RIM has been slowly getting more into design over the last few years talking about it more and more. They even briefed the media on the BlackBerry Bold 9900 design when it was announced along with sacrificing the autofocus camera for the sleek thin design. That is what I was very interested to read this new interview of RIM Senior VP for Industrial Design Todd Wood by Pocket-Lint out in London. They sat down with Todd to talk about the latest in BlackBerry design and got some interesting new tidbits out of him.
Todd interestingly compares the RIM product line to a small menu because “I like restaurants with small menus because it shows they are good at those things. Too many choices mean they aren’t good for anything.” he continued describing the main Torch, Pearl, Curve, and Bold lines saying “Someone has to say that’s enough salt or pepper,” Wood continues with his culinary analogy, “but it’s not just about saying ‘no’.”
The most interesting part of the whole interview is that Todd says that the BlackBerry design team heads to a different location around the world to get inspiration for every device. For the latest BlackBerry 7 devices that was Bellagio, Italy. The latest design for 2012 BlackBerrys is from Malmo, Sweden which is supposed to be “Charming, Whimsical, and Fun” which are not words I would use to describe the rumored BlackBerry London leaked picture.
According to Todd “Products should wear in rather than wear out” and I have to totally agree with him on that one though it should include the OS and not just the design. I highly recommend checking out the full interview over at Pocket-Lint.
Tags:
More on BerryReview
August 31, 2009
May 2, 2011
May 12, 2011
December 17, 2008
Please enter your name
Please enter a valid email address
Please enter your message
Notify me of followup comments via e-mail. You can also subscribe without commenting.
Back in August I got a chance to sit down with Mike Kirkup who was then the Senior Director of Global Developer Relations at RIM. Since then Mike has left and Alec Saunders has made a big splash as the new Vice President of Developer Relations and Ecosystem Development at RIM even posting his email address publicly. This week we got a chance to sit down with him and pick his brain on a few of the issues developers want to know about the current BlackBerry Platforms, initiatives, and future goals. Read on for the details!
What is the main message that you are trying to convey to current and potential BlackBerry developers?
Alec clarified his message to developers as a three pronged approach that he sort of hit upon at DevCon.
What is your main goal or measure for success? Or simply what is your departments mission statement for developer relations?
Alec summed it all up into two words: “More Apps.” Though he did say the whole mission statement was to “Educate, support, and inspire developers to create new, better, and more apps for BlackBerry.”
So what are some of your goals to improve the experience of current and new BlackBerry developers?
There are three main areas that we are focusing on to improve the development experience for developers both new and experienced:
We also measure success based on many metrics but you can boil it down to the number of apps available and the satisfaction of developers. We then base our strategy on beta feedback, developer surveys, and other information points like the support forums. If they see an issue escalated in the forums by multiple devs they will escalate it further as a priority.
Tell us a little bit about some of the new initiatives for the developer relations team?
I am a firm believer of having “boots on the ground” and reaching directly to developer communities. For example, a few companies came to us saying that they were confused about what RIM’s future BBX plans were for peripherals (think stuff like card swipers, printers, etc). We ended up organizing a whole Meetup in Waterloo where these companies interfaced directly with the teams developing the peripherals, BBX strategy and groundwork.
On top of that the Developer Relations team is a growing team around the world. We have people in many growing markets which is an area of large growth for RIM. They are also reaching out to developers in the support forums and Twitter @BlackBerryDev where developers can reach out directly to RIM’s team. You can even simply email Alec directly and he will try to delegate it.
What is your team doing in terms of recruiting new developers for BBX (HTML5, WebWorks, Flash, Native, Android) and the current BlackBerry ecosystem (Java, WebWorks)?
With BBX and even WebWorks we are reaching out to communities of developers to help them bring their expertise and catalog of apps to the BBX platform or WebWorks on both platforms. For example, we did this with game engines on the PlayBook along with web developer communities like Sencha and jQuery. We are also working on different opensource tools for the BBX platform which we have posted on our GitHub repositories to help native BBX developers. This goal is to help attract communities to the platform by making it enticing.
