The $10k Developer Commitment

In preparation for the launch of their BlackBerry 10 phones and OS, RIM is running what it calls the $10k Developer Commitment. The gist of it is that they wanted to have as many apps as possible available at launch, so to encourage developers, they made the following offer: If your app is available on launch day and achieves a minimum of $1000 in sales over the course of the next calendar year, then RIM will top you off to $10,000. For example, if you had sales of exactly $2300, they'd give you $7700. This seems like a pretty good deal until you get into the details.

In order to qualify for the $10k deal, your app must receive the Built for BlackBerry designation in time for launch and retain it throughout the calendar year. So, if they change the rules partway through the 12-month period and you fall out of compliance for a period of 120 days, then you get nothing, regardless of how much your app has already earned.

Further, the total amount available for disbursement is only $10 million. Assuming an average payout of $5000, that means only 2000 developers will get anything. If you manage to creep above $1000 on January 29, 2014 but the fund is already exhausted, then you get nothing.

Of course, the real issue is qualifying for the Built for BlackBerry designation in the first place. The list of criteria covers seven areas from 'User Benefits' to 'Security'. I submitted 'Awesome Sudoku' just to check out the process; I didn't expect it to pass, but I wanted to see how the approval process works. It took so long to get any feedback that I wound up submitting pretty much everything I've made for BB10 regardless of my expectations of success. Then, when I finally did get a response, it wasn't terribly helpful. I got an email this morning telling me what changes I could make to qualify. It included the following three bullet points:
· Improved game play

· Better graphics

· More Feature(sic)

As far as I can tell, that basically translates to 'Make your game better'.

Now, Awesome Sudoku is by no means the most exciting app out there. It's sudoku; there's only so much you can do. However, it's polished enough that if its sales translate from the Playbook to phones, it should cross the $1000 barrier. So, I have to wonder just exactly what the point of the $10k Commitment is. If my little sudoku app can clear a thousand bucks, anything with enough flash and pizazz to qualify for BfB designation should easily cross the $10,000 mark on its own.

Ultimately, I think it was a good way to attract developers, but I don't think the program will turn out to be terribly good for the developers themselves.