All Things Digital - Latest Comments

Re: Galaxy S3, iPhone Users Not So Different After All

mhikl — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 19:03:35 -0000

"However, maybe the context is different" - yup, that's it Kevin. Most Apple guys just don't care and most Android users feel cheated by all the press Apple gets and go on rants. Envy is a dirty state of being.

Re: Don’t Believe Everything You Read on Twitter: Verizon Is So Getting HTC One

john — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 06:10:20 -0000

In the meantime vzw will be losing customers, because whoever is interested on this phone would be going with another carrier like me!

Re: Microsoft Launches Tool to Make it Easy to See its Patents

han_dle — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 18:47:20 -0000

Doesn't need to be. Samsung just has an obsession with Apple.

Re: Microsoft Launches Tool to Make it Easy to See its Patents

arrow2010 — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 18:19:35 -0000

Microsoft isn't worried.

Re: Microsoft Launches Tool to Make it Easy to See its Patents

han_dle — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 17:19:54 -0000

What, and give Samsung an online catalog from which they can just pick and choose what to copy?

Re: Microsoft Launches Tool to Make it Easy to See its Patents

arrow2010 — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 16:58:01 -0000

LOL - never. Apple has everything to hide and nothing to gain by this.

Re: Microsoft Launches Tool to Make it Easy to See its Patents

iMaciNTech.com — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 16:50:19 -0000

now it's Apple's turn...

Re: One in Five BlackBerry 10 Apps Is Really an Android App

$30853190 — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 18:16:57 -0000

If apps don't sell devices then why is there always such a huge focus on how many apps BlackBerry has and whether or not they are ported? I would think that right now is the best time to get an app onto BlackBerry World because your odds of being downloaded are much higher than when there are hundreds of thousands of them, in fact I read a few months ago that there are over 100K apps on the app store that have never been downloaded. I use a Z10 and a couple of my apps are android and other than visual differences they work perfectly.

Re: One in Five BlackBerry 10 Apps Is Really an Android App

nick canada — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 17:54:52 -0000

Maybe you should try the phone

Re: One in Five BlackBerry 10 Apps Is Really an Android App

Iam — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 17:47:08 -0000

Only by breaking apps into categories would games be a "larger" amount.
All the games do not outnumber all the apps. (maybe on iOS only?)

Yes, VM. Emulator was a bad choice of wording.

Re: One in Five BlackBerry 10 Apps Is Really an Android App

Iam — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 17:43:24 -0000

I think most would agree that not coming from BB's mouth means it's a hundred times more likely to be true.

Re: One in Five BlackBerry 10 Apps Is Really an Android App

JohnDoey — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 17:27:01 -0000

But that “70% of the smartphone market” saw has no correlation to app sales or developer support. Most Android users never install an app. Android apps don't sell devices.

Re: One in Five BlackBerry 10 Apps Is Really an Android App

JohnDoey — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 17:17:36 -0000

It is hard to commit to a device from an unprofitable phone maker because no unprofitable phone maker has ever returned to profitability. If Blackberry is ever profitable again, that will mark the moment that the bulk of developers can consider investing in their new platform.

Re: One in Five BlackBerry 10 Apps Is Really an Android App

JohnDoey — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 17:14:57 -0000

That is not news. News would be if they were selling really well.

Re: One in Five BlackBerry 10 Apps Is Really an Android App

JohnDoey — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 17:14:14 -0000

A native Blackberry app is written in C, like apps for iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac, Windows, Xbox, Wii, PlayStation, and Linux. Android apps are Java. Rewriting an app in another language is a giant undertaking. iPhone developers can port their C code to BlackBerry in much less time than rewriting in Java for Android. The most desirable mobile apps are on iPhone — native Z10 apps are a play for those. Android compatibility is something BlackBerry could add immediately because Java runs in a virtual machine. Over time, the more-powerful C apps will win out if BlackBerry gets enough users to attract developers.

Z10 does not have to compete with “Android” — it has to compete with iPhone and Galaxy only. Most non-Galaxy Android users do not run any apps at all.

BlackBerry has run Java for almost 10 years. Android apps are a continuation of that, while C apps are ported. Java is the past, C apps are real PC apps and are the present and future of mobile.

Re: One in Five BlackBerry 10 Apps Is Really an Android App

JohnDoey — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 17:02:01 -0000

We assumed they were all native. The news here is that some are not.

Re: One in Five BlackBerry 10 Apps Is Really an Android App

JohnDoey — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 17:00:54 -0000

You need a few great apps in every single category. Not just phone categories like weather apps, but PC categories like video editors. The reason is that iPhone runs PC class apps for 4–5 years now. The days when a weather app would draw in a user are long over. Many people with iPhones have been editing broadcast quality news reports on their iPhone for a couple of generations of iPhone and are spoiled for any other mobile.

The test for Z10 is not “can it get 10,000 or 100,000 baby apps?” it is “can it get real PC class apps so that it can compete with iPhone for the most engaged and profitable users?”

The appeal of iPhone is that even though it is a $500 phone, it replaces a $500 PC and a $200 iPod. It pays for itself very easily. If Blackberry Z10 is a $500 phone that replaces a $100 Android phone, that is a tougher sell. 2010’s mobile is about replacing a PC.

Re: One in Five BlackBerry 10 Apps Is Really an Android App

JohnDoey — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 16:46:36 -0000

Most Android phones are feature phones, not nearly as powerful as a Z10. A Samsung Galaxy S3 is not representative of Android. Think of a free feature phone with no Google services on it at all and no way to add them — that is 60% of Android.

Re: One in Five BlackBerry 10 Apps Is Really an Android App

Jessie Markus — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 15:15:56 -0000

True multitasking, buttery smooth QNX OS, kickass virtual keyboard. not the same old same old.

Re: One in Five BlackBerry 10 Apps Is Really an Android App

Richard Torcato — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 15:00:42 -0000

If you can't beat it, assimilate it.

Re: One in Five BlackBerry 10 Apps Is Really an Android App

nick canada — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 12:40:16 -0000

Yes it is. But the problem with android is they build apps to work on the average android device. It's in the os, having 8 cores won't run an app better unless it built to work with 8 cores. That would reduce compatibility.

Re: One in Five BlackBerry 10 Apps Is Really an Android App

Rishi O. — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 12:23:04 -0000

Why do they have to be so negative. Couldn't they just title this, "4 out of 5 blackberry apps are really native."

Re: One in Five BlackBerry 10 Apps Is Really an Android App

Besrick Morgan — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 11:45:37 -0000

u do know that 20% of 100,000 is 20,000 which a large amount. I do believe 80% is still bigger than 20% anyway you take.

Re: One in Five BlackBerry 10 Apps Is Really an Android App

Iam — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 11:36:30 -0000

BB said "about 20%" and those are run in Android environment (Most would say it's 40% or even higher.)

The amount that are "ported" from Android (which is different than run in emulation/Android) may be around 20%

So that's actually quite a lot of Android apps in total.

And just so you know. BB has made it stupidly easy to convert Android apps to run in emulation on BB.
Once your account is setup it takes about 10 minutes to convert the app. So
to say that it shows support from developers is Very misleading. Most of
them are only willing to put in this 10 min. Which shows how little
support they have.

Re: One in Five BlackBerry 10 Apps Is Really an Android App

lipper2000 — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 11:21:58 -0000

The number of android apps is much much higher than what he claims...the devil in in the details in his wording