RIM’s BlackBerry App Problem

RIM's platform serves all BlackBerrys, but operating-system differences among models challenge app developers

While it gears up for the release late this year, barring any more delays, of a new, modern operating system (BlackBerry 10) and at least one new handset capable of running it, Research In Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) has another problem that may be tougher to address: a lack of apps. A big part of the reason is market fragmentation, something that a new OS and accompanying smartphone are likely to make worse in the short term.

Fragmentation has long been associated with Google‘s (NASDAQ:GOOG) Android platform, where a slew of manufacturers including Samsung (PINK:SSNLF), Motorola (NYSE:MMI), and HTC all design and sell their own smartphones, making fragmentation difficult to avoid.

But RIM manufactures all of its own handsets and those devices run only RIM’s own operating system, so how can the BlackBerry market be fragmented? The problem lies in RIM’s strategy to offer a wide range of handsets aimed at different customer demographics. In the past few years alone, the company has released several BlackBerry models, including the Bold, Curve, Pearl, Storm, Style, Torch, Tour, and 8800 series. Most models have been through multiple iterations, and in a recent Reuters interview, RIM CEO Thorsten Heins revealed that only 20% of existing BlackBerry users are running a recent version of the operating system.

So while core BlackBerry functions (such as email and voice) are supported across the lineup, other functions are not. The differences in the operating systems among the various models leave developers with two options: design apps to fit only the most-basic BlackBerry operating system features so they can be used on most models, or design apps to work with the advanced features of the new operating systems, which means reaching a significantly smaller slice of the BlackBerry market.

No easy fit

As an Blackberry App Development, how do you develop for a platform whose phones are running an operating system that might be years old? Even worse, among recent BlackBerry smartphones, display resolution varies from 480 x 320 pixels up to 800 x 480 pixels, and some models are touchscreen-capable, while others are not. When you can’t count on any uniformity in display resolution or input method, development is a significant challenge.

To understand a major reason Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) has managed to draw over half a million apps to its App Store, consider how much easier it is for developers to write software for the entire Apple mobile user base. There are multiple variations of the iOS operating system, but under 10% of iOS devices are running the oldest system software; within weeks of the release of iOS 5 (the latest version), nearly 40% of iPhone users had already upgraded. Even the oldest iOS version is still capable of running a significant percentage of apps in the App Store.

Apple has also been very strategic with hardware development. All app-capable iOS devices, including the least expensive iPod Touch, have touchscreen capability. Early model iPods and iPhones had a 480 x 320 pixel display, with more recent versions boasting a “retina” 960 x 640 upgrade. The numbers are important: the pixel count has increased, but the aspect ratio remains the same. This means old apps can run on new devices with no changes through pixel-doubling (although screen elements would appear less sharp), while upgrading them to take full advantage of higher resolution displays doesn’t mean redesigning the graphics, just scaling up.

Will More BlackBerry apps matter?

There will always be processor-intensive apps that require the latest iPhone in order to run properly (typically games), or apps that require a GPS that an iPod Touch lacks, but these are a small percentage of the total. The net result is that instead of only being able to reach consumers who happen to own the latest and greatest Apple device, developers can count on reaching a high percentage of all iOS devices at minimal additional development cost.

While RIM’s PlayBook tablet offers the ability to support Android apps (should developers choose to port them), if this capability comes to BlackBerry smartphones, developers are going to face the fragmentation challenge again: is it worth the effort to port an Android app, given that only the most current round of BlackBerry hardware will be capable of running it? Is that limited market worth pursuing?
Apps and users are in a bit of a chicken and egg quandary when it comes to smartphones. Do more apps bring more users, or do more users bring more app developers? Unfortunately, RIM finds itself entering 2012 and what it hopes will be a revitalization of its BlackBerry smartphone business, while trailing significantly in both areas.

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And Now a Blackberry Fund

What used to be the purview of corporate and business development departments is now being replaced by venture capital. A fund to foster Facebook apps, the iFundto jump start the iPhone app revolution or the rumored $150 million fund to give Blackberry apps a boost – the increasing number of platform funds doesn’t ensure success. Remember the Java Fund, or the RSS Fund.

