Future plans of Handbase for Blackberry

[g.dubbeld]

Hello,

I was wondering what the future plans for the handbase app on the blackberry?
Is the current version i have (4.1.5.01) still be worked on? How often does a new version being released?
Is there a version history document i can find and read?

[dhaupert]

Hi there,

To be honest the BlackBerry version has been very difficult for me. Not only can it not benefit from any of the libraries we use for working with HanDBase databases (because RIM does not support c or C++ compilation, they are java only), but there are many other limitations that have made delivering a great solution a challenge. I'm sure that if I had a team of programmers or devoted my time solely to the BlackBerry version, I could remedy the current application and make it a stellar product. But in reality neither are options for a small company like DDH, and unfortunately the interest level in third party software by customers on BlackBerry is no where near it's counterparts in the market in terms of potential.

So the shorter answer is that there are not a lot of plans for the BlackBerry version. I don't have any near term plans to add much in the way of features, and it's possible the entire product may be discontinued in the near future. I know that's not a promising outlook, and I'm trying to be as candid as possible so you can make an educated decision.

I have found BlackBerry users to be among the kindest, most forgiving and patient customers I've encountered since starting this business in 1997 and for the sake of those people I wish I could find a way to really focus on and improve the application, but unfortunately times are proving challenging everywhere, and DDH is no exception. I have to focus on the avenues that give me the greatest chance at a paycheck in the future! I hope this makes sense and that you understand my reasons.

[g.dubbeld]

Thank you for your honest replay and this on a forum of the users. I will take this all on considerment while i am still trialing the software.
I have prosponed to get finally rid of the palm until now. Maybe the pricing can be lowered if the development has stopped?

[g.dubbeld]

I did some research of other apps or methods to get my data readable and editable from my blackberry. But Handbase still rules!!! No replacement is out there.
Please, try to pick up the development again within your company. With a bit of good marketing it should be picking up the sales like with the palm period of time. What is the main focus of the handbase company at this point?

One thing what is really annoying is the back button doesn't warn you and give an option to save. All other bb apps works this way.
I have to be so carefull 'not hitting the back button', to preserve my changes.

[g.dubbeld]

I purchaged the app for blackberry. It is still the only best app available for blackberry. I hope some development can be picked up, so some minor flaws can be corrected.

[sagalljr]

Will these limitations in the Blackberry platform also apply to the Playbook and QNX? I have seen no peer to using hanDbase for small portable devices, as other database programs have slowly died off ( Smartlist to go, etc).

[dhaupert]

Hi there,

It's very early to tell how QNX effects the BlackBerry's future, as I don't know what the development environment will be going forward. For the PlayBook, they announced that it will be able to run Android applications. In that respect, it's great news since we have a much more capable Android version of HanDBase already available.

Unfortunately that functionality is not yet present in the playbook, but when it is, I expect to investigate further to verify this! Assuming this works as we all hope, then hopefully the BlackBerry future OS's will migrate towards this as well..

[moneil]

I was at Staples last night and played around with the Blackberry Playbook with QNX OS and I was REALLY impressed. It looked a lot like WebOS with the cards, and they claim true multitasking (but I didn't have a enough time to really check it all out). Defiently it was a much nicer "user experience" than Android (or IOS, in my opinion, but my experience with that has been only on store demo units).

The "Blackberry Bridge" feature for pairing the phone and the tablet is exactly what I had once hoped for with a HP/Palm Touchpad and Pre3. Maybe BB will fullfill that dream, but there is still the "database" issue, and until that's solved I'll live with Android (and no pairing between phone and tablet).

One wonders if QNX presents the same development challenges to an application like HanDBase as the Blackberry OS does, and if QNX would eventually become the OS for Blackberry phones?

The Blackberry web site says "Plus, many of your favorite apps for BlackBerry smartphones and Android® will soon be available. All in BlackBerry App World™." It will be interesting to see how they work that (an emulator mode like Classic with WebOS?) but a good marketing move on their part, IMO. Even with the small Pre screen, with WebOS multitasking I would often have HanDBase open in the Classic card and either contacts or maybe a spreadsheet in the documents editor on another card and view informaton side by side ~ I loved it. IF HP would not have killed off Classic (and allowed it to run full screen on the TP) they would have kept my business for the time being, despite all the current commotion.

I am liking my "rooted" Nook Color enough that I've been thinking about a larger Android tablet (the Acer Iconia, with a full sized USB port for thumb drives, a full size SD card reader and a HDMI port, maximising flexibility and versitility for a field unit). Now I'm thinking I should wait awhile ~ there could be some interesting opportunities coming up.

[dhaupert]

Hi there,

I agree that QNX is a huge improvement over the BlackBerry OS, and they ARE planning on making this their new OS for BlackBerry devices as early as next year. To me, that's the only hope RIM has at not going the way of the dinosaur.

That said, I think this means the HanDBase for BlackBerry will not be running on BlackBerry devices for much longer- it sounds like the S60 path or the WebOS path where old apps are no longer compatible after a certain release.

In regards to Android compatibility- the Android OS is actually a linux based system and there is an open source layer called Dalvik that runs the apps and does the java stuff that is needed for the apps. That's what they are using on the playbook- they ported that to run on top of their QNX system instead of the Android OS and thus apps will run. From what I heard they run as good as they do on a XOOM or similar, so this will be a huge feature for them to grow their catalog quickly and get HanDBase support quickly!

I don't know if the future Blackberry devices will also have this but I hope they do- will make my life easier that's for sure!

[dhaupert]

As a followup to what I posted yesterday I saw this:
http://www.engadget.com/2011/08/25/blac ... x-devices/

Sounds like I'm not the only one wondering about this. I think if RIM did go this route, it would be great for their platform- probably their only chance at having a sizable app catalog!