RIM Pulls In 15,000 New BB10 App Submissions
Research In Motion’s efforts to incentivize developers to port their apps to its new BlackBerry 10 operating system appear to be paying off. Over the weekend, RIM held two Portathons, during which developers were urged to port their apps to BlackBerry 10. The incentive offered: $100 for any app approved to the store, along with the chance to win some free hardware. End result: Thousands of app submissions in less than two days.
“Well there you have it. 37.5 hours in, we hit 15,000 apps for this portathon,” Alec Saunders, RIM’s vice president of developer relations tweeted. “Feel like I’ve run a marathon. Thanks to all the devs!”
So, 15,000 app submissions in a single weekend. Impressive, though it’s unlikely that every app submitted will be approved for sale. That said, many will be, and that’s good for the BlackBerry 10 ecosystem, which RIM is obviously doing all it can to bolster prior to the operating system’s official launch in about two weeks. Meanwhile, investor sentiment toward RIM continues to improve. The company’s shares spiked as much as 11 percent this morning in anticipation of RIM’s forthcoming make-or-break OS release.