart from the current offerings. BB used to be on top and then got stupid (I assume like Google and Apple are doing now) and fell. I've been looking at the preview videos and such. While Thunderbuck's answer as to what Blackberry has and iOS does not, I can only assume the average consumer will look at both and choose the iPhone because it is familiar and will have the bigger app store. I'm seriously not trolling or anything. I was interested because I wanted to get the z10 and have never had a blackberry before.

Thunderbuck:

I think some consumers will certainly see it that way. I don't think all will. In fact, I think there are many current iPhone users who will seriously consider the Z10. I've spoken to several who got quite excited over the keyboard, for instance, and then ranted on at length about how much they hated the iOS keyboard. And as for sheer numbers in an app library, we're starting to hit a bit of a wall. There really are only so many "good" apps out there. Both iOS and Google Play have their share of garbage apps that will never see a download. They're crowded markets and there's getting to be less and less incentive for devs to stay in (particularly with Android--what version do you even target anymore?). We've seen instances where developers were able to port iOS and Android apps over to the Playbook and immediately saw better sales just because they didn't have as much competition. BB10 is going to blow that right open, since even with mediocre sales it will increase the QNX device pool from about 2 million devices today (all Playbooks) to perhaps 20 million a year from now.

dgarrido: “Rumored screen sharing will also be a difference.” 

jagrlover: “Removable battery, HDMI out, Better HTML5 compliance (& a) Higher ringmark score.”

 

Libraries to help develop your native BB 10 app are included in the Native SDK (Software Developers Kit). POSIX-standard C, C++ queries and GNU C, C++ compilers are good bets for porting to use when writing your native BB10 masterpiece. But RIM has made numerous platforms open to developers who wish to get a slice of the Blackberry pie.

Rate this Article

Adoption
Style

BT