Category Archives: BlackBerry

The benefits of BBM connected apps

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Twinkle is an app that allows you to set and keep track of upcoming and past events, and share them with your friends. The app is free and contains a small advertisement that can be removed through an in-app purchase.

Because fetching the advertisement requires a request to a server, we can look at ad requests in order to get a look at approximate how often Twinkle is being used. While the app was released about a year and a half ago, the last few months worth of ad requests are shown in the chart below.

Version 3.0 of Twinkle added the ability to share events with your friends over BBM. Based on the above graph can you see when this update was released?

The existence of the BBM API has fundamentally changed the nature of this app. It has gone from a simple date tracker with calendar integration, to a complete social experience. While you can still choose to not make use of the app’s social features, it appears that most people are. Version 3.3 of Twinkle (coming soon) will expand these social features ever further with OS7 devices also able to share Twinkle events over Twitter, FaceBook, and Email. The typical usage of this app has completely changed from just five months ago.

BBM, BlackBerry, Statistics, Twinkle

PlayBook Sales chart

I have been estimating BlackBerry PlayBook sales for a while now based off of downloads of Pixelated. However because Pixelated was updated to version 3.0 at the same time that the PlayBook went on sale for $199 the data for the last half month is a bit muddled.

However the end of November was also the end of RIM’s quarter, and we do know that they have shipped 850,000 PlayBooks so far. Given that the PlayBook is universally out of stock everywhere at the turn of the month we can conclude that they have sold through the vast majority of what was shipped, so about 840,000 so far.

This plus the existing monthly data gives us the chart shown above for monthly PlayBook sales. In short it shows that the sale price has resulted in many more PlayBook’s being sold, but not astronomically high numbers either. It will be interesting to see where the PlayBook’s sales (and price) are in the coming months.

BlackBerry, PlayBook, Statistics

$199 PlayBook is not sustainable

From my post yesterday on BerryReview

“There is no doubt that the bill of materials for the BlackBerry PlayBook is higher then its $199 sale price. Additionally once you consider distribution costs, and some profit for the retailers RIM is losing a significant amount of money on each tablet that is sold. While the idea of positioning a product as a loss leader is not uncommon, there isn’t too much upside for RIM in this case.”

Read the full post at berryreview.com/2011/12/02/199-blackberry-playbook-is-not-sustainable

BlackBerry, PlayBook

Hockey Scores app updated

The Hockey Scores app has been updated to version 2.10 in BlackBerry AppWorld. This new version fixes a bug relating to the game time as well as improving the look of some of the menus. As always every BlackBerry with OS version 4.6.0 or higher is supported.

About Hockey Scores

This application provides the day’s hockey scores is an intuitive and easy to use format. It also includes additional game statistics such as start times, goal scorers, shots on net, hits, faceoff percentage, team Corsi numbers, and the goal scorers. Additionally the app supports keyboard shortcuts for easy navigation, and a number of display options.

Links & Information

BlackBerry, Hockey Scores

Nine Men’s Morris updated

Nine Men’s Morris has been updated to version 1.1 in BlackBerry AppWorld. 9 Men’s Morris is a two player strategy game that you can play with your friends on BBM. The game itself is turn based and plays like a cross between checkers and tic-tac-toe.

New in Version 1.1

This updated includes more detailed in-game messages, as well as a system notification when it is your turn in the game.

How to Play

To start the game each player places 9 tokens onto the gameboard, with a random selection determining which player goes first. After all tokens are placed, the players take turns moving their own tokens to try and get three in a row to form a Mill. Forming a mill allows you to remove one of your opponents tokens from play. As with checkers you win after removing all of your opponents pieces, or by placing them in a position where they are unable to make a legal move. Your own pieces are always red, while your opponent is blue. For more details on the game see Wikipedia.

Device support

9 Men’s Morris supports all touchscreen BlackBerrys with a minimum OS of 5.0, and a minimum BBM version of 6.0

Links & Information

BBM, BlackBerry, Nine Men's Morris

Month to month carrier billing down for the first time

For the first time since the introduction of carrier billing in AppWorld, the percentage of users making use of carrier billing was down from the previous month. For the month of October, carrier billing accounted for 38.6% of all purchases.

In the United States 72.7% of all AT&T and T-Mobile customers choose to purchase their apps via carrier billing. This number is larger then the 38.6% of all purchases due to the many carrier that still do not support this option.

This data is generated from the dollar amount of purchases of all Ebscer applications over the given months.

BlackBerry, Statistics

Xploding Boxes updated to 2.2

Xploding Boxes has been updated to version 2.2 in BlackBerry AppWorld. This update adds 10 new levels to the game.

