Worldwide sales for 2010

[purbeast0]

oh ok gotcha, thanks.

 

[DivideBYZero]

Not that I want to get into this... but I will now. Doesn't this kind of go against your point? Since the built in google maps app is pretty lacking (it very much is) it's a very good thing that we have so many different alternatives. I agree that too many alternatives without much quality control can be a bad thing, but that's what the reviews are for. I'd much rather have too many apps to choose from and have to scroll a little further to find the best one, rather than be stuck with 3 choices that may all suck.

Not really, there are way more than three apps under each category on BB, especially for navigation. That number is pure BS.

But don't take my word for it, take a look for yourself.

http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/

 

[DivideBYZero]

I'm entitled to what I think, just as you think BB OS6 is just as good. You throw the fanboy flag out like candy when you yourself are the most biased of em.

I have admitted BB does some things better in other threads, I have never seen you do the same for other platforms. Owning other devices means jackshit if you don't like them.

Orly?

Praising iPhone
http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=30482647&postcount=7


Me bashing BBs:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=30351566&postcount=109

Praising iPhone:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=29710570&postcount=50

Recommending Andoid apps:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=30520824&postcount=4

App Inventor, G1 advice and WiFi Hotspot again:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=30485135&postcount=12

Professing desire for a Playstation Android phone and an X10 mini:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=30323859&postcount=17

 

[akugami]

OK, but then consider that BB6 was last October and 6.1 is just around the corner with a large slew of improvements, so you need to look forward, not backward.

Again, with apps I have to disagree. I have 50+ apps on my device, an number that is made up of GPS fitness apps, games (OpenGL, too), utilities, OS hacks, mapping and navigation, novelty, etc. I use many of these on a daily basis. The apps are not business centric in the main, except for WorldMate, but I travel the world on business and therfore that is pretty awesome; it even captures the emails from my travel booking service and updates the app with my full itinerary.

I pretty much have every base covered. The sheer total number of apps is, IMHO, worthless. I've discussed it before, but having 200,000 apps is useless if you only really use seven of them on a regular basis. This was borne out recently with the top ten apps for iOS listed recently, with the usual suspects like Facebook and Angry Birds topping the charts. OK, so no angry birds on BlackBerry...or IS THERE!

I'd say common tasks will have apps for them, like viewing office files, navigation, etc. However, with a wider choice (as noted by gsaldivar notes), iOS and Android are more likely to have an app that fits your style of usage. So BB may have 3 apps that read/edit MS Office files, iOS and Android may have 10. You may find that all 3 apps on BB just doesn't feel right to you but you are more likely to find one on iOS or Android. That's because no two persons work the same way and even though I might be working in Excel, the tasks I need to perform are different from what another person is doing. Not only that but the increased competition means that you must work harder to differentiate your app to pull sales in. That's one case where a wider selection of apps is a positive.

The other is niche apps. Being a bilingual person, I have a need for an English/Chinese dictionary among other tools. There are a couple of niche apps that I use on iOS that I haven't seen on Android and definitely know I won't find on BB.

I can understand how having 200k apps is pointless if you only use a handful, but what non iOS users don't understand is that those handful of apps SUCK.

I think the apps on other platforms do the job, but the alternative app on iOS is several times better.

No. That's not always the case. The official Office app for WP7 looks a hell of a lot better than anything I've seen on iOS and Android. A larger selection of apps makes it more likely you'll find a quality app but it doesn't guarantee it. And as noted in this thread, from a features standpoint, Google Maps on Android is heads and tails better than the iOS version.

 

[DivideBYZero]

I'd say common tasks will have apps for them, like viewing office files, navigation, etc. However, with a wider choice (as noted by gsaldivar notes), iOS and Android are more likely to have an app that fits your style of usage. So BB may have 3 apps that read/edit MS Office files, iOS and Android may have 10. You may find that all 3 apps on BB just doesn't feel right to you but you are more likely to find one on iOS or Android. That's because no two persons work the same way and even though I might be working in Excel, the tasks I need to perform are different from what another person is doing. Not only that but the increased competition means that you must work harder to differentiate your app to pull sales in. That's one case where a wider selection of apps is a positive.

The other is niche apps. Being a bilingual person, I have a need for an English/Chinese dictionary among other tools. There are a couple of niche apps that I use on iOS that I haven't seen on Android and definitely know I won't find on BB.



No. That's not always the case. The official Office app for WP7 looks a hell of a lot better than anything I've seen on iOS and Android. A larger selection of apps makes it more likely you'll find a quality app but it doesn't guarantee it. And as noted in this thread, from a features standpoint, Google Maps on Android is heads and tails better than the iOS version.

Right, let's put this to bed first; Gladsivar said THREE APPS. This is NOT THE CASE.

Right, that out of the way, I did a quick search on App World for Chinese<>English apps:

1) Collins Mandarin Chinese Dictionary
2) Learn Mandarin Chinese Vocab
3) i-Phrase Chinese
4) HNHSoft Talking Chinese Lesson 1
5) HNHSoft Talking Chinese Lesson 2
6) HNHSoft Talking Chinese Lesson 3
7) HNHSoft Talking Chinese Lesson 4
8) HNHSoft Talking Chinese Lesson 5
9) HNHSoft Talking Chinese Lesson 6
10) HNHSoft English Chinese Talking Dictionary
11) Learn Cantonese Chinese Vocab
12) Franklin English-Chinese Visual Dictionary

So, Twelve apps for your niche, and this is on a Storm 2 that doesn't get access to all apps, and by the likes of Franklin and Collins. Again, the idea that the BlackBerry app eco system is poor is a perception, not a reality.

