While developing mobile apps Flock and Ringo (a team chat app and an international voice-calling app), serial entrepreneur Bhavin Turakhia decided to give the BlackBerry operating system (OS) a miss. He instead developed them for Android, iOS (Apple’s OS), Windows, Mac and Chrome.
Why? “We had spent a lot of time researching on the operating systems and found that the usage of BlackBerry was steadily falling over the past few years. We have never built for BlackBerry and have no intention to do so,” said Turakhia, Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Flock and Ringo.
Ditto is the case at Truckmandi.in, an online marketplace for trucks. The start-up launched a mobile app — TruckMandi — for Android, while an iOS version is in the works.
App hotbed
“The penetration of Android platform is much higher and is steadily increasing, while that of BlackBerry is dwindling,” said Truckmandi Co-Founder Ankit Singh. India is emerging as the hotbed of mobile applications, with an app now available for every need, ranging from hiring a cab to measuring air quality in a city.
But when it comes to BlackBerry OS, developers are turning a blind eye.
BlackBerry and Windows Phone have four per cent share each, while that of HTML5 and JavaME stand at a meagre one per cent.
“Globally, as well as within India, the most widely adopted operating systems are the iOS and Android platforms. Developers are increasingly building apps for global adoption, and prioritise iOS and Android platforms,” said Christopher Klotzbach, Head of Product Marketing at Flurry.
Similar trend
A review by BusinessLine of as many as 50 mobile apps also revealed a similar trend. Mobile apps such as Truemessenger (Truecaller’s SMS app), HeyBiz (a chat app for businesses), Blueair (an app to measure air pollution), mrright.in (a home services aggregation app) and Wegilant (a mobile security services firm), among others, have not opted for BlackBerry.
BlackBerry declined to comment.