Secrets to App World SuccessMay 10
A month or so ago I wrote this article. My hope is to encourage other developers to be as successful as they can if they can learn anything from my experiences this year:
Link to articleI'm presenting these ideas at the KWBBDev group meeting today.
BB 10 Jam, etc.April 15
I was excited this week to get an email from RIM offering to fly me down to Orlando and put me up at the Hilton to attend BB 10 Jam. I'm also excited to be getting the BB 10 Alpha device to start developing BB 10 apps. Obviously my top priority will be getting iTunes Sync up and running, but I don't expect it will take much work. From what I understand, the alpha device screens will be the same resolution and pixel density as final devices, and will have the same ports, just not in the same places as final devices, etc. Of critical importance is the screen, especially for development. Knowing that it will have the same screen characteristics as final devices is great!
I submitted iTunes Sync to the
App Circus competition. There are 3 prizes each worth $25,000, and only 9 competitors so far -- even if there are 50 apps by the time of the conference, that's a pretty small pool of competition for such large prizes! Given that iTunes Sync has been the top purchased app of the apps so far in the competition, who knows?!
Yesterday I finally enhanced iTunes Sync to create your iTunes playlists on your PlayBook. The feature is currently implemented for Windows/PlayBook, so if you have a Mac and/or are using the phone version, the feature has yet to be added. Hopefully App World will approve this update soon, I'm sure lots of people will be happy to get it! That's one of the neat things of having about 25,000 customers: You can spend a few hours coding on a Saturday and a whole lot of people can see, download, and appreciate your efforts.
A couple of weeks ago RIM released my
success story, which is great. I enjoy getting the word out about what a great opportunity App World development is.
This week I attended my first mobile event, called "MoBeers" here in Waterloo. It was wonderful to meet people face to face and chat, such as RIM's Alex Kinsella. He strikes me as being a great person for his role. I also saw Alec Saunders there but didn't meet him. Also nice to catch up with a couple of former Navtech employees. As a person who works from home, it's energizing to be able to chat with people in person! All the more looking forward to my time in Orlando, which is coming up fast!
Also of recent was meeting Mike Kirkup, former RIM developer relations person (at Navtech hockey of all places), and Wes Worsfold, president at Motek, and leader of the KW BB Dev group. I'm planning on giving a talk on May 10th to the KW BB Dev group of my experiences.
PlayBook Feb 2012February 20
Here we are on the eve of the launch of PlayBook OS 2.0, can't wait to try it out!
Something that has struck me recently is that whereas several months ago it seemed no one had a PlayBook, now it seems everyone and their dog has a PlayBook, especially in the Waterloo area where I expect a lot of people were able to take advantage of the $99 deal that RIM employees were offered for a few days, as well as the wider $199 offer. Many of my friends and family, perhaps the majority, have one. What a switch!
Sales of iTunes Sync are still fantastic, although they are unsurprisingly much lower than they were the week of Christmas.
I am curious to see when more details of BB 10 will start to emerge, and whether RIM will get devices of some kind into the hands of developers. I am definitely getting more excited about BB 10 for some reason, and about the QNX platform in general. Part of that is that, on the development side, the platform already supports so many languages and tools. It seems like QNX is not only leading the other platforms but way ahead in that sense. Pretty impressive.
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