The news of the Blackberry Fund was first reported by Venturebeat, but that post has been taken down, so I am not sure if this is even happening or not. If it is indeed true, then it is clear that iPhone has delivered a swift kick in the pants to the Canadian company, and getting it to innovate faster. I don’t think an investment vehicle is the answer. Many developers I have talked to often complain about the challenges of working with Research In Motion (RIM.)

If Team Blackberry is looking to encourage development for their platform, then they should make it easier for folks to develop for their platform. One hair ball that comes with this so called Blackberry Fund: can a company that takes an investment from Research In Motion develop apps for iPhone or Google’s Android?

Simon Brocklehurst does a great job of deconstructing the Blackberry & iFunds, and I encourage you to read his analysis. “All the opportunities, though, probably need Apple and RIM to deliver significant growth in device sales, from where they are now,” he writes, in what is clearly an understatement. Brocklehurst points out that there is a whole lot of other platforms, and the developer are going to gravitate towards the largest market opportunities.

In comparison to the Blackberry Fund and the iFund, I like the approach taken by Google to foster an apps ecosystem for its Android platform. Instead of taking an equity in exchange of funding, Google is basically giving prize monies to winners of a developer contest. Fifty round one winners get $25,000 and go on to the next level. According to a Google Android blog post, the name of the winners are going to be announced shortly. Of course, I have been talking to other Android developers and will write about them some time soon.

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Blackberry App Development

Windows Phone, Blackberry App Development Lags

Android is currently leading the smartphone race with consumers and has a healthy application count in its marketplace with over 150,000 apps currently available. That still trails what Apple has in its App Store with over 350,000 apps. All other mobile app stores trail far behind these two market leaders and current development trends don't show that gap closing.

All isn't rosy for Android though. According to Appcelerator, the road is getting a bit rough for Android. AppCelerator conducted a survey of 2,760 developers that use its Titanium cross-platform development tools. "The survey reveals that developer momentum is shifting back toward Apple as fragmentation and tepid interest in current Android tablets chip away at Google's recent momentum gains."

The effects of fragmentation shouldn't be a surprise. You definitely cannot write an Android app and count on it running on all Android phones without tweaking it as the developers of Tweetdeck quickly found out.

The main beneficiary of these issues though appears to be Apple. Windows Phone and Blackberry both showed declines in developer interest compared to the fourth quarter of 2010. Windows Phone interest fell by seven percentage points to 29% and RIM fell by 11 percentage points to 27%. That means from a developer standpoint, RIM is now in fourth place.

The problem for Microsoft and RIM is even with Android's fragmentation issues and lackluster interest in Android tablets, when it comes to phones, developers simply cannot ignore the big kid on the block. Some 46% of those surveyed said they had their hands full with iOS and Android development.

That presents a "chicken or egg" problem for Microsoft. They have had phenomenal growth to this point, getting over 12,000 apps added to its store in about seven months. To get the explosive growth necessary to approach what iOS and Android have though, the platform needs more market share. To get market share today you need a solid application story.

Microsoft has a challenge ahead of it. It claims quality over quantity when discussing app counts, and that is a valid point. The problem is, when someone is looking at a phone and they see 350,000 apps, 150,000 apps or 12,000 apps, quantity carries a bit more weight to the average user. My guess is once Microsoft gets in the 50,000 to 75,000 range, numbers will become less important. Once you are that high, does anyone really care that a competitor has four times as many fart apps?

To get that high though, the development curve for Microsoft needs to accelerate or it will take two to three years to get there. That will hinder the platform's growth overall.

RIM faces a similar issue, but it is even more magnified. The current Blackberry platform already has its epitaph written as RIM promises to move to QNX. Developers will be hard pressed to make the case to develop for a platform with a short life and uncertainty around how well, if at all, emulation will work or whether an unlaunched platform will have any success at all. Being a big player in the market and releasing an all-new OS isn't a recipe for success. Just ask Palm.

