Posted on July 15, 2009, at 12:52 PM .
A recent article in the WSJ points to success factors for developers with software in Apple’s App Store which could serve as great tips for BlackBerry developers in App World as well.
As App World and the App Store become increasingly cluttered with applications, developers are finding new and innovative ways to gain exposure for their software and push their products to the top.
Tip # 1 – Constantly experiment with price points
PopCap Games Inc., maker of the popular Bejeweled puzzle game, experimented in June by cutting the price on its Peggle game from to 99 cents from $4.99 for four days. Peggle, which had been ranked at around 60 in top paid apps, shot up to second place within 24 hours.
There are a variety of reasons why it’s important to experiment with pricing points. While one dollar may not seem like a lot of money, it could be just the right discount that your customer base needs. Also, discounts are news and news means more exposure. By lowering your prices, users will take notice and the news spreads virally, thus further helping downloads. PopCap has not commented on revenue, but said that sales during the discount period increased 20 to 25 times the previous volume.
Click through for tips and lessons learned that will help developers sell more software
Posted on July 15, 2009, at 12:03 PM .
Let me start off by saying that this is not a theme. There are plenty of themes out there that will give you an iPhone icon set, but this is different. MyPhone V1.0 gives your BlackBerry an iPhone UI, complete with world weather forecasts, a memory clean tool, radio tool, system testing and mobile torch 3rd party apps. Think of it as QuickLaunch and an iPhone OS on your BlackBerry.
MyPhone features include:
- Fully emulate the iPhone UI in look, ability to move icons and changes icons
- Worldwide weather
- Built-in system tools: memory clean tool, radio tool, system testing and mobile torch
- Stand by interface, customized wallpapers
- Call notifier
- Fully functional, all operations can be done via MyPhone
- You can switch from an iPhone UI to a BlackBerry UI and vice versa seamlessly
Purchase MyPhone for $12.99.
Get a free trial of MyPhone for BlackBerry.
Posted on July 15, 2009, at 10:51 AM .
The Google Voice app has launched for BlackBerry today, making quick searches much easier to perform on your device.
The news comes from Google Voice’s Vincent Paquet who has confirmed that users will not only be able to place calls on their devices and have recipients’ calls display the Google Voice number, but it will also make it possible to view voicemail transcripts within the application as opposed to through the mobile web.
You can download Google Voice for BlackBerry OTA at http://m.google.com/voice
[Via]
Posted on July 15, 2009, at 10:21 AM .
Sensobi is an address book for enterprise professionals. The address book will keep detailed information about your contacts including when you last spoke and what it was about.
The developers of Sensobi have worked hard to integrate it seamlessly with your BlackBerry. You can do anything with Sensobi that you can with your existing address book. If you add/edit/delete a contact in Sensobi or the default address book, it will reflect the changes in the other. If you sync your contacts with your PC Desktop Manager or Microsoft Exchange, Sensobi will pick up those changes as well.
The application is currently free and in the next few months, the company will be launching a premium version as well. The app currently works with OS 4.2 or higher (i.e., any that support App World), with the exception of the BlackBerry Storm. Storm support is coming soon.
Sensobi are giving BlackBerry Cool readers 100 invites. Just go to sensobi.com/form/bbcool and use the passcode bbcool.
Posted on July 15, 2009, at 9:52 AM .
UPDATE: Sorry folks, it turns out RIM actually hasn’t made it public even though a notice went out saying it was live at midnight. I’ll keep you posted.
RIM seems to be rolling out a full social networking plan. First, they launch their official blog, and now they have a forum and social network called MyBlackBerry.
The site is in a beta stage and the community is still relatively small, but RIM has an opportunity to grow it into something really big. I’m not sure if it’s possible, but if RIM could leverage the carriers’ help, they could message North American BlackBerry users and instantly make it the biggest BlackBerry social network out there.
While forums are already present in the space, and we already have some great BlackBerry blogs (ahem), the industry still lacks a social network with the numbers to make it what we want. A social network of millions of BlackBerry users, all exchanging BlackBerry related news and information, would be great for the industry.
Check out MyBlackBerry and make a profile.
Posted on July 14, 2009, at 1:37 PM .
A recent study conducted by Vanson Bourne, revealed that 65 per cent of surveyed IT departments are concerned about unauthorized users accessing data if an iPhone is lost or stolen. The same study also showed 64 per cent of IT departments not put into place security steps to protect against threats targeted at the iPhone. Most cited the fact that they aren’t widely used in business as the reason.
This study shows one of the glaring weaknesses of the iPhone to service enterprise. Because BlackBerry is by far the most secure platform in the smartphone market, many organizations have turned to it to ensure the protection of their most valuable asset: intellectual property.
While Apple deserves an incredible amount of respect for implementing a hugely successful App Store, it will forever be stuck in a consumer market. That being said, I think it’s easier to shift from enterprise to consumer, versus the other way around. RIM has the opportunity to service the consumer market with fun and innovative applications, and I would be surprised if the iPhone were ever able to position itself as a viable solution for IT managers looking to remotely manage a network of several thousand devices. In fact, a quick look at the latest iPhone 3.0 software reveals that it still can’t run applications in the background.
More interesting points revealed in the study include:
- 10 per cent of IT decision makers believe that the iPhone is not as good an email tool as the BlackBerry, and they only want to manage one form of device.
- A little more than half (52 per cent) are concerned about the threat of downloading apps to the iPhone, while 40 per cent of respondents said they are worried about the threat of users downloading company data without the IT department knowing.
- Some 14 per cent of IT departments have banned the use of smartphones altogether for work purposes.
[Via]
