Despite facing intense pressure from the competition and even just critics to deliver a solid new product that will patch up the holes in RIM’s sinking ship, the company is off to somewhat of a good start filling its app marketplace with BlackBerry 10-ready apps. RIM gave developers a few incentives to get their apps submitted and they seemed to have worked out pretty well.
VP of Developer Relations at RIM, Alec Saunders, tweeted out yesterday that the number of apps submitted from the Portathon hit 15,000. “Well there you have it. 37.5 hours in, we hit 15,000 apps for this portathon. Feel like I’ve run a marathon. Thanks to all the devs!” he writes.
The aforementioned incentives were two “Portathon” events in which developers were encouraged to get their apps submitted and a cool $100 reward to any developer who got their app approved. There were also bonus prizes for developers who did a little extra work. Anyone to submit between two and five apps automatically won a free BlackBerry PlayBook tablet and those submitting over five apps were entered into a contest for one random winner to receive a BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha handset.
It’s important to note that Saunders only mentioned the number of apps submitted, not the number of apps approved yet, so all 15,000 may not make it in the App World; the vast majority should though. RIM’s banking on a strong app marketplace to attract attention BlackBerry 10 and prove that it’s a worthy competitor, especially to Microsoft’s Windows Phone.