BlackBerry CEO Calls For “Platform Agnostic” App Development

The net neutrality debate is one of the most important in the U.S. history, but BlackBerry’s CEO John Chen seems to be interested in bringing the debate to more markets.

More specifically, Chen claims net neutrality should expand to application development, making apps available on all platforms. This would make services like iMessage on Windows Phone, alongside having apps like Snapchat forced to port to Windows Phone, BB10 and the myriad of other platforms.

Chen brought up the example of Netflix, which is currently not available on BlackBerry smartphones. Netflix has low success on mobile, but is one of those storefront apps to reel buyers into devices.

The idea of being “platform agnostic” might work if all platforms were built the same, but iOS, Android, Windows Phone and BB10 all use different variations of the C++ language, both open and closed source, making it hard for developers to commit to four separate operating systems.

Revenue is another big reason for developers not being “agnostic”. iOS still makes the most revenue out of all platforms, followed by Android, and then Windows Phone is way behind.

Chen has been moving away from typical phone company views, claiming his main goal is in the businesses sector and not consumer. This would mean BlackBerry is less concerned on a small app marketplace, but still needs it for BlackBerry Classic owners.

There have been rumors Samsung is in talks with BlackBerry for a $7.5 billion acquisition, a move to beef up Samsung’s enterprise services and patents. This would remove the issue with the marketplace, considering Samsung would most likely push Android onto BlackBerry devices.