About Xploding Boxes

Xploding Boxes is a strategy game for BlackBerry 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 first 25 levels are free, while the full 240 levels can be accessed by making an in-application payment and requiring no further downloads. This game is available for both the PlayBook, and for most smartphones running OS 5.0 or higher.

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BlackBerry, Xploding Boxes

Preferring to pay via Carrier Billing

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Carrier billing is rapidly increasing in popularity, with September seeing 41.3% of all sales made through carrier billing. However this number includes sales to customers in carriers that do not support carrier billing, as well as sales to PlayBook owners who don’t even have a carrier.

In the United States, carrier billing is supported by AT&T and T-Mobile. In the month of October, when customers on these two carriers purchased an application, they opted to pay via carrier billing 72.7% of the time. It’s not only that it is nice to have the option, but that it is preferred over credit cards and PayPal combined.

This data is generated from the dollar amount of purchases of all Ebscer applications over the given months.

BlackBerry, Statistics

Pixelated updated to version 3.0

This weekend Pixelated was updated to version 3.0 adding BBM integration and support for 5 languages. The languages supported by Pixelated now include English, Spanish, Dutch, French, and Portuguese. This update also improves the stability and efficiency of the application. Pixelated is free to download and supports every BlackBerry device released in the last three years including the PlayBook.

BBM Integration

Pixelated now integrates with BlackBerry Messenger, allowing you to publish your best scores to your BBM personal message, and posting your achievements earned to a Pixelated profile box. You also have the option of inviting your friends to download Pixelated by using the “Share via BBM” button on the About page.

About Pixelated

Pixelated is an addicting puzzle based strategy game that requires a mixture of skill and luck in order to complete. Starting with the square in the upper left corner, the object of the game is to change the colour of the squares until the entire screen is a single solid colour. This is done by repeatedly by changing the colour of the blocks in order to match that of the surrounding squares until the entire screen is a single colour. The object of the game is to clear the screen in as few moves as possible.

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BBM, BlackBerry, Pixelated

Why this post exists

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Why are there posts on this site? It is because I truly believe that there is value to communicating and sharing knowledge.

This was reinforced after reading a recent post on Gamasutra, about League of Legends developer Riot Games:

Interestingly, says Merrill, all company employee can participate on the forums directly — which is definitely not policy for many developers or publishers.

“We don’t know if anyone else does that,” says Merrill. “It’s because we think it’s valuable to humanize the developers, and have a direct relationship, and personalize some things, and have this dialogue.”

I touched on this when talking about the power of Alec Saunders publicly posting his email address, but I have no idea why more developers don’t take this approach. Posting here has only resulted in positive things for me.

BlackBerry

PlayBook sales estimate

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I have made a few estimates of the sales of the BlackBerry PlayBook before. Assuming that 255,000 had been sold by June 14th, and that 504,000 had been sold as of September 16th. After looking at the most recent data I calculate that RIM has sold around 700,000 tablets as of November 15th.

This shows BlackBerry tablets selling at a rate of about 100k a month recently. Sales rebounded unexpectedly in October despite the lack of a timely OS update. Numbers for November, however, are on track to be down once again.

As before this estimation is based off of the number of downloads of the free game Pixelated. While this calculation does rely on a number of assumptions, given that Pixelated has remained one of the most downloaded apps for the PlayBook, I feel that I have better numbers then most to base this estimate upon.

BlackBerry, PlayBook, Statistics

9 Men’s Morris BBM game

Nine Men’s Morris is a two player strategy game that you can play with your friends on BBM. The game itself is turn based and plays like a cross between checkers and tic-tac-toe.

How to Play

To start the game each player places 9 tokens onto the gameboard, with a random selection determining which player goes first. After all tokens are placed, the players take turns moving their own tokens to try and get three in a row to form a Mill. Forming a mill allows you to remove one of your opponents tokens from play. As with checkers you win after removing all of your opponents pieces, or by placing them in a position where they are unable to make a legal move. Your own pieces are always red, while your opponent is blue. For more details on the game see Wikipedia.

Game Development

Development of this game started at the BBM Hackathon in New York City. The introduction of the BBM API solved many of the problems that multiplayer games traditionally have. By allowing you to challenge friends already listed in BBM you can avoid the hassle usually associated with finding your friends in game.

Device support

9 Men’s Morris supports all touchscreen BlackBerrys and requires a minimum OS of 5.0, as well as BBM 6.0

Links & Information

BBM, BlackBerry, Nine Men's Morris