In a move to increase the number of apps, Blackberry has started giving developers incentives to port their apps to the Blackberry platform. The scheme, which pays an Android Developer $100 for every app they submit, seems to have received a good response. In the Port-a-thons held by RIM, the company convinced the developers to submit their apps to Blackberry 10.
Blackberry, which was lacking in the app store segment, has been making efforts to improve. Interestingly, RIM CEO Thorsten Heins had earlier said that the size of the App Store doesn’t matter and estimated that more than 70000 apps would be available when the Blackberry Z10 and Blackberry X10 are finally launched.
In the three Port-a-thons held in the last few weeks, Blackberry seems to have received cordial response from developers. In the first Port-a-thon, held in mid-December, 4000 apps were ported to the platform. Followed by this, the second port-a-thon saw nearly 15000 more apps in a 37 hour period. The Last Chance Port-a-thon managed to add 19071 apps in just 36 hours.
The increasing number of apps in the apps seems to have at least positively influences the shareholders. In Canada, the RIM shares soared nearly 11 per cent. The random porting of apps may be considered as an advertising gimmick if Blackberry fails to get some quality apps on the store.
RIM is launching the BlackBerry 10 OS on January 31st 2013 where it will also expected to unveil the drool-worthy BlackBerry Z10 and BlackBerry X10 smartphones.
