Is There Any Hope for BlackBerry10 Support?

joelghill · March 2013

I've recently switched over to the new Z10 BlackBerry handset. I love the phone and it would be fantastic to be able to develop for it and get in on the BlackBerry World app store! Is there any hope for Gideros being able to one day compile into Cascades?

ar2rsawseen · March 2013

Well, if they support native development in C++/OpenGLES then there might be a hope (but I don't say that there is right now )

john26 · March 2013

Certainly BlackBerry supports C++/OpenGLES. So the conversion should be straightforward -- and actually much easier than introducing WP8 (which does not support OpenGL). However, Gideros have stated that they have no plans to support BlackBerry.

ar2rsawseen · March 2013

As I remember the decision for WP8 was made due to majority of requests and market evaluation.
I just wonder if anything has changed, how do you guys evaluate both markets?

Yes of course it would be nice to have another market, etc. But I assume adding new platform is probably most time consuming thing in Gideros development. And there are too many must have features missing yet, before fully concentrating on spreading cross other platforms.

gorkem · March 2013

I showed Atilim some market numbers (e.g sales from Nokia and HTC). WP8 sales are disappointing. In many countries, Windows Phone penetration is below 1%, and this is not very different in Blackberry case. As Arturs says, it's really very time consuming to add another platform, and instead focusing on Android / iOS could be much more strategic.

joelghill · March 2013

As long as you are open to the idea of supporting the platform if the numbers are there. I'd keep an eye on the platform, it may have a low market share now but they appear to be picking up traction.

keszegh · March 2013

i'm not too interested in other platforms, except win desktop, which i would be very happy with. yet i think there is some wp8 offer that a developer gets 100 usd for each app uploaded. if wp8 support for gideros arrives it will be an easy way to get some little money out of it quickly (if it arrives before the offer ends).
but i vote to drop wp8 in favor of win8.

john26 · March 2013

One thing about BlackBerry is users are very loyal to the platform. In fact sometimes they can be a bit *too* enthusiastic: ;-)

http://crackberry.com/talking-first-t-mobile-z10-owner-im-going-make-love

unlying · March 2013

wp8 offer that a developer gets 100 usd for each app uploaded.
@keszegh
It is only for US citizens. Blackberry had same but for all. I earn 2100$ on that.

keszegh · March 2013

@unlying, hmm, then we want blackberry rather: )
also, again i never checked, but i remember that somehow to blackberry one can recompile most android apps? cannot be this done to apps made by gideros? for some reason i also remember that we can't (as it is not in java but plain c or whatever other reason i don't remember), but it makes me wonder that it cannot be that hard to add blackberry support.

gianmichele · March 2013

WP8 probably would make more sense cause part of the work could be used for desktop as well. It's a balance at the end though I have to say from a coder pov probably a desktop (mac/win/linux) first would have made more logical.

Nascode · March 2013

Looks like WP8 gaining traction in India, anyone could confirm this? http://wmpoweruser.com/microsoft-windows-phone-is-now-no-2-mobile-os-in-india/

moopf · March 2013

Colour me surprised about WP8, it was always going to be a difficult sell. There was lots of talk on the forum about getting in there quickly, giving the developers an advantage. Well that's been and gone, didn't happen and the numbers aren't there to make it worthwhile now. As for Blackberry, I really wouldn't put any time into that at the moment. The phrase 'one swallow doesn't make a summer' springs to mind - meaning that one phone isn't going to save them. Blackberry offered the incentive because they were desperate and if what @unlying says is true that just shows how desperate they were, flinging that sort of money around.

As far as I'm concerned if you're going to do different platforms, do desktop first - the numbers are there, you already have desktop players - I mean, surely a lot of the work is already done. And expanding support for different Android platforms should also be a priority, e.g. Amazon's in-app purchasing etc.

But heh, what do I know.

john26 · March 2013

It's been and gone for WP8 but BB10 was just released this week in the US (it's been out in the UK for about a month). As I keep mentioning BB10 is a vanilla C++/OpenGL platform. I suspect the Gideros devs could convert within 24 hours if they wanted to. If you look at crackberry.com you can see a bunch of rabidly dedicated fans. Games from small devs get front and centre billing every day on this website. BB users are famous for being willing to pay for apps (unlike Android users!)

Just my £0.02!

joelghill · March 2013

"Games from small devs get front and centre billing every day on this website. BB users are famous for being willing to pay for apps (unlike Android users!)"

I keep looking at BlackBerry World and can't help but think that it's a great opportunity for indie devs.

keszegh · March 2013

would somebody make a poll on some poll site about what platform to support next?
i mean a list like
wp8
blackberry
win
mac
linux
c64

i would vote for win and i have the impression that many on this topic

atilim · March 2013

And about BB, a couple of days ago I read this blog post: http://techblog.orangepixel.net/2013/03/statistics-and-shit/

here are some statistics about his paid game:
iOS: 4532
Android: 5035
BB: 244 (even the game is featured on BB App world’s frontpage)

Nascode · March 2013

Oh and there are many engines supporting wp8 now http://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2013/03/27/microsoft-taps-unity-marmalade-and-havok-to-help-developers-port-android-and-ios-games-to-windows-phone/

looks like Microsoft wants to grow their ecosystem faster this year

thanhquan1512 · March 2013

My 1 vote for wp8 since Microsoft and Nokia organize many contests out there

zvardin · March 2013

I imagine there must be a push from MS since they seem to be pushing for cross-platform between all their platforms, so we may start seeing a lot more releases across them like http://skullsoftheshogun.com/

Scouser · March 2013

Interestingly, I have just read that Blackberry has shipped 1 million Z10 phones in only 3 weeks (last 3 weeks of the quater) whereas it appears that Microsoft only sold 2.7 million for a whole quater.

If these figures are even close to being true and sales continue at the same rate then BB10 may well be a much bigger platform than WP8. I know it's too soon to start speculating but this may be a battle worth keeping an eye on.

OZApps · March 2013

While I was down to India, it was an interesting observation about the usage of smart phones.

In the metros I saw a very high penetration of iPhones, mostly 4/4S and 5, though some one also made me an offer to buy my old 3 (not 3S) as it was an iPhone but were aware that it cannot be upgraded.

While I was surprised to see a lot of people with big Samsung Galaxies stuck to their ears or headphones permanently stuck to their ears from their galaxies. Android penetrations is very high.

At one instance I was very surprised while I was sitting at a bank, where someone came up asking for a credit card and the reason... GASP!!... he had purchased a new iPhone and wanted a credit card to be able to buy app from the app store.

Since there are no iTunes cards as yet in India, the only way to buy any is using a credit card. Apple charges the same all over the world and I was also surprised that people buy the expensive iPhones and spend the same amount of money as any in the western countries. However there are very few takers for apps, most of the apps downloaded or purchased are those that are free. The word of mouth is another big motivator since many do not have data plans and do not download apps unless told by friends or family.

This might not have anything to do with the Blackberry Z10, I was sharing my experience on these markets and my feelings on the potential and future of these markets. Androids are growing in numbers as the costs of these are affordable and usable by the masses. So India, Brasil, China would be the markets to look out for with the numbers they have to offer.

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