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Blackberry App Development

Utah hospital system taps Kony for mobile apps

Utah-based Intermountain Healthcare, a system of 22 nonprofit hospitals, 185 clinics, a medical group, a health plans division called SelectHealth, and other health services, announced that it had inked a deal with Kony Solutions to enable it to make its mobile health apps available to patients, members, and providers regardless of which operating system their mobile devices run. As we reported a few weeks ago, Kony struck a similar deal with Independence Blue Cross.

Kony claims that its Write Once, Run Everywhere technology enables mobile deployment across more than 9,000 mobile smartphones, tablets, kiosks, and operating systems.

Intermountain Healthcare plans to create apps for clinical care, physicians, nurses, patients and health plan members using the platform.

“With Kony, we can easily support both mobile web and native apps. Kony also helps us future-proof our mobile strategy, so we don’t have to constantly worry about OS upgrades or new devices on the market,” Frederick Holston, CTO at Intermountain Healthcare stated in a press release.

Kony’s platform will help Intermountain develop both native applications and mobile web (HTML5 and non‐HTML5) across devices. The platform enables native support for seven operating systems: iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone 7, Java ME, Symbian, webOS.

More in the press release below:

PRESS RELEASE: ORLANDO — Kony Solutions, the leading mobile application platform provider, today announced that Intermountain Healthcare has selected Kony as its mobile application platform. Kony’s Write Once, Run Everywhere technology enables mobile deployment across more than 9,000 mobile smartphones/tablets/kiosks and operating systems, allowing Intermountain to offer its providers and patients brand‐consistent, robust mobile solutions, regardless of the device they use.

Intermountain is a Utah-based system of 22 nonprofit hospitals, 185 clinics, a medical group, a health plans division called SelectHealth, and other health services. Intermountain is widely recognized as a leader in clinical quality improvement and in efficient healthcare delivery. Intermountain’s innovative and forward-thinking use of information technology has earned the organization numerous honors, including a “Top 500 Innovator” award from InformationWeek and the 2011 Transformational Leadership Award from the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives and the American Hospital Association.

“Our staff is committed to finding innovative ways to provide services and access to the communities we serve,” says Frederick Holston, chief technology officer at Intermountain. “By using Kony’s platform to develop our mobile offerings, we can roll out apps more quickly, lower development costs, and more importantly, provide an exceptional user experience for our staff, our patients, and our members,”

Intermountain developers will soon begin training on the Kony Studio, a proprietary Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for the rapid development and deployment of mobile applications. Intermountain intends to develop apps for clinical care, physicians, nurses, patients and health plan members using Kony’s platform. “With Kony, we can easily support both mobile web and native apps. Kony also helps us future-proof our mobile strategy, so we don’t have to constantly worry about OS upgrades or new devices on the market,” said Holston.

“We’re pleased to work with Intermountain to help them deliver new mobile services to clients and a new generation of applications for their staff,” said Aaron Kaufman, general manager of Kony’s Healthcare and Life Sciences division. “Intermountain chose Kony because our platform gives them comprehensive device support and incredible ease-of-use. With our platform, Intermountain can stay ahead of the technology curve and focus on providing quality care.”

Kony’s KonyOne 4.0 is the only platform that enables a single application definition to deliver both native applications and mobile web (HTML5 and non‐HTML5) across phones, tablets, kiosks and desktops. Offering true native support for all seven operating systems (including iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone 7, Java ME, Symbian, webOS) along with simultaneous support for the mobile web, the KonyOne platform provides a secure, scalable and extensible mobile middleware runtime platform that can be seamlessly integrated with existing services.

About Kony Solutions

Kony enables companies to provide innovative mobile solutions on every mobile device. Leveraging the KonyOne 4.0 Platform, an application is defined just once, and deployed across more than 9,000 devices, 7 operating systems and multiple channels, including native, HTML5 and mobile web, hybrid, social media, SMS/MMS, kiosks, desktop and tablet applications. KonyOne provides a universal framework that ensures the best user experience by optimizing all native capabilities for each device operating system and browser. Given the market’s rapid rate of device and platform upgrades, Kony future proofs applications against OS and browser updates, providing SLAs guaranteeing timely support of the newest operating systems and devices. Leading brands have built business‐to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-employee (B2E) applications with KonyOne, including Hotwire, Huntington Bank, Hyatt, Toyota and Capital One.

