Believe it or not, there are actually quite a few, extremely good, very high quality apps out for the BlackBerry PlayBook. The issue, however, is that they are almost impossible to find unless you already know they exist.
The problem here is app discovery, and, to be honest, every mobile platform struggles with it. BlackBerry App World, though, seems to be especially bad at it, as it is virtually impossible to find apps unless you visit BlackBerry App World from a BlackBerry PlayBook, and, even then, there is much to be desired.
Many of the apps currently on BlackBerry App World for the BlackBerry PlayBook will run on BlackBerry 10 devices when they ship. Research in Motion knows that application support for BlackBerry 10 is a critical factor to the success of BlackBerry 10, and, is exactly why RIM is making a big deal out of the the number of apps that will be available for BlackBerry 10 at launch.
That being said, RIM must dramatically improve app discovery in BlackBerry App World, and, the company would be wise to start by making it easy to find BlackBerry PlayBook apps well in advance of the launch of BlackBerry 10.
Consumers will scrutinize BlackBerry 10 over the apps that are available for the platform at launch. RIM has to, not only make it easy to find apps on BlackBerry 10 devices, but, make it easy to find apps from the web before a consumer even decides to purchase a BlackBerry10 device.
BlackBerry 10 is still several months away, but, RIM could start building buzz around apps now if only it made finding BlackBerry PlayBook apps easier.
RIM could also generate buzz buy announcing the big ticket cross platform apps that will be available on BlackBerry 10, like NetFlix, Instagram, Flipboard, and, Dropbox, etc., however, I will leave that discussion for another post…