I am still scratching my head on this one… Mike Lazaridis introduced the concept for a “Super App” yesterday at MWC and I have yet to understand what it exactly means. From what I have been able to garner from the DevBlog and RIM’s page about Super Apps it looks like only MySpace, Facebook, & native BlackBerry applications currently qualify as Super Apps. Maybe only RIM is capable of producing Super Apps?
The concept of Super Apps is based on the following Key Features:
- The Always-on Experience
- Tight Integration with the Native Apps
- Proactive and Notification-driven
- Highly Contextualized
- Social and Connected
- Designed for Efficiency
As far as I can tell I cannot think of one 3rd party application that truly meets all of the 6 criteria. Can you? Now I am wondering what point RIM is trying to make with this whole Super Apps idea? Maybe they plan on giving my BlackBerry super powers…
CK Not Registered
Posted: February 17, 2010 at 3:18 PM EST from my BlackBerry 9700
IMO all the super apps sucks and needs updates! I.e. Facebook
Dan Not Registered
Posted: February 17, 2010 at 3:20 PM EST
wow, you know, except for the fact that it’s 2010 and RIM can’t even make a half-decent native AIM app. And the Facebook app always hangs on fetching friend lists or more information. And I still can’t add a msg to my calendar/tasks without a third-party add-on.
Oh yeah, and it’s 2010 and the native inbox can’t even use IMAP folders. “Super apps” my butt. Are the actual employees and developers at RIM embarrassed this week? I would be.
Other platforms are increasingly enticing.
Buff ( View Profile) Beginner - Posts: 156
Posted: February 17, 2010 at 5:41 PM EST
Let’s not forget that it is 2010 and we still can not copy an appointment to a new date in the native calendar application (this is a pet peeve).
Henrik Not Registered
Posted: February 17, 2010 at 4:03 PM EST
That is really pathetic. RIM is trying to set itself apart from iphone apps by simply defining their own criteria for “killer apps”. The criteria they mention have carefully been chosen to focus on everything iphone can’t do or at least not easily.
Or why is that they forget things like ease of use (my grandma can use it…)? Compelling UI? All strenghts of the iphone that most of todays BB apps can’t match.
Oh, btw, I have been at MWC and in the 10 minutes Mike Lazaridis was talking the basic message was: Consumer apps are nice, but enterprise apps are nicer.
papped Not Registered
Posted: February 17, 2010 at 4:21 PM EST
Call me crazy, but you just described business 101…
Henrik Not Registered
Posted: February 17, 2010 at 4:37 PM EST
I have the feeling they set up the criteria without thinking about what the customers want. Just somehow setting itself apart from iphone is not enough.
papped Not Registered
Posted: February 17, 2010 at 6:58 PM EST
It’s not news really though. Apple does this to the extreme. You don’t need this, you don’t need that. This is what you can have, this is what you can’t. You can have this app (maybe), but it can only do it this way…
The only difference is RIM doesn’t have that mass market image to skate over everything they do, good or bad.
Larry Love Not Registered
Posted: February 17, 2010 at 4:44 PM EST
Does Beejive 2.0 meet all these qualifications?
DustoMan Not Registered
Posted: February 17, 2010 at 9:16 PM EST
I think the Ebay and UPS apps are examples of “Super Apps.”
Ronen Halevy ( View Profile) Senior admin - Posts: 5299
Posted: February 17, 2010 at 9:38 PM EST
Could be since they fit many of the categories. I found the UPS app really bloated and didnt really get to try the eBay app since I stopped using it in favor of Craigslist. What do you think of the apps?
DavidB ( View Profile) Guru - Posts: 1751
Posted: February 18, 2010 at 8:08 AM EST from my BlackBerry 9530
When Craig comes off his high horse and starts giving away the app i’ll try it. I sell tons on CL and eBay but standing on principle the CL app should be free.
Fyrfyter Not Registered
Posted: February 17, 2010 at 10:42 PM EST
Make your lives easy, and stop guessing. Just listen to this 18 minute Podcast from Crackberry.com. Not only do they cover what SuperApps are, but also, info about the Webkit browser. http://crackberry.com/crackberry-podcast-we-talk-rim-mobile-world-congress-and-get-answers-webkit-browser-super-apps-and-b
Robert from Malta Not Registered
Posted: February 18, 2010 at 6:20 AM EST
I think there is a 7th criteria – must drain the battery really quickly so device is useless within half a day!!
While I am griping at BB – You cannot even use the BB App Store in Malta even though two operators market BB services and we have BES in organisations.
DavidB ( View Profile) Guru - Posts: 1751
Posted: February 18, 2010 at 8:09 AM EST from my BlackBerry 9530
Viigo could be close to “Super” but with its memory leaks it fails miserably on point #6.