Comments on: Smaller Developers Unhappy With New BlackBerry Alliance Program?

By: HOT! RIM Responds to Small Developer Feedback on Alliance Program | BerryReview.com »

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 11:01:13 +0000

[...] am floating on cloud nine right now. We mentioned a bit back that smaller developers were not too happy with the newly revamped Alliance program. I just found out from Mike Kirkup that the hard working BlackBerry Alliances team is listening [...]

By: Ronen Halevy

Ronen Halevy — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 13:36:44 +0000

@All
This is exactly the situation I am trying to draw attention to. RIM did a good job of realigning the Alliance program for large partners but smaller partners are left out in the cold. It kind of turns RIM into a exclusive club with a catch 22 policy barring entry. You must be big enough to justify the expense of the investment but you cannot become big unless you make the investment.

Anybody manage to have some meaningful dialog with RIM about this? I really hope they are working on a second phase of the alliance to address this gap.

By: Cobus Benade

Cobus Benade — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 08:41:43 +0000

I agree that RIM is making it very hard for the smaller developers, Im a 1 man shop in South Africa, 3 of the items on the points list isnt even a option for us. RIM SA also only had its first training program for non carriers last month. So other than the smaller “free” points I have to throw a lot of money at RIM before I can get anywhere.

By: Derek Brown

Derek Brown — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 01:04:24 +0000

I’d have to agree with you, Stacy, that RIM is focusing more efforts on carriers and larger enterprises than the SMB market. I work for a small IT consulting company in the Cincinnati area (7 man shop), and 3 of us carry BlackBerry’s. Sadly, the owners are not BlackBerry fanboys like myself, so I couldn’t get a BES approved. We are using BPS, which RIM left to collect dust back at 4.1.4. It is getting harder and harder to sell BlackBerry solutions to customers when I can’t even demo the benefits of a full-blown BES myself. I have been emailing back and forth with RIM regarding the NFR BES and certification vouchers that the Associate tier gets, since my bosses aren’t going to shell out the $2k for this.

I am the biggest BlackBerry fanboy at my company, and have setup 2 BES servers (150 users, 80 users), and 4 BPS servers (~5 users each). I have no BlackBerry certifications, and I’m not even using a full BES. While I think these would help me sell BlackBerry to customers, my coworkers don’t see us making back the investment, and RIM seems to care even less. To be quite honest, unless RIM plans to update/replace BPS sometime in the next 6 months or so, I will most likely change to a different mobile platform. I love my crackberry just as much as the next guy, but my company focuses on small and medium sized companies, and RIM doesn’t seem to care about them as much as they once had…

Now that I have announced the possibility of dropping my BlackBerry for WinMo/iPhone/Android, let the flaming begin :-p.

By: Greg Zavitz

Greg Zavitz — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 21:21:48 +0000

I’m with you Jason. I have a few applications on MobiHand stores and on App World (such as FMyLife) that I would love to enable BIS-B connections on and possibly BIS push. I had been emailing RIM’s Business Relations position back and forth since July concerning becoming an alliance partner. I even had an interview on the phone and they had “pre-accepted” me as an alliance partner. I had to wait until September for them to let me know it would be $2,000 a year and 45 points for me to have a CHANCE (you need to apply) at BIS-B connections.

Both of your suggestions seem great.

By: Jason Emerick

Jason Emerick — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 21:06:33 +0000

Yeah, I really would just like access to BIS-B (legitimately) and to BIS push. I dont need the marketing (thats what BerryReview is for and the other stuff that comes with the alliance memberships. I would be more inclined to pay $500 and maybe 10 – 15 points or something for just the common stuff everyone needs.

Or another alternative would be to do as Apple. $100 / year which access to the network and to push.

By: Stacy

Stacy — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 20:54:32 +0000

I feel that a lot of RIMs decisions are to support the carriers or large devs. iPhone, Android, AND Winmo supports the small shops much better. For awhile, lots of peeps had Berrys privately. I am a dying breed in my circle of friends while iPhone is like an invasion.

By: Ronen Halevy

Ronen Halevy — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 20:40:13 +0000

Yeah it seriously sucks that small devs are kept out of the Alliance and BIS-B access. Really goes against RIM’s whole push to welcome devs. Maybe they are only welcoming larger devs…

By: Jason Emerick

Jason Emerick — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 20:37:24 +0000

I was looking forward to joining the alliance program but once I found out about the cost and the points system, as a 1 man operation, I couldn’t really afford to join…