The BlackBerry Passport will officially launch next month and should be the first BlackBerry device to bring with it a streamlined BlackBerry World for Enterprise users and the Amazon Appstore for consumers.
There hasn’t been any visible sign of this streamlining taking place, with the exception of the removal of the Video and Music sections.
If the latest developer development is anything to go by then they have no intention of doing so.
Developers who currently have an app in BlackBerry World titled ‘App For…….’ have received emails notifying them that they have 48 hours to rename the app as it violates Application Naming Policy. Developers have 48 hours to rename the app or it will be removed from BlackBerry World.
Review of your Vendor account has brought to our attention that one or more of your applications violate our Application Naming policy. Please rename or remove any applications with the “App For ” naming format, where is the name of a third party brand/company/application/etc. Once completed and approved, no further action will be required, but updating any icons or screenshots is highly recommended.
Any new releases will require this name change as well (as it appears on the device). Failure to comply within 48 hours will result in removal of the application from BlackBerry World.
Let’s be clear here! This highlights just how bad BlackBerry World currently is, as these apps should never have been approved in the first place. The app naming policy has been in place for some time but BlackBerry World became all about quantity and not quality.
It also highlights the fact that BlackBerry don’t have any intention of properly streamlining BlackBerry World. If they did, these apps would simply just be removed.
Many native developers are currently waiting to see the impact of the app strategy for the Enterprise. The strategy is a simple but effective one – BlackBerry World for Enterprise, business, productivity apps, etc and the Amazon Appstore for everything else.
While its a great strategy, it looks like BlackBerry wont be executing it. What we may end up with is a mess and that will have a negative impact on developers considering coding for the enterprise, enterprise users and possibly even sales.
More importantly, Enterprise users will still have a BlackBerry World full of junk that they wouldn’t expect or want to see.
If BlackBerry want this enterprise strategy to work, and to have credibility, then they need to start streamlining BlackBerry World pretty fast and updating enterprise developers.
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