Research in Motion is sharing some good news focusing on developer and app adoption for the PlayBook as well as for current generation smartphones. RIM's been getting a lot of heat lately due to continuing losses and its struggle to compete with current smartphones and services. We'd like to give them a bit of credit for being able to generate some excitement from the developer community and bring more apps to their platform while preparing their next generation devices. Hit jump to read more.
We’re excited to share with you stats demonstrating the BlackBerry platform’s successes in Q4 related to its BlackBerry applications and developer ecosystem. We think you’ll find this information helpful as you continue to report on RIM’s growing ecosystem.
There has been a clear commitment from BlackBerry to developers, with tools focused on usability and ease of development; increased involvement and contribution to open source; reinvigorated community event involvement over the last six months; new energy and leadership in Alec Saunders and Martyn Mallick; as well as the unprecedented seeding of a non-commercial testing device – the BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha device – at BlackBerry 10 Jam in Orlando this May.
BlackBerry App Milestones – Q4
· 21% increase in BlackBerry smartphone apps
· 89% increase in BBM connected apps
· 240% increase in PlayBook apps submitted to App World
BlackBerry Developer Milestones – Q4
· 68% increase in vendors registered on App World
· 42% increase in apps submitted to App World by developers
· 137% increase in PlayBook apps approved for sale
· Built porting guides to allow WebOS and jQuery apps to be ported to PlayBook
· Announced port of Qt to allow Nokia developers to target PlayBook and soon, BlackBerry 10
· Launched BlackBerry Native SDK 2.0 for the BlackBerry PlayBook
· Prior to PlayBook OS 2.0 launch, incented 10,000 new developers to register as BlackBerry developers, with offer of a PlayBook in exchange for an app. Over 7,000 new apps submitted
· Since its launch 10 weeks ago, the BlackBerry Developer Success Story page has added more than 20 stories with more to come soon
BlackBerry Apps –By the Numbers
· More than 70,000 apps in App World
· More than 15,000 PlayBook apps
· More than 2 billion total apps downloaded
· 177 million apps downloaded per month