What about differentiating factors of the BBX and PlayBook platform? For example, currently it is not possible to create what RIM calls a “Super App” for the BlackBerry PlayBook. When is that functionality coming?
This is something that is definitely in the works. We have these “Super App” APIs in the works now for everything from notifications to deep system integration. Definitely more on this in the future as we keep on improving the PlayBook 2.0 OS with some of the features possibly being exposed to developers to test in beta.
What about more powerful integration into the core OS such as developers building their own Bluetooth, Bridge, NFC, USB, or other integrations into the hardware?
This is also coming. As long as it does not compromise the security and reliability of the OS then we are working on it. It might include some sort of extra certifications for Bluetooth stacks or drivers.
Does BBX allow RIM to be more agile in dealing with the development environment and updates? Until now RIM has worked in a 2 year cycle where they release a product and then they get feedback during the lifecycle throughout the release and then a year later provide the improvement. Is BBX going to finally change this?
BBX definitely allows us to be more agile. For example, with BBX the carrier only certifies the radio stack allowing RIM to update the rest of the OS without needing carrier certification every time. I (Alec) personally love working with developers and I plan on making it a much more effective feedback loop. Talking directly to developers and then taking that feedback back to the appropriate teams at RIM to take action. This will allow us to do continuous improvements to developer API’s and functionality instead of simply trying to ship the whole kitchen sink.
What about App World? How does that fit into the developer relations sphere?
App World is an integral story of the BlackBerry experience. Downloads are growing like crazy with 90 million in August to 140 million in October. They also noticed that 200 BBM connected apps account for 10% of downloads which just shows how much of a differentiator the BBM Social Platform SDK is.
What about for BBX? Will App World remain the only place to find apps for BBX just like the PlayBook? Is there a reason RIM is deviating from the current BlackBerry model to a more Apple-like walled garden of app markets?
The PlayBook and BBX app store experience is an “unapologetically curated experience. “ RIM is maintaining this control for a few reasons including the fact that we have found customers prefer to go to one place for apps. This also gives RIM the ability to exclude malicious apps and have editorial control so we don’t have an abundance of irrelevant or unnecessary apps.
This is important for devs too because it increases discoverability. I used to work at a startup and the hardest part was dealing with payments and transactions especially with carriers wanting a large portion of deals. App World handles all of that and offers 16 countries with carrier billing. This is critical in developing markets and places where users do not have credit cards, a key growth market for RIM.
What about the current limitations of App World such as a lack of discount codes, coupons, beta testing ability, slow approval times and release times, small pictures, no video trailers, and gift cards?
Stay tuned! Many of those are coming! I cannot speak directly to that but the App World team is working hard on adding those features after a successful App World 3.0 release.
What about HTML5 and WebWorks? Now that Adobe has killed their mobile Flash development to focus on HTML5 does that play well into RIM’s strategy.
HTML5 and WebWorks allows us to recruit new devs that weren’t previously mobile to easily make their applications mobile. It is also a key piece for devs to create enterprise apps that use HTML5 for easier deployment. RIM is following the standards and continues to expand on them. Our Torch team is blazing the trail by adhering to the latest standards and implementing things like WebGL.
What about PlayBook functions and BBX functions and API’s beyond the standards? Say for example the desktop notification API in HTML5?
The Torch team is planning on staying pretty close to the standards but exposing capabilities of the BBX platform. I cannot speak directly to the notifications API but we plan on exposing the BBX APIs to WebWorks developers and changing them to HTML5 standards if it expands to cover it. This is a way for developers to move away from proprietary and the current push by other ecosystems to native development.
Well it was a pleasure to speak to you Alec. We wish you, your team, and RIM the best of luck!
If you have any more questions you want us to ask Alec let us know in the comments!
