The Storm is a Netbook, says RIM founderThe application storefrontCNET Asia: Can you tell us more about the developers program for the App Store? What's the turnaround time for a developer to create a program and have it available on the App Store? Tylar Lessard, Director, ISV Alliances & Dev, Relations: At the developer program level, for somebody looking to create an application and then sell it, their first step would be to go to our developer site, register into the program and get free access to all the different software development tools. With that, they can then build their application and test it on the simulators for the various devices. They can also request to sign up for our partner program in order to get additional support, but that's optional. We haven't announced the full formal process yet and that's something we will once we get closer to launch time. Essentially, a developer will request to have their application in the storefront and they will need to sign a basic agreement. We announced that if users are paying for the application, the developer will receive 80 percent of the revenue back and 20 percent will be kept to help maintain and pay for the system. So it's an 80-20 revenue share split with the developer. That will be part of the agreement as well as the basic distribution terms. Once they've signed the agreement, they'll be able to submit their application through an online portal and view where they are in the process of submission to the testing phase and the results. After testing, there'll be a phase of staging and deployment and then they will actually hit the application store. We plan to support not only Java applications but also Web browser-based applications. So if somebody has a great mobile Web site, they'll be able to promote that in the application store and have a simple icon that users can download which gives immediate access from the home screen to the mobile Web application. How is RIM positioning its App Store with competition from Apple and Google? Lessard: First of all, we have a strong developer community for many years. We're looking to build on that and, of course, take advantage of all the applications that exist today and give them a central spot to be distributed. We think we'll have a very broad breadth of applications that represent everything from games for the consumer to business productivity-type applications that cater to business professionals. Our focus is to make it a really effective channel for the developers. There are a few important things that we want to make sure we do. One is that the storefront is being designed from ground up for mobile software distribution. We are ensuring that developers will be able to submit applications and upgrades when they need to and let users set up custom profiles so they can be alerted when new types of applications are posted. We want to make sure we support free applications, paid applications and also monthly subscription billing or try-and-buy models. Those are things some other vendors have not been able to do because their stores weren't designed for software necessarily. At the end of it, we want to support the broadest types of applications, different types of billing models and operate a very effective wireless channel for downloading of applications whether it's via a cellular network or Wi-Fi. Wireless operators can also offer their own customization to that storefront experience. So this won't be the only place you can get applications for BlackBerry. If a wireless operator chooses to have a separate store where they highlight applications they want to sell because, for example, they have billing integration with those vendors, or it's an exclusive application that's available only on that operator, we want to make sure they can offer those separate applications and customize the storefront experience. We see the application store as a very important distribution mechanism, but it won't be the only place. We'll continue to let developers distribute directly as well. Tags: Research In Motion Ltd., Smart Phone, Netbook, RIM BlackBerry, Sales |
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