Category Archives: BlackBerry

Popularity of US carriers for BB10 users

The below chart shows the relative popularity of the four largest carriers in the United States by BlackBerry 10 users.

BB10USCarriersAug2013

While there has been some month to month variation in general there is roughly an equal number of BlackBerry 10 users on AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile. The biggest surprise here is the relative popularity of T-Mobile among the BlackBerry 10 user base as it lags significantly behind the other two in overall subscribers.

This data was collected by BlackBerry World for downloads of the free checklist app Stuff I Need. Data shown on the chart is from the beginning of April 2013 through the end of August 2013.

BlackBerry, BlackBerry10, Statistics

BBOS devices continue to see slow growth of new OS versions

StatsAugust2013

While BBOS has nowhere near the impressive OS adoption that BlackBerry 10 has shown, users are continuing to move towards a larger percentage running OS 7. August showed the newest version of BBOS exceeding 40% of the market for the first time, coming to 40.8% of users during the month.

This data was collected by BlackBerry World for downloads of the free BlackBerry strategy game Pixelated. Data shown on the chart is from the beginning of August 2012 through the end of August 2013, and does not include BlackBerry 10 or PlayBook devices.

BlackBerry, Statistics

OS 10.1 should be the new minimum for developers

This past August saw BlackBerry 10 users continue to quickly upgrade their OS systems to the newest version. Use of 10.1 (or higher) is up across both Pixelated and Stuff I Need from the previous month.

BB10OSVersionsAug2013-Pixelated

BB10OSVersionsAug2013-StuffINeed

The Stuff I Need app showed 91.0% of users on the newest OS version, while for Pixelated the number was 81.9%. Given the aggressive rate of growth, and the large number of users that have upgraded, I think it is safe for developers to begin writing apps that require 10.1 as a minimum OS version. BlackBerry 10 is seeing an adoption rate of the new versions that the older BBOS never came close to.

This data was collected by BlackBerry World for downloads of the free strategy game Pixelated and the free checklist app Stuff I Need. Data shown on the chart is from the beginning of February 2013 through the end of August 2013.

BlackBerry, BlackBerry10, Statistics

Stuff I Need app updated to version 2.2

IMG_00000060The Stuff I Need app for BlackBerry 10 has been updated to version 2.2 in BlackBerry World. This update improves the app’s start up time, and also adds an option to uncheck all items in the current list with a single button.

About Stuff I Need

Originally conceived as a grocery list app, this minimalistic checklist app can be used to keep track of the stuff you need to get, or the stuff that you need to do. Items on the list can be edited (or deleted) by giving them a long press. Lists can be switched by pulling down on the tab at the top of the screen. This will expose a spinner that shows all of your current lists. New lists can be added by using the “+” button on the right side of the expanded tab. Making use of three or more lists requires the use on a one time in-app purchase.IMG_00000128

Links & Information

BB_World_Small

BlackBerry, BlackBerry10, Stuff I Need

Update to Mileage Tracker for BlackBerry 10

IMG_00000117The Mileage Tracker app for BlackBerry 10 has been updated to version 1.4 in BlackBerry World. This new version of the app allows you to have the option to sort entries alphabetically instead of just by date. The update also includes a number of other small improvements to make the app quicker and more efficient.

About Mileage Tracker

Mileage tracker is a free app designed to help you track the miles you drive on each trip for use on tax deductions, accounting, or employee reimbursements. Instead of keeping this information charted on your computer, it makes much more sense to be able to track this directly on your phone, which you normally would have with you in the car already.

Trips can be grouped into categories, and edited (or deleted) at a later date. Following a one time in-app payment you can export your data into an Excel compatible .csv format and a pretty (and sortable) .html format.IMG_00000038

Links & Information

BlackBerry, BlackBerry10, Mileage Tracker

Carrier billing is still incredibly popular

On BlackBerry’s developer site they have posted some statistics that show how heavily consumers favor carrier billing. The main chart of interest is show below.

CarrierBilling

For a few years now I have discussed the popularity of this option for consumers, but by focusing on the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom it turns out that I had in fact been under reporting the issue. While the above chart only includes customers who have carrier billing as an option, the widespread use of this option in the Middle East and Africa is astoundingly high. Even in North America this option is preferred, but in much of the world there simply is no competition.

For BlackBerry, they should see that it is time to bring carrier billing in house, as it is foolish to continue to put such a large part of their business in the hands of an unreliable partner.

BlackBerry, Statistics

Runaway Trains now at 200 levels

Runaway Trains has been updated to version 2.6 in order to add 10 new levels to the game, and bring the total number of levels up to 200.

