2 
RimBerry’s happy statement that the new BB10 phones are launching with 70,000 bespoke apps was a bit of a white lie, with one of the company’s own men admitting that up to 40 per cent of these are frantic Android port jobs.
Martyn Mallick, BB’s VP of global alliances and business development, told reporters after the launch event that “40% [of BB10 apps] are wrapped Android applications,” many of which came about as part of the recent Port-a-thon initiative, in which anyone with any functional app could earn themselves a few quid by smashing together a BB10 version using BlackBerry’s porting tools.
Not to mention there are plenty of so-called BB10 apps that are little more than shortcuts to mobile web sites. Still, it’s early days. Anyone who used an Android phone in the mobile platform’s first year or two of existence can testify to the amount of time it takes to build up a quality app portfolio. [RWW]
3M's Silicon Anodes Could Boost Gadget Battery Life by 40 Per Cent
40 Per Cent of UK Small Business Workers Use Fax Machines "Daily"
A Staggering 40 Per Cent of Peak EU Internet Traffic Is Just Us Streaming Telly and Films
If the apps work and it doesn’t affect the UX, does it matter that they’re not native?
The problem is, how well would it work.
Well from what I recall it worked pretty well on the Playbook, and this might be one thing that is BB’s saving grace – if an Android app works almost as well as a native QNX app, then a port will provide an additional draw if you’re not going to be missing out on apps.
“Not to mention there are plenty of so-called BB10 apps that are little more than shortcuts to mobile web sites.”
That should be band!
I hate that the Youtube App on my windows phone is just a link to the browser.
Same goes for the shitty Chrome Apps that are just links. Thats not a god dang app!
YouTube Pro – best app ive ever downloaded.
As daniejam said, Youtube Pro or Metrotube (Metrotube is sometime offered free).
You can blame Google for the crappy Youtube “App”, they’re refusing to allow Windows Phone access to the Youtube API’s.
I hear that OpenMobile is going to be used on a some new OS coming out, if that works well then it could be a game changer.
I’d actually say that if around 30,000 Android apps have made it to BB10 before release that’s a GOOD thing!
When I had the Playbook (for about 3 months!) the android ported apps ran perfectly, you didn’t even know they were ports.
Creating a whole new OS for developers to take up just simply doesn’t work, look at windows phone as a good example. Being able to port Android apps over to Blackberry is fantastic, as it means nearly any customer who develops and Android app will pretty much instantly do a port as it would be daft not to when it is such a simple process. We’ll certainly be offering this to all of our business clients we develop for once we’ve had a tinker with it. If it was native only we simply wouldn’t have time to learn a whole new OS, and I suspect many development companies may not either.
The OS looks really slick, (and nice to see someone doing something a little different for once – although props to WP for doing the same), the hardware looks great and opening up the app market like this could just be it’s saving grace.
Should be interesting to see how it will take off.