Tags:
More on BerryReview
September 28, 2011
September 28, 2011
November 4, 2011
September 27, 2010
Please enter your name
Please enter a valid email address
Please enter your message
Notify me of followup comments via e-mail. You can also subscribe without commenting.
I had the pleasure to talk to Nick Patsiopoulos, Senior Project Manager for BBM Music at RIM, yesterday about their latest announcement. This is a pretty big announcement for RIM with them entering the social space with a music app. According to Nick the BBM launch gave RIM the opportunity to take advantage of the huge BBM social network to build a BBM Music app with social built in from the ground up. There have been many attempts to make personal music social but there have been very few successes and Nick mentioned that most of them have been trying to bolt on social to a personal music service. BBM Music on the other hand is “Social front and center.” The cloud based BBM service starts off with social by you adding music and your whole music experience is based on your social graph. After the jump I dig deeper into RIM’s new BBM Music beta but let me know if I missed anything you want me to follow up with Nick on!
What exactly is BBM Music?
BBM Music is a cloud based social music platform with “Social front and center”. It differentiates itself by being built around social networking instead of having social networking bolted on. It creates a personal profile for users that becomes a “personal music profile on steroids” allowing you to select 50 songs that “define yourself and your history.”
How does BBM Music work?
Each BBM Music user can select up to 50 songs that they choose to represent themselves. These 50 songs become something you identify with and others can experience through you. Every month you can switch up to 25 of those songs which also extends those songs into your social graph. You can then look at your BBM contacts and listen to their full songs like it is yours. With BBM baked in you can chat right from the app and comment on your BBM friends profiles or song selections.
So how much does BBM Music cost?
New BBM Music users will get a one month free trial of the service after which they can enter in their payment information to extend it for $4.99 a month.
What if a BBM Music user does not pay the monthly subscription?
BBM Music users will still be able to use all the features of BBM Music without a subscription except for the ability to listen to songs. That means you can still select the 50 songs you recommend and view others recommend so you still have access to the whole social BBM Music scene including comments and chats. Your BBM social network will not get access to the 50 songs you select though.
Is BBM Music tied into your BlackBerry ID?
Definitely!
How about purchasing music that you listen to through BBM Music?
In countries where the Amazon MP3 store is available you will be able to purchase music you listen to in BBM Music if its available. In some locations it may link to the carriers music store.
What countries is BBM Music open to in the Beta? What about at full launch?
During the beta BBM Music is limited to the US, Canada, and the UK. It will be available later this year in Australia, Canada, Columbia, France, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, UAE, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Will there be a desktop website/app counterpart?
BBM Music is a pure mobile experience. (I forgot to ask about the PlayBook)
How does the BBM Music songs get to your device?
The songs are played through a progressive download. At the same time as songs are playing it is caching the song to your local storage for listening later. You also have the ability to manually cache songs or profiles to your device for listening on the subway. (Sweet!) Songs are also automatically cached based on certain preferences.
What happens when everybody has BBM Music? Will you have every song available?
If you think of it this way “250 contacts with 50 songs each more or less means you have music to listen to for every hour of the day for a month.” (Math more or less works at 3-4 minutes a song) During the beta the BBM Music connections is limited to 140 BBM Music contacts until launch but it can scale past there.
What made you decide on the $4.99 price point? Are there advertisements?
There are definitely no advertisements. At $4.99/month it is roughly half of what other mobile music services charge.
What made RIM decide to create BBM Music now?
RIM has been making a strong push into social and with BBM 6 just launching this was a perfect opportunity. RIM saw the gap in what others were providing and plan to fill that gap.
How has the beta of BBM Music been going on campus at RIM headquarters?
BBM Music is one of the biggest if not the biggest internal betas ever done at RIM. Users have pride in their music selections and it has been truly viral. We have been constantly bombarded by users who want in on the beta.
What part of BBM Music has users coming back?
