RIM Rant Follow-Up | Hacker News Reader

RIM Rant Follow-Up

blog.jamiemurai.com

33 pointsjammur8 comments

  >...a large number of little hurdles add up to a big hurdle. Maybe not for them,
  >developers who have already committed to this platform and have a stake in it

A quick perusal of the BlackBerry developer forums will show how much this nonsense matters to individuals who have already developed their applications and have a large stake in the platform. Yes, getting started with BlackBerry is a pain, but the minor errors continue to compound the longer you develop for the devices. This adds up to an impression of institutional incompetence and leaves one considering whether time spent developing for a BlackBerry device is a waste of effort.

It's not as though any of these issues are a surprise to RIM. Just running a search on their own forums will show the same topics appearing over and over again through the years as developers find themselves bitten by bureaucratic quirks, frustrating quests for direct internet access, or surprises due to poor App World implementation.

No, these problems cannot be corrected overnight, but one would think they would be addressed in some manner. This thread alone gives an example of how RIM's developer-oriented initiatives seem to completely miss the mark:

http://supportforums.blackberry.com/t5/Java-Development/New-...

Android and iPhone have shown the value small and mid-sized developers bring to a platform through quality applications, but RIM remains completely out to lunch on developer support. It's gotten so bad that RIM has had to offer a free PlayBook just to get developers to bother with the device, and now there's talk of providing Android app compatibility on PlayBook's release to make up for the lack of professional BlackBerry developers addressing the tablet:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/top-busine...

Seriously RIM? Why should I go through the pain of developing a BlackBerry app when spending the same effort developing for Android will give me access to both Android and RIM devices?

Should I just abandon the platform now and focus 100% on Android?

>Maybe not for them, developers who have already committed to this platform and have a stake in it, but it matters to developers just arriving at the Blackberry platform.

Especially when you unexpectedly get hit by all of them at once. Also note that, on a larger scale, this is why many large, established companies love government regulations - they raise roadblocks that help keep out a lot of would be competitors.

ADDED: Before someone downvotes me for being too much off-topic I should say that I meant to point out that the incentives of existing developers and of the platform owners are not particularly well aligned here. The platform benefits from more developers, but existing developers don't.

Actually as bitter as that sounds (does it?), to me it sounds like an active strategy. Perhaps blackberry does not want to get in the consumer space. Why else would they shoot themselves in the foot with a ridiculous $20/app publishing "fee"? Perhaps they just want enterprises that may actually be happy to fork out money to consultants and IT departments as somehow more money implies better quality!

Well not directly, but the only reason to develop for a platform is if there are users and the best way to get users is if there are lots of programs available.

  > After reading my post, Brandon Watson, head of Windows
  > Phone developer experience, reached out to me to offer me
  > some help getting started with WP7 development. Again, a
  > really great reaction by someone who knows how to take
  > advantage of this kind of press.

I liked that comment the most. That's a gutsy move and tells you that Microsoft wants to attract as many people to their platform as possible.

> I did, however, put a decent layer of sarcasm on it, because I wanted it to be funny, and I think the comedy was one of the main reasons it got so much attention.

Sarcasm is not, in of itself, funny. Your post was certainly not funny. It was sardonic and overbearing. Your tone was only tolerable because your experience was interesting and not written up previously in a place like HN. If anything your post was modded up in part because of how enraged you sounded.

Charlie Sheen doesn't get attention in his interviews because he's funny. He gets attention because he's unhinged, and everyone wants to watch the train-wreck unfold.

(To be clear, my intent is not to compare you to Charlie Sheen, instead i think we should be very clear on what it was that was that media sources and the blogosphere thought was notable, in general, and in the specific case of your post, for better or worse)

Thanks for the comment, but I'm going to have to disagree. If you read the comments on the main article, I think you'll see that quite a few people found it funny. As did many of the people who emailed me directly. You're right, sarcasm isn't funny in and of itself, but it is used as a comedic tool very frequently. I'm not sure I've ever seen a stand up comedian who didn't use sarcasm as part of his tool set. Did my frustration come through? Absolutely. Did I sound enraged? I don't think so. It was more like bewildered. Obviously you're open to your own interpretation, but as the author I think I have a better idea as to what the tone of my writing was.

RIM just doesn't have what it takes to compete in the market Apple created with the iPhone. What you've done is to make this obvious to a lot of people that didn't know or care enough to try to figure this out for themselves. RIM's done all the work to kill themselves, and all you've done is spread the truth. And that's good for everyone, including RIM (as long as they act to correct their myriad errors rather than to continue to evade reality.)

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