IMG_00000200

About Runaway Trains

Runaway Trains is a colorful strategy game for all ages where you must route the trains to the proper station. Each level progresses in difficulty and presents an unique puzzle which you must solve by finding a way to guide the coloured trains causing a collision or running out of track.

This is done by touching the intersections to toggle the open path of the tracks. If at any time the trains crash or end up at the wrong station, you will have lost and have to try again.

Links & Information

Android app on Google Play
Android, BlackBerry, BlackBerry10, Nook, Runaway Trains

BlackBerry users quickly adopting 10.1

BlackBerry 10 users are continuing to quickly adopt newer OS versions as the percentage of users running OS 10.1 is up significantly from last month. Below are the July stats for the Pixelated and Stuff I Need apps.

BB10OSVersionsJuly2013-Pixelated

BB10OSVersionsJuly2013-StuffINeed

The numbers differ a bit between the two apps, but both show encouraging results. The Stuff I Need app had 88.5% of users on the newest OS version, while for Pixelated the number was 75.7%. With this rapid adoption of newer OS versions developers may want to consider dropping support for older OS versions as soon as next month. Even with little cooperation from Verizon, BlackBerry is doing a good job getting its users to upgrade fairly quickly.

This data was collected by BlackBerry World for downloads of the free strategy game Pixelated and the free checklist app Stuff I Need. Data shown on the chart is from the beginning of February 2013 through the end of July 2013.

BlackBerry, BlackBerry10, Statistics

Vast majority of BB 10 users still have no physical keyboard

BB10DevicesJuly2013-StuffINeed

Last month I sparked some disagreement over on BerryReview when I suggested that the age of the keyboard was over. One month later, and the statistics from July show no reason for me to think any differently as once again the vast majority of BlackBerry 10 users have been keyboard free on the BlackBerry Z10.

While usage of the Q10 is up slightly from last month, there are still almost four times as many users on BlackBerry’s touchscreen only phone. The Q5 while far more popular than last month is still largely irrelevant to this discussion with less than 1% of the marketshare.

I highly doubt that we are ever again going to see a situation where the majority of BlackBerry phones sold have a physical keyboard. The keys are not going away, but they are no where near as important to BlackBerry’s future as most analysts would lead you to believe.

The data used in this chart was collected by BlackBerry World for downloads of the free checklist app Stuff I Need during the month of July.

BlackBerry, BlackBerry10, Statistics

OS 6 reaches two-thirds of BBOS devices

StatsJuly2013

It has taken almost three years, but two-thirds of traditional BlackBerry users are now running OS 6.0 or newer. This is the same percentage of the market that BlackBerry 10.1 has managed to reach in just three months.

This data was collected by BlackBerry World for downloads of the free BlackBerry strategy game Pixelated. Data shown on the chart is from the beginning of July 2012 through the end of July 2013, and does not include BlackBerry 10 or PlayBook devices.

BlackBerry, Statistics

Variable font size in Stuff I Need app

IMG_00000075The Stuff I Need app has been updated to version 2.1 in BlackBerry World. This version adds and an entry on the options page that allows you to adjust the font size of your entries, in order to make them larger and easier to read, or smaller so you can fit more onto a page.

About Stuff I Need

Originally conceived as a grocery list app, this minimalistic checklist app can be used to keep track of the stuff you need to get, or the stuff that you need to do. Items on the list can be edited (or deleted) by giving them a long press. Lists can be switched by pulling down on the tab at the top of the screen. This will expose a spinner that shows all of your current lists. New lists can be added by using the “+” button on the right side of the expanded tab. Making use of three or more lists requires the use on a one time in-app purchase.

Links & Information

BB_World_Small

BlackBerry, BlackBerry10, Stuff I Need

Xploding Boxes reaches 400 levels

IMG_00000017Xploding Boxes has been updated to version 4.6 in order to expand to 400 unique levels. The game supports BlackBerry phones both with and without touchscreens all the way back to OS 5.0 as well as BlackBerry 10, and the PlayBook, in addition to support for Android phones and tablets (including the Nook and Kindle), and also supports Windows 8 devices such as the surface.

About Xploding Boxes

Xploding Boxes is a strategy game for BlackBerry, Android, Nook, Windows 8, and BlackBerry 10 where the goal of the game is to start a chain reaction that will explode all of the boxes on the screen. Each level gives you a different number of touches, and requires a different strategy to solve.

The game itself, and the first 25 levels are available for free, while an in-app purchase can be used to access the rest of the levels for just $2.99 while maintaining your progress from the free levels.

Links & Information

Android, BlackBerry, BlackBerry10, Nook, PlayBook, Windows, Xploding Boxes