Comments
Research in Motion (RIM), the maker of the BlackBerry phones, is catching up with young developers and start-ups to populate its app (application) store with more games to mark the launch of its new operating system – BB10.
It has launched an Asia-wide campaign to tell the game developers “how easy it is to port games on the BlackBerry platform”.
With local mobile manufacturers inundating the market with smartphones and multinational brands posing a threat in the premium segment, the Canadian phone maker seems to have increased its focus on strengthening the app store.
On Wednesday, it kicked off the BlackBerry Game Port-a-thon campaign in India here. Amateur and professional game developers turned up at the day-long event where BB’s game evangelists and a few game companies gave presentations.
The phone maker has lined up such Port-a-thon events at Bangkok (Thailand), Sydney (Australia), Singapore, Bandung (Indonesia), Mumbai and Hong Kong.
Rewards
In order to attract the developers, the firm announced rewards. “If they can get a game app approved on App World (BB’s app store), they will get $100 for each application. If they are in the first 10 from your city to get at least 5-10 game approves, they will receive a BB 10 Developer Alpha device,” it said, while inviting the developers to the event.
All the approved games will get a week of marketing in the Asia-Pacific, the Gulf and Africa. Those who want to take part can submit their apps within seven days of the event.
“We are telling them how to create vendor ID (identity), how to create, publish and monetise from their games. The revenues from the download of game apps have gone up. We are getting 20 per cent of revenues on AppWorld from this segment,” Annie Matthew, Director (Alliances and Business Development) of RIM India, told Business Line on the sidelines of the event.
She, however, refused to speak on the AppWorld revenue figures.
The Mumbai Port-a-thon will be held on December 14.
kurmanath.kanchi@thehindu.co.in
Comments
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.