BB10 Astroturfing?

[Ruined]

I have to say, it is quite humorous that this forum went from very helpful and optimistic to "OMG EVERYTHING IS BROKEN" with a week of BB10 launch.

Whether its fanboys or astroturfing, pretty sad. Mods need to be on their game

That is not to say WP8 doesn't have its share of problems (app availability, XBOX Music, bugs), but they are not insurmountable and the timing of all of these complaints attacking virtually every aspect of the OS is very curious.

 

[masterchief1984]

You got a point there. The reason I believe everyone is going into a its broke fix it frenzy may be becuz of how BB is supposedly going to get all popular apps.

 

[Ruined]

You got a point there. The reason I believe everyone is going into a its broke fix it frenzy may be becuz of how BB is supposedly going to get all popular apps.

Well, lets use some reasoning and we will see this is a double-edged sword.

Windows Phone 8 is based on NT.
BB10 is based on QNX.
Android is based on Linux.

QNX has a Linux compatibility layer, making it very easy to port Android apps to QNX/BB10. NT obviously is totally different than Linux, so you need to write a fresh app which takes more time and money.

The downside is with the BB approach, if you buy a BB10 all you are going to get is Android ports. You aren't going to get a unique experience you might find on another device, as few devs are going to create something unique for BB10 when they can just make an Android app and port it. In other words, someone rushes out and buys a BB10 and gets Android port of Instagram, then 2 months from now a Metro-optimized Instagram app comes out, my guess is the latter will be significantly better.

So yeah BB10 will have a lot of apps in a short period of time, but most of them will be straight ports from another OS. Which begs the question, if people want Android apps so bad why not just buy Android in the first place?

 

[Marcos Hidalgo]

I don't know much about this so don't take this question the wrong way, I'm just curious but what's wrong with it being a port?

Well, lets use some reasoning and we will see this is a double-edged sword.

Windows Phone 8 is based on NT.
BB10 is based on QNX.
Android is based on Linux.

QNX has a Linux compatibility layer, making it very easy to port Android apps to QNX/BB10. NT obviously is totally different than Linux, so you need to write a fresh app which takes more time and money.

The downside is with the BB approach, if you buy a BB10 all you are going to get is Android ports. You aren't going to get a unique experience you might find on another device, as few devs are going to create something unique for BB10 when they can just make an Android app and port it.

So yeah BB10 will have a lot of apps in a short period of time, but most of them will be straight ports from another OS.

Sent from my Windows Phone 8X by HTC using Board Express

 

[Ruined]

I don't know much about this so don't take this question the wrong way, I'm just curious but what's wrong with it being a port?

Well, have you noticed how a lot of Windows Phone apps have the unique metro look and feel to them, with the text wrapping off the edge, swipe gestures, etc?

That will obviously all be lost in a quick Android port. You are just going to get the same generic app Android gets. Ports also sometimes have performance issues or usability quirks as obviously BB10 was not the OS the app was originally programmed for.

Of course the program will still work, the question is whether you want the apps visually and functionally match the OS itself or not.

 

[a5cent]

So yeah BB10 will have a lot of apps in a short period of time, but most of them will be straight ports from another OS. Which begs the question, if people want Android apps so bad why not just buy Android in the first place?

True. Moreover, the more comprehensive tests just hitting the web seem to suggest that Android ports are rather slow and often very buggy (UI elements scattered all over the place). Emulating Android will incur an performance hit, no matter how well it is done, but if Blackberry can't take it much further than where it is now, the availability of Android apps won't turn into the advantage Blackberry is hoping.

It needs more testing, and Blackberry should be given a chance to provide a patch or two before we reach a final conclusion, but right now it doesn't look that great.

 

[martinmc78]

Its still all if's and but's and maybe's in the BB10 camp at the moment - its a new OS that hardly anyone has tried. Give it a month or two of use and you'll probably see lists of issues on the BB forums. Nothings ever perfect.

 

[ohgood]

Well, have you noticed how a lot of Windows Phone apps have the unique metro look and feel to them, with the text wrapping off the edge, swipe gestures, etc?

That will obviously all be lost in a quick Android port. You are just going to get the same generic app Android gets. Ports also sometimes have performance issues or usability quirks as obviously BB10 was not the OS the app was originally programmed for.

Of course the program will still work, the question is whether you want the apps visually and functionally match the OS itself or not.

Bingo. There are plenty of apps that have different ui buttons and themes. Some better desings, some poorer. To assign the exact same design and button to every single app sounds boring to me... I believe this is what is normally referenced to of the iphone ui, when people mention it here on wpc.

 

[ohgood]

Its still all if's and but's and maybe's in the BB10 camp at the moment - its a new OS that hardly anyone has tried. Give it a month or two of use and you'll probably see lists of issues on the BB forums. Nothings ever perfect.

Absolutely. The interesting part will be blackberrys reaction to customer (ok, beta testers/early adopters) requests and rants.

If bb sits does nothing, (like another companyor two) their fanbase and userbase will poof into thinner air.

 

[martinmc78]

Absolutely. The interesting part will be blackberrys reaction to customer (ok, beta testers/early adopters) requests and rants.

If bb sits does nothing, (like another companyor two) their fanbase and userbase will poof into thinner air.

I dont think they can afford to do that BB10 is the only thing Blackberry have got. I can see updates coming thick and fast to resovle any and all issues that come up. Beta testing and early adoption is one thing but theres no telling what can happen when a whole horde of "dumb" users gets hold of the devices.

 

[freestaterocker]

Everybody is making such a big deal about the Android app compatibility of BB10, but they're not native apps. It's basically an emulator. They don't run well, and it's like Android 2.3 apps only... Nothing to write home about. Topolsky said it wasn't even good enough to really put in the plus column for the phone/OS, and he's all about the Android.

 

[chetan_merchant]

Okay porting of Android apps on BB10 will not be very user friendly..
But due to similarities in kernels its easier to develope a BB10 app

This becomes important for WP platform because both platforms are young and fighting for third space...BB can initally market their phones based on portability of android apps to gain some traction compared to WP which cannot do so and if if they are able to win some customers back it would be easier for developers to develop apps for them due to similarity in kernel...and in-turn making life difficult for WP platform

Our hope lies with acceptance of Win 8 based devices whether they are ultrabooks, desktops or tablets...if they are sold in significant numbers than we might see apps coming our way...

So practically its gonna be some anxious months of waiting before we see some results..

Mobile world congress is coming by, but am not sure what does Microsoft has to announce apart from Apollo+ update..

 

[HeyCori]

Good or bad, it's only a matter of time before someone uses this as an opportunity to continue their agenda.