There is a constantly updating timeline of what is going on in BBM Music in your social graph. You get to see what your friends choose as songs and what they are listening too or commenting on. You also get a sense of pride by getting to see how many times the songs you selected were listened too.
Will BBM Music be launching in the Beta Zone or App World Test Center?
During the limited beta it will be in the Beta Zone. You will be able to invite friends to the app through the app itself but during the beta they will also have to download it through the Beta Zone. (Really hope they fix that ASAP)
Thanks Nick! Can’t wait to see what you have in store for us with the BBM Music launch!
To say BBM Hackathon was an eye opening experience would be an understatement, seeing all these developers in such a small area, willing to share secrets, and help eachother out was a great thing. I was able to pull Jerome Carty from Kisai Labs away from his computer for a second time to ask him some questions around BlackBerry development, get a little more from his point of view, and see what he had to say. Let's hit the break and take a look at some of Jerome's favorite applications, his thoughts on the development community, and what he has in the works for us currently.
Tell us a little about yourself.
I'm Jerome Carty of Kisai Labs and I have been developing for the BlackBerry platform for about 2.5 years currently. When not writing code for BlackBerry I spend time dabbling around with small web applications and web development, but BlackBerry is definitely my first choice.
What are some of your applications that you have released?
What are your favorite applications on your personal device?
BeBuzz is definitely my favorite application on my BlackBerry device for many reasons. Based only on the LED, and the colors it blinks I know if I have a sale, a support email, a BBM, or any other type of notification, and can determine the importance based on the color. Not to toot my own horn but Show me the Images has been a huge help, lots of my emails contain images and not needing to manually fetch those images is a huge time saver.
What is your favorite part of developing for BlackBerry?
The possibilities for applications continue to grow as RIM allows the developers more access to various tools and experts. With BlackBerry you are able to integrate your application into the core applications of the device giving it a seemless feel with the OS, which is something many users enjoy. I have played around with Android development, but it didn't catch my interest in the same way that BlackBerry has.
What are your thoughts on the BBM Social SDK?
It's exciting to see previous developers who may have moved on, or stoped development coming back to check out the platform and see what the SDK has to offer. The social aspect allows even further integration of our applications, and allows users to interact in a way that they never have before. The ability to tap into the 45 million BBM users with our applications is something that has us all excited.
What are some of your upcoming projects?
I have a BBM game in the works that will allow four players to interact and play at the same time, along with a number of other features. Still looking into adding some additional twists to the Connect Four type game that I have created, trying to make it a little more than it currently is. Another application I have in concept is a photo collage application that will allow sharing of images over BBM and making a collage of the images, just need for RIM to raise the allowed file sharing per minute in order for the application to run smoothly.
What are your thoughts of the BBM Hackathon, and the overall feel from fellow developers?
It was awesome to see so many devoted, and excited developers all in the same place at the same time, helping eachother and sharing ideas. There were some newer developers, some who have never touched the BlackBerry platform prior, and some who have been around for a while, and everyone was excited. Developers were not afraid to share their secrets, and no one was shy to ask for help when they needed it, the development community definitely grew stronger from this event, and we all hope to see more of these from RIM.
While at the NYC BBM Hackathon I had a chance to sit down and talk with Mike Kirkup, RIM’s Senior Director of Global Developer Relations, to discuss many topics of interest to both new and long time BlackBerry developers. We have interviewed Mike many times in the past and it is always interesting especially with all that has been going on in 2011. The Hackathon was an awesome event and it was great to see developers collaborating with RIM and each other to create new BlackBerry apps that push the platform forward.
The topics Mike and I discussed are ones that developers have been asking me recently especially considering the strong push RIM has been making to encourage BlackBerry app development both on smartphones and the PlayBook. Let me know if I missed any question you wanted answered and I will follow up with Mike.
How would you describe the BBM Hackathon in one word?
Collaborative
How does RIM and your department, Developer Relations, measure their success in encouraging BlackBerry development?
