“I care about BB10” It doesn’t get any plainer than that. He then linked to a very nice post on Inside BlackBerry, a post titled “Great Apps on BlackBerry! A Strong Commitment to BlackBerry Users and Developers“. If you haven’t read it yet, I suggest you do. In this post, BlackBerry is very forthcoming about the issues surrounding WhatsApp and Facebook.
On it’s Inside BlackBerry blog, the company responded to the decisions made by Facebook and WhatsApp. You can read the manufacturer’s response in its entirety, below.
The app landscape continues to evolve, and in ways that are not always within our control. Recently, Facebook made the decision to discontinue support of their essential APIs for BlackBerry and WhatsApp announced they would end support for BlackBerry 10 and BBOS at the end of 2016. We are extremely disappointed in their decision as we know so many users love these apps. We fought back to work with WhatsApp and Facebook to change their minds, but at this time, their decision stands (but let them know how you feel on social media, using the hashtag #ILoveBB10Apps). Despite this, we have worked hard to ensure our end users have the best experience in light of this decision, and are continuing to search for alternate solutions.
Our commitment to BlackBerry 10 and to developers has not changed – we know our developer community continues to be one of the strongest proponents of BlackBerry 10 and they are creating thousands of apps every month. As a way to support them and to promote new apps, we’re now featuring some of the best native applications on BlackBerry World in a list called “Great Apps on BlackBerry.” The category will be a list of 20 applications, featured for two weeks, once per month, similar to the way we feature apps on the BlackBerry World Carousel. We’re also continuing whenever we can to invest in apps important to users, such as the update to the Twitter app released today with important fixes and another update coming in a month with new features. This ensures that our many BlackBerry 10 customers have the best OS and apps possible.
We look forward to new apps and new customers on BlackBerry 10 and thank our developer community for their continued strong support!-BlackBerry
And what of the community? We can help BlackBerry to do this. We can
be cheerleaders instead of critics. We can support and promote the brand
and the products like fans do every day of the products they are fans
of. Being hypercritical of something does not make you appear more
knowledgeable or intelligent. It just makes you look like a complainer.
We should join in with John Chen and BlackBerry in letting Facebook know
that #ILoveBB10Apps. We should stop and listen to what BlackBerry is
saying and doing, instead of listening to other’s angry interpretations.
For those that think the coming of Android on BlackBerry means the end
of BlackBerry 10, just remember, BlackBerry has stated several times
that they are offering a choice. They are still supporting and selling
BlackBerry 10, even though they smartly recognize that those that will
buy it are a special breed that will go through direct channels to get
it. Even on their own Blogsite, they continue to profile users who are
choosing BlackBerry 10 over Android.
BlackBerry wants to bring us more BlackBerry 10. We can ensure they do, by supporting them, or make that reality less likely by pushing users away from the BB10 platform with fear, uncertainty, and doubt. It’s your choice, and we all own the consequences.
If you’re a fan of BlackBerry, now is the time to be a cheerleader, not a critic.
BlackBerry wants to bring us more BlackBerry 10. We can ensure they do, by supporting them, or make that reality less likely by pushing users away from the BB10 platform with fear, uncertainty, and doubt. It’s your choice, and we all own the consequences.
If you’re a fan of BlackBerry, now is the time to be a cheerleader, not a critic.
