Marty Mallick, BlackBerry’s vice president of global alliances speaks with eWEEK and explains why key apps are missing from BlackBerry 10, what they are doing to continue to close that app gap and for those apps that are not on the platform just yet he strongly states “Our doors are wide open”, encouraging those to jump on BlackBerry 10.
First off, BlackBerry has definitely stepped up their “app game” when it came to BlackBerry 10 bringing apps like MLB, video streaming PlayON, Crackle and many different games from a variety of big name vendors including EA.
Yes, big name apps like Instagram and Netflix are huge gaps that BlackBerry needs to find a way to fill, fast. How does Marty Mallick and BlackBerry plan to do this? What plans are put in place?
Mallick pointed out that the omissions in BlackBerry World tend to overshadow what the store does include. In games, for example, yes, Candy Crush Saga, a huge game, is missing, said Mallick. But while six months ago “all kinds other games were missing,” they’re now in place.
“Disney now has a lot of their key titles on BlackBerry 10. EA has a wealth of games. So do Gameloft and Saga. Unity just brought their entire platform over to BlackBerry 10, allowing tens of thousands of game developers to very quickly support the platform. So my challenge is kind of how to change the perception out there,” said Mallick.
While Mallick does acknowledge the big name apps are not on BlackBerry 10 devices yet he does mention BlackBerry does have a relationship with each and everyone of them (Instagram, Netlfix, etc..) and has presented each with a package expressing “the opportunity for them and the support BlackBerry will provide to them” if they bring their app to BlackBerry 10. Most of it has to do with their timeline, does BlackBerry help in funding these apps? Is it worth developing for? How? Why? What tools does BlackBerry provide to make their development team work in a more sufficient way?
“We just really have a lot of cool stuff on the platform. We’re very grateful, and we work really well with those partners that have come to the platform so far, and they’re seeing the success of being on BlackBerry 10,” said Mallick. “And to the partners who aren’t there yet, our doors are wide open. … We’re willing to do what it takes … to make sure we have a very healthy and successful system.
For more on the interview visit eWEEK.