Mike shared quite a few metrics that his team uses to measure how successful they are in their stated mission of “Increasing Developer Satisfaction.” Here are some of them:
What are some of the key pain points that RIM is focusing on improving for developers:
One of the main focus points for RIM is simplifying the code signing process from the registration process all the way to actually signing applications. RIM has some big plans on how to simplify this while maintaining the same level of security. It started with making code signing keys free and then shortening the turn around time to less than a day for new keys. This will be further improved with options for devs like graphical tools that help simplify the install process. RIM also has a key focus on improving the development tools themselves with a strong push in favor of Eclipse. When RIM first introduced the Eclipse development plugin it was built to have compatibility with the BlackBerry JDE but developers rejected it though internally RIM used it as a way to migrate their own development to Eclipse. The refreshed Eclipse plugin no longer maintains that backwards compatibility with the JDE and has been received much better by developers. On the other hand many long time developers do not even realize the benefits of using the Eclipse plugin and should definitely try it out.
If a developer shows interest in developing for BlackBerry where is the first place you would send him to learn more and download the tools?
Definitely the BlackBerry DevZone. While this is not as integrated as RIM would like right now they have big plans for improving it and integrating all of the dev sites together.
If a developer is running into a bug or issue where should he go to ask questions and report bugs?
While RIM first tried to use the developer issue tracker for bugs they found that most devs don’t get to that point. For now Mike HIGHLY recommends using the official BlackBerry developer forums. Many of these threads end up on Mike’s desk or in his inbox. They have completed a reorg in his team that has allowed for more dedicated team members who are on the forums all day answering questions and assisting developers and manning the @BlackBerryDev Twitter account. They are also creating dedicated forum threads to help devs through common issues or coding complexities. In short RIM is trying to make their development tools and solutions more cohesive.
If a developer needs to escalate beyond the forums or needs to contact somebody at RIM where should they turn?
I am trying to work out with Mike to see if we can make some sort of email available for developers to communicate with RIM. Until then Mike told us that developers should definitely reach out to him on Twitter @mikekirkup and he will do his best to respond and possibly take it offline from there. You can also feel free to send tips and suggestions to him or contact us and we will try to help make the connection.
What is RIM planning for DevCon? I noticed that there are quite a few sessions about the PlayBook Native SDK and a focus on WebWorks. Will RIM be launching new developer services/features/tools or simply announcing them?
Mike confirmed that the Native SDK along with the Android Player and new Adobe SDK to accompany them will be available to developers before DevCon. He also got really giddy when I asked if RIM will be actually launching new services/features/tools at DevCon or simply announcing them like they usually do. He said this year they are coming prepared with actual deliverables.
We know that the Native SDK in its first incarnation will be focused on games. What else is RIM doing to promote game development on the PlayBook?
As RIM mentioned at BlackBerry World they are working with Unity and Marmalade (formerly known as Airplay) to bring their gaming engines to the PlayBook. There are many games that are currently being ported using these engines that will be available for the PlayBook. For example, Marmalade is the platform for Cut the Rope (popular game) and Titanium which enables cross platform apps and games
Our time was up and we had to run to see the demos from the Hackathon but I think we covered some great topics with Mike. If your are a developer or a potential developer let us know if there was something we missed that you wanted us to ask!
Ashley pointed out an interesting article in the forums where the Financial Post interviewed two RIM execs today. They spoke to Patrick Spence, RIM’s new managing director of global sales and regional marketing, and Andrew Bocking, RIM’s vice president of BlackBerry software about the new announcements today along with quite a few other topics. There is nothing really new being said here but it does help flesh out the story about RIM’s sales and marketing plans.
RIM posted up a great interview with the project managers for the all touch BlackBerry Torch 9850 and 9860. They talk about how they made the all touch device and the design inspiration behind it. They also tapped the project manager for the BlackBerry Torch 9810 to talk about that device and how it refined the original Torch.
Very good read all around. Check the interviews out at the links below:
