Blackberry captures 10.6% of US cell phone market | Hacker News Reader

Blackberry captures 10.6% of US cell phone market

rcrnews.com

I thought this was notable for several reasons.

-This figure is for the entire cell phone market, not just the smartphone market.

-There has been a lot of hype around the iPhone around the blogosphere (HN being no exception), yet the real-world figures are more telling. Despite what many may think, the iPhone isn't and won't be a BB killer (and vice versa).

- The Blackberry is probably getting ignored by the HN/startup in favour of iPhone apps. If you're doing something with mobile development, you probably shouldn't ignore a platform with a bigger market share and a far more capable API.

A bigger market share and more capable API doesn't matter if you don't have the capital to make a business out of it. Sure, you can build a Blackberry app, but how would you sell it and get it in front of people without a lot of money spent on marketing and promotion? Blackberry apps don't usually make the front page of TechCrunch.

The capital requirements for making an iPhone app are lower. $99 to be exact, at the lowest. And you get your app in front of millions of people while not having to worry about building out a website, getting users to that website, and accepting credit cards.

If you're a established mobile company, sure, ignoring the Blackberry would be a bad move. But if you're a small shop or a programmer working in your spare time, the advantages of the iPhone platform are hard to ignore.

I'm not saying there isn't too much hype, but I think a lot of the hype is because developers sitting at home are saying to themselves "I can do that" when it comes to iPhone apps, but not when it comes to Blackberry apps.

Whether you are listed on the App store or Handango, promoting your product always consumes time and money.

The capital requirements for the iPhone are higher. $79-99 to be exact. Unless you need access to system or Crypto APIs ($20 for a key), developing for the Blackberry costs nothing.

Incidentally, I am a programmer sitting at home (in my spare time) and I look at my iPhone and because of Jobs' retarded politics I think "I can't do that". Then I look at the BB JDE/Simulator and get back to work using a decent API to write what'll hopefully be a neat little app.

They're not higher, they're lower. Developing might be free, but replicating the advantages of the App Store will cost you money. How much? I don't know, but I know getting your app in front of that many customers in the way Apple does and making it that easy to buy is going to cost a lot more than $99. I was coming from an entrepreneurial perspective; building a business on the iPhone platform just seems easier.

Just how hard would it be for BlackBerry to duplicate the important parts of the AppStore? How about do that and lose the the obnoxious part, like setting up a standardized framework that's easy for developers to opt-in to, and not required?

The real coup with the the iPhone is Apple's handling of the user's experience in the iPhone App store.

BB certainly has the least retarded relationship with US carriers (especially now that they're so big), but their old-world mindset of small crappy web portals reflects more on their history with the carriers and their tendency to "eat their seed corn" and over-monetize channels (pay to get your app listed and pay to download it? no thanks)

Otherwise BB has the iPhone beat for indie developers -- the SDK is free to download and use, and you can transfer apps straight from your website to a telephone. BB doesn't force themselves into the center of your transactions, which means as a developer you're free to do things like charge per month or per message, or distribute your app for free and allow people to buy it inside the application itself.

Probably not very hard, but if they had done it, they would have all the hype now wouldn't they? RIM has been in the business for years, so why didn't they start an App Store this well marketed a long time ago?

This is a simple case of a start-up (Apple) changing the way business is done and capturing a share of the market from older companies who were to entrenched in the old way of doing things. RIM can still catch up, and like you mentioned, maybe even surpass Apple by getting rid of obnoxious parts, they just need to get their act together.

Apparently, T-Mobile is planning on rolling out their own appstore, for all devices, talk about market size now.

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/08/08/t_mobile_usa_s...

Obviously this might be as screwed up as T-Mobile's current website is, but its a step in the right direction.

> "Blackberry apps don't usually make the front page of TechCrunch."

That should not be the criterion for a successful app or product.

Its not. Its a reflection of the hype that's currently in place. How much would a Blackberry developer have to pay to get the same exposure? (supposedly 850K TechCrunch RSS subscribers). You just don't see that sort of free promotion directed anywhere else.

I think it would be easier for Apple to succeed with a phone with a physical keyboard than it will be for BlackBerry to hit one out of the park with the touchscreen 9000. Apple would only require minor modifications to software. The BlackBerry will be starting from the ground.

Whether Apple will do this is another matter entirely.

I personally think RIM's success is going to be contingent on updating or modernizing the appearance of their UI/OS.

BB crushed all competitors to date by offering a smartphone that was acutely targeted at their market - business users. Now that they're seeing volume as a premium general purpose phone they'll need to track the desirable features in that segment. The BB Bold looks like a great start (the UI is sooo much nicer looking than 4.1-4.3), but Apple has really raised the bar, so it's not a gimmie like it was in years past.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com