Skyfire chooses Android & kicks Blackberry below the belt!

[D_K]

Skyfire just posted the following on their blog. Looks like they feel the same way about Blackberry as I do about my Storm.

Android, Blackberry, and Beyond

by Jeff Glueck | April 7th, 2010

I wanted to comment on a topic about which we get a lot of questions: our timing around release on Android, Blackberry, and other operating systems. Much as we would like to provide full transparency on our roadmap, we have to keep in mind that we are a Silicon Valley start-up in a very competitive space, and we cannot give away our development plans to competitors.
That said, it’s a good moment to share with people some decisions we’ve made. We decided to place Android development ahead of Blackberry a few months ago. We’ve since put all our efforts into Android and have some great stuff to show for it (soon!). This required us to pause our Blackberry work for now. Here’s why we took this approach:

1. We see Android as a fast-rising ecosystem, with a rich, totally open developer environment, a healthy app market and a healthy advertising and search ecosystem. The Android OS has a tremendous amount of interest from handset makers and carriers, and also has a strong need for making the explosion of video more network optimized (Skyfire’s wheelhouse).
2. The Blackberry developer environment is not as favorable for cutting-edge application development. The APIs are fragmented and inconsistent, and the Java virtual machine Blackberry requires is not efficient. While Blackberry users are desperate for a better browser - we know, and we hear them - we only want to bring out something that meets our high standards and is truly great.
3. The timing makes sense to return to Blackberry in the future. Blackberry has pledged to improve their developer environment in their 6.0 OS coming at the end of this year, and we can’t wait to see it. Blackberry has said at that time they will introduce a webkit browser with server-side assist on html and text, developed based on their acquisition of Torch Mobile. We understand it will be a long way from able to handle native Flash 10.1 and similar rich media plug-ins, and we think we can build on that webkit engine and add cloud-based new features around it.

The bigger picture is that Webkit based smartphone browsers are proliferating, and we are aligning in that technology direction. We see a lot of need to make these browsers better, and believe that our cloud platform can be the answer. We’re looking at other Webkit platforms beyond Android already, and will share more information when we feel it’s appropriate.
We appreciate the community’s efforts to help us refine our products. We’ll definitely be incorporating feedback from Blackberry Alpha testers when the time is right – and we owe a great deal of thanks those Blackberry alpha testers for their time and input. As you may have read, we just announced our Android alpha and got a resounding response – we heard from over 3000 applicants in just a few hours and selected 30 Alpha testers who are getting their invitations today.
Look out for more exciting announcements from Skyfire soon. Follow us on Twitter or Facebook to know as soon as new launches are available. Thanks for your interest and support.
Jeff

 

[claustin]

That's funny. Suck it, RIM.

 

[M1dnite]

That is really a RIM shot.

 

[djdavid60]

That is really a RIM shot.

LOL! Good one!

I can't stand Blackberry. As an IT Network Administrator, it really bugs me that we have to support and maintain a dedicated Blackberry Enterprise server for our sales staff to receive email on their not-so-smart phones.

With how great the Droid and iPhone Exchange clients work, it's no wonder Bleckkkberry is seeing constant decline in market share. They are about 5 years behind the "Curve" no pun intended.

 

[cereal killer]

As an IT Network Administrator, it really bugs me that we have to support and maintain a dedicated Blackberry Enterprise server
.

not to mention the expense....