In 2011 Kony was positioned as a “Visionary” in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Mobile Consumer Application Platforms (MCAP) report. Kony has been named a Gartner Cool Vendor, a “Most Innovative Company of the Year” by the American Business Awards and was chosen as one of Fast Company’s 100 innovative Apple‐affiliated achievers.

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Blackberry App Development

New BlackBerry developer tools, ad services for 'Super Apps'

Developing applications for BlackBerry smartphones is about to get easier and more enticing, for both consumer application developers and enterprise app makers.

Developing applications for BlackBerry smartphones is about to get easier and more enticing, for both consumer application developers and enterprise app makers.

The Canadian company behind the BlackBerry, Research In Motion (RIM), on Monday unveiled a new set of developer tools and monetization services should help existing BlackBerry developers more easily create "compelling" mobile applications, dubbed "Super Apps" by RIM, as well as inspire new mobile software developers to begin building for BlackBerry.

The new tools are meant to bring RIM up to speed with rivals like Apple and Google, who's iOS and Android platforms, respectively, are considered to be more "developer-friendly" than RIM's. As such, these are the mobile platforms seeing the most application-driven user-growth.

First off, RIM unveiled a newly rebranded version of its former BlackBerry Widgets Web-development platform, now called the BlackBerry WebWorks application platform, which is meant to extend the capabilities of the former software development kit (SDK) while "combining the richness of Java [app development] and the speed of BlackBerry Web app development," according to Alan Brenner, RIM's SVP of the BlackBerry platform.

BlackBerry WebWorks allows developers to create mobile apps for BlackBerry entirely using HTML-5, CSS and JavaScript. And RIM will "open-source" WebWorks, meaning the company will make all relevant code and documentation available to developers online. RIM is also working with a number of open source JavaScript framework companies including DoJo, GitHub, JQuery, Nitobi and Sencha to help developers create web applications with advanced web and AJAX functionality, according to the company.

WebWorks for BlackBerry OS 5.0 and BlackBerry 6, RIM's latest OS, which is available only on the BlackBerry Torch 9800, should be ready for download today from RIM's website.

Secondly, RIM showed off a new business-oriented tool for enterprise BlackBerry app developers, called BlackBerry Enterprise Application Middleware (BEAM). The BEAM tools are designed to simplify business-application development and make it easier for enterprises to distribute their apps to global employees.

Brenner says BEAM can integrate with other enterprise-app development platforms, including Oracle Fusion, SAP/Sybase's mobility platform, IBM's WebSphere and others. And BEAM does much of the heavy lifting for enterprise BlackBerry app developers thanks to a new library of APIs, Brenner says.

RIM customers including ING DIRECT, Oracle, and SAP all touted the BlackBerry platform during RIM's BlackBerry Developer Conference day-one keynote in San Francisco and detailed their future plans for BEAM.

Next, a new BlackBerry Advertising Service makes adding advertisements to BlackBerry apps as easy as inserting "just a few lines of code." RIM's partnered with a variety of mobile ad networks, as well, to help ensure that plenty of relevant ads are available to developers, who can choose which specific ads they want to appear in their apps. RIM's ad partners include Amobee, Jumptap, Lat49, Millennial Media and Mojiva.

RIM also detailed a new, free mobile analytics service, called BlackBerry Analytics Service, which it announced along with Web Trends, a Web metrics firm, to give commercial BlackBerry developers greater insight into who's using their applications, when, how and for what specific purposes.

Finally, the BlackBerry-maker announced a new Eclipse development plug-in for Mac OS X, which will enable Mac users to develop applications for BlackBerry. Few details on the new plug-in are available, but it will reportedly have all the features available to BlackBerry Eclipse developers who use PCs. And the Mac OS X tool should be available today as a beta release, with an official version available before the end of 2010, according to RIM.

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Blackberry App Development