Research in Motion is doing more than just hoping that developers will be interested in creating apps for BlackBerry 10 - they're flat out bribing them to do so. As part of their 10K Developer Commitment, RIM is willing give developers a $10,000 bonus if their app surpasses $1,000 in sales.
The program is open to developers that are able to submit their app before BlackBerry World, RIM's annual conference scheduled to take place May 14 through May 16 in Orlando. The Canadian handset maker is limiting the program to one payout per development house, although multiple apps may be submitted for consideration. The app in question must be submitted through RIM's Built for BlackBerry approval department and when approved, must achieve at least 100 unique downloads.
As The Register points out, the restrictions are extremely reasonable but even still, one still has to wonder if enough developers will bite to give BB10 a fighting chance come next year. On one hand, a quick ten grand sounds mighty enticing, especially if you are a developer with a quality app that could meet the sales and download quotas.
Yet at the same time, you have to decide if you want to invest time in a company and an operating system that probably isn't going to challenge the Android or iOS anytime soon. At the very least, we suspect some development houses will take RIM up on their offer and simply port over an existing app from their catalog for a quick payout.