New BlackBerry to boost Windsor app business
The co-owner of a Windsor-based mobile app developer thinks BlackBerry has a fighting chance with its new mobile devices and that will bode well for his business.
Ali Al-Aasm of Red Piston said the success of any new smart phone, especially Wednesday's announcement of the two new BlackBerry 10 models, means more work for him.
"Our clientele will come back and there's another line on the bill that might say port this to BlackBerry or Android it means more business," said Al-Aasm.
Red Piston received test models from BlackBerry, something unprecedented that Al-Aasm said was very useful during testing and app development.
"We've already played with the Z10 about 10 months ago and it was a beta test unit and we've seen how slick it is and how great the operating systems and even the tools have been introduced to us to develop for it," said Al-Aasm.
Waterloo-based Research In Motion, soon to be known by its product name BlackBerry, seems to be on the rebound as it struggles to get back on top of the smart phone mountain.
One industry criticism of the BlackBerry is that it only has about 10 per cent of the available apps that its competitors have.
Al-Aasm hopes the new phones won't have as many problems as previous models, which will generate more interest from clients to have BlackBerry applications created.
"So now you can program and make an app in several different ways, even making software to port apps from Android easily to the new BlackBerry 10 software or operating system," said Al-Aasm.
In the past, he said, clients wouldn't spend as much money on BlackBerry apps compared to iPhone and Android because of the software problems.
The BlackBerry Z-10 will be available in Canada next Tuesday.
