Should you develop for the BlackBerry 10?

The Blackberry z10. Photo: Enrique Dans

The BlackBerry 10 was recently launched with over 70,000 apps in the BlackBerry World storefront, a number that BlackBerry is claiming means BlackBerry 10 has more apps than any other smartphone platform on its debut.

Whenever a new platform has been launched, developers and companies have to make a decision about whether to develop for the platform.

Three key questions need to be answered:

1. Is the BlackBerry 10 platform (and the phones running it) going to gain significant market share?
2. What is the cost for developing for the BlackBerry 10 platform?
3. Are folks going to download or even pay for my app?

Key points:
1. Native SDK, HTML 5, Adobe Air and Java are among many options to build an app for BlackBerry 10.
2. 10k Developer Commitment — a program that pays you as long as your app earns a minimum of USD 1,000 (app submission deadline: 18th February 2013)
3. Application Development Consultants are available for help.
4. Integration with BlackBerry Messenger can help your app with downloads.

It’s still too early to tell whether BlackBerry 10 will gain significant market share. The stock price for BlackBerry (formerly Research In Motion) has slid since the announcement. Our friends at e27 together with Meltwater have also taken a look at the sentiments and the discussions generated around BlackBerry 10.

Making it easy to be on the BlackBerry 10

Looking at the front pages of the developer sites for iOS, Microsoft Windows 8, Android and BlackBerry 10, it reveals a certain awareness from BlackBerry about their position against the other main platforms like iOS, Android and Windows. BlackBerry is the only one that seems to place equal focus on other development environments like HTML 5, Adobe Air and Java besides the native SDK. This seemingly agnostic view with regards to development environments is further emphasized by the series of Port-a-thons that were held (40,000 apps were submitted after five Port-A-Thons).

Application Development Consultants like Justin Lee have been actively helping companies and developers get their apps onto the BlackBerry 10. To get help, companies and developers can contact their region’s Application Development Consultants or Developer Evangelists. The Developer Relations page with the relevant contacts is here.

SGE managed to talk to some developers about their experience developing for the BlackBerry 10.

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