Socialscope, the best (or worst) BlackBerry app ever

If you have a BlackBerry chances are you’ve heard of SocialScope. The app, which offers access to Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks, has caused quite a buzz but not for the reasons you may expect. In the BlackBerry world it appears you either love the app or hate it. Why? Well for starters it’s been locked in hidden beta for well over a year now, and although you can apply for an invite on their site, good luck getting it. Although an automated email says it’ll show up in a few weeks, many BB owners have been waiting 6-8 months or more, while others claim they got theirs within minutes. This has caused endless frustration among BB users. Those lucky enough to have gotten an invite have their own frustrations. For reasons unknown some testers get the updates while others are left with older betas. Emails and tweets offering feedback, complaints, or both are almost always ignored. Although the app still is not available to the public and at this rate may never be, the publicity the company has generated for itself is not exactly something to be proud of. The poor handling of invites, updates, and user feedback has given the app an elitist air about it which has left a bad taste in many people’s mouths. A thread on the Crackberry.com forums has well over 100 posts, most from angry users.

If that weren’t bad enough, the developer likes to spend time on Twitter bashing RIM. “Twitter for BlackBerry seems to have borrowed/stolen UI elements from SocialScope…but they got the whole experience wrong.” he said in one Tweet, “”Hahaha Mike Lazardis on mobile apps ‘what matters is quality not quantity’ So what if your platform doesn’t have much quality or quantity?” said another.

I guess he doesn’t realize publically bashing the platform you want your app to run on really isn’t the brightest idea. Aspiring BB app developers out there should take this as a what not to do to insure your app is a success. The app does have it’s loyal fans and fanboys, but judging from the sheer volume of angry feedback SocialScope is getting, it may have seriously shot itself in the foot before it even got out of the gate.

Read [Crackberry.com]