RIM Actively Courts Blackberry App Developers At DevCon
It wasn’t so long ago that our own Mariella Moon brought you the story that Blackberry App World app developers make more money, on average, than app developers for either iOS or Android. At last report, and underscored by some facts put out at RIM’s DevCon event today, fully 13 percent of all App World developers clear six figures on their work, which is a pretty good chance indeed that putting up a good quality app can make you some good money indeed. But that’s not where the story stops, oh no, as RIM’s DevCon made it clear they want everyone in who can get in on making apps for Blackberry App World.

Not only did RIM put up a series of “myths” (which they promptly “busted”, someone call Adam and Jamie, quick!), they also supplied some “fiction” which they promptly clarified with “fact”. One such fiction replaced with fact was the idea that Blackberry users didn’t actually use apps, a fiction quickly put to rights by RIM’s revelation that there were, on average, between four million and five million apps downloaded every day. And of course, RIM also cleared up misconceptions that the Blackberry market was shrinking, and that it was too hard to write apps for Blackberry’s operating system.
And then, to add spice to the proceedings, RIM also pulled out a series of new app-geared tools designed to get more players in the App World, including a new way to add advertising support to apps, a new mobile payment system, and the Scoreloop social gaming service are all set to come out for the recently added Blackberry Jam Market. Plus, RIM has made it even easier to become a Blackberry app developer, no longer requiring you to pre-register, but rather, now you can wait until you have an app ready to go. And just to top things off, they’ve even got some co-marketing initiatives in mind to help people get some face time with the app you’ve developed.
What’s clear here, around all these new and interesting points, is that Blackberry wants apps. This makes perfect sense; the only way Blackberry can remain a player is if it has an app store every bit as good as–or even better than–its major league competitors.
But what do you guys think? Does the Blackberry App World have the goods to take on the App Store and the Android Marketplace? Or is Blackberry only spinning its wheels ahead of disaster? Either way, we want to hear from you, so hit the comments section and tell us what you think!
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