EDIT: OK, so I did a search via the webstore and there are 349 Chinese apps.

See for yourself:
http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/search/chinese?lang=en

 

[MrX8503]

Orly?

I don't see how that says phone A does so and so better than phone B. I'm willing to admit that Android does multitasking better, BB does email better, etc.

 

[DivideBYZero]

I don't see how that says phone A does so and so better than phone B. I'm willing to admit that Android does multitasking better, BB does email better, etc.

*sigh* :\

 

[akugami]

Right, let's put this to bed first; Gladsivar said THREE APPS. This is NOT THE CASE.

I'm quite sure it's not really 3 apps but it was just an example of the wider number of apps, which as I've said, means that you're more likely to hit an app that suits you. Not everyone works the same way even if they're doing the same task. And then there are different needs of different users.

Right, that out of the way, I did a quick search on App World for Chinese<>English apps:

1) Collins Mandarin Chinese Dictionary
2) Learn Mandarin Chinese Vocab
3) i-Phrase Chinese
4) HNHSoft Talking Chinese Lesson 1
5) HNHSoft Talking Chinese Lesson 2
6) HNHSoft Talking Chinese Lesson 3
7) HNHSoft Talking Chinese Lesson 4
8) HNHSoft Talking Chinese Lesson 5
9) HNHSoft Talking Chinese Lesson 6
10) HNHSoft English Chinese Talking Dictionary
11) Learn Cantonese Chinese Vocab
12) Franklin English-Chinese Visual Dictionary

So, Twelve apps for your niche, and this is on a Storm 2 that doesn't get access to all apps, and by the likes of Franklin and Collins. Again, the idea that the BlackBerry app eco system is poor is a perception, not a reality.

EDIT: OK, so I did a search via the webstore and there are 349 Chinese apps.

See for yourself:
http://appworld.blackberry.com/webst...hinese?lang=en

Eh...those apps listed are quite standard even if learning Chinese is a niche area. Believe it or not learning Chinese is quite big in the business world now. It used to be that learning Spanish was almost a given if you were going into business since it was the second most spoken language. Now since so many companies are doing business in China or Taiwan, Chinese is actually a language many learn.

But what I'm talking about is tools that go beyond teaching you how to speak Chinese which is actually quite common. We have stuff like Pleco dictionary which has a visual translator. You take a snapshot of some Chinese text and it'll attempt to apply some OCR to it and then translate it. The problem for me is my written Chinese sucks. Pleco can use the camera to translate recognize and translate words. This is immensely helpful in quickly translating a word and being able to hear how it's pronounced. Also a tool I find invaluable is the Chinese Input Code Dictionary which will show not just how to pronounce a word but how to type it in various Chinese keyboard input methods. For those fluent in Chinese typing there is Dragon Notes which has additional Chinese input methods. Standard iPhone input being pinyin or using your finger to write the characters. Also Qingwen is a fantastic dictionary in that it has both Cantonese and Mandarin pronunciations for Chinese words. Almost all dictionaries support only Mandarin pronunciations. These are what I mean by niche apps not available on other app stores.

Like the QR codes included in the BB pages. iTunes and other app stores should include them. The apps starting from 200+ were mostly false positives since Italian, Spanish, Russian dictionaries (among some other apps) have nothing to do with Chinese. The majority of the apps were relatively common being of the "learn Chinese" variety or standard dictionaries.

 

[DivideBYZero]

OK, I'm bored with you making up new reasons why it sucks.

 

[akugami]

OK, I'm bored with you making up new reasons why it sucks.

First, I didn't say BB 6 sucks. That is not what I said at all. If that's what you think I said, then you're wrong. Nowhere did I say the new BB OS 6 sucks. Nowhere did I say the new BB phones suck.

What I did say was that the changes of BB's newest OS only brings it up to parity with Android and iOS, outside of RIM's traditional strengths. Looking at the new smart phones from a physical perspective, they're almost the same as the older BB phones. No major improvements at all on that front.

My opinion, and what I did say, was that while RIM has improved on their smart phone offerings it hasn't done enough to differentiate it's products to really attract many new customers. This is drastically different from me saying BB OS 6 sucks. So while there is nothing wrong with BB's OS 6, and impressions are it's a huge improvement, what does it do that will pull in those already bombarded by Android and iPhone news?

So my question is aside from interfacing with RIM's BES software, what does BB's offer that different it enough to make someone choose it over Android or iOS? My answer, not much. Your argument was that BB's new offerings are substantial and enough to pull in more users. It becomes your burden then to bring up points about why it's better. You have to support your views in any debate after all. And to be very honest about it, what you've posted has not made me any more interested in moving to BB. I did come in with an open mind. I even admitted when my experience was lacking and that I was looking at BB's OS 6 from reviews and youtube video demonstrations. But again, it's not a bad OS. It just doesn't have enough improvements to make me move to a BB phone.

The niche apps I listed for iOS are highly unlikely to be used by most people but it's one example, along with wider app choices for common tasks, where Apple's immensely larger app store makes an iPhone a good choice for consumers. As for Android, it's great due to the larger hardware choice which can really produce some innovative and forward thinking products like Motorola's Atrix.

 

[s44]

I just want to know why Dropbox for BB sucks so much.

 

[mammador]

Why are the stats usually on an OS basis? What about per handset, or per firm?

 

[gsaldivar]

Why are the stats usually on an OS basis? What about per handset, or per firm?

There are stats for those too, but the OS based ones seem to be most frequently cited as a gauge of platform performance (with the exception of single-handset makers such as Apple).