Blackberry Z10 (left) and Q10 (right)
credit: Ubergizmo
Has the great migration begun? Lots of my BBM contacts are (unknowingly?) updating their BBM status to “Saya berpindah ke BlackBerry 10” (I have migrated to BlackBerry 10), so it’s a good time to see how Indonesian developers have responded to the adoption of BB10 devices in Indonesia.
For the record, BlackBerry managed to sell 7,000 Z10s (the first of its next-gen phones that runs BB10) in Indonesia in the first few days after it launched. The keyboard-equipped Q10 was launched a few weeks ago; however one of Indonesia’s biggest telcos, Telkomsel, admitted that Q10 preorders did not perform as well as the Z10.
If BlackBerry is to survive against strong competition from Android, it needs local developers to be making lots of fun and useful apps. So we’ve rounded up seven and sorted them according to their popularity in the BlackBerry World app store in Indonesia. Note that we don’t have download numbers for the apps. The list excludes ported Android apps, so we’re only looking at apps designed purely for BB10.
PicMix – Photo app PicMix surpassed 10 million users two months ago across all its apps. The app’s BB10 version was just released one month ago but has quickly leapt to the top of the charts in the country.
FaceMix – Coming from the creator of PicMix, FaceMix allows you to create a digital avatar by combining different faces, eyes, noses, and other additional elements. It is similar to the character builder in RPG games, but just for faces. FaceMix is also integrated with PicMix.
MyTRANS – MyTRANS is made specifically to stream TransTV and Trans7 (two local TV stations). You can also check the TV schedule via the app and watch recorded TV shows via video on demand service.
LewatMana for BlackBerry 10 – LewatMana allows people to check the CCTV cameras that monitor main roads in big cities in Indonesia (Jakarta, Bandung, Bali, Surabaya, Tangerang, Bekasi, and Depok) to see how the traffic looks.
Masak Apa – Masak Apa means “What to Cook”, and as the name suggests it’s an app that catalogs and displays recipes. Each pack of recipes is downloaded separately so they can be accessed offline even when users don’t have a reliable data connection.
Soccer Ticker – If you’re a football fan, this is your app for match updates and scores. The app won Blackberry Asia JamHack Asia in 2012 and has proved to be pretty popular in this soccer-crazy country. You can read our coverage of Soccer Ticker ທີ່ນີ້.
Gadgetan – Gadgetan is a gadget lover’s news feed. In addition to the mobile app, there is also a web version that calls itself a community (though oddly there’s no way for users to sign up on the website). Gadgetan is developed by the same team behind Soccer Ticker.
We look forward to seeing what else Indonesian devs can come up with for BlackBerry 10 as more users start embracing the upgrade.
(Edited by Charlie Custer)