14 DAY TRIAL // Canadian mobile phone maker Research In Motion has just announced the release of BlackBerry Analytics Service 1.0 for the developers of applications for its mobile operating system.
The new service is powered by webtrends and has been made available for all developers who come up with Java-based apps for BlackBerry smartphones. It is available at no charge for up to 25,000,000 server calls per month.
With BlackBerry Analytics, developers will be able to collect and analyze data on the manner in which their applications are being used. Thus, developers can learn more on how users are engaging with their applications, and then come up with improvements to enhance the experience.
“BlackBerry Analytics Service 1.0 provides more than 20 interactive reports that can supply useful insights about how your app is being used,” a recent post on BlackBerry Developers reads.
In the first screenshot to the left you can see the Key Metrics report, which shows how the average number of users has been growing for the past few weeks.
“So if the app developer monitors this report, they could track the positive response to the launch of a new version of their app and evaluate the success of marketing activities on specific days,” the said post explains.
Developers will also learn when their applications are being used the most.
The second screenshot shows the Events report, which will provide developers with details on the features that their applications pack and which are being used the most.
“This report shows the relative frequency of various events – basically meaning the usage of a particular feature,” the blog post explains.
“In this sample app, we see that searching by Category is much more popular than searching by SearchBar. Based on this insight, the developer could work to further improve their Category search functionality and release a new version of their app that would be even more appealing to their users.”
The Analytics Service is easy to integrate. It can be used with BlackBerry Device Software v4.5 or higher. The SDK is available for download from Softpedia via this link. Devs will need to add the library to their app, and then select the specific user action they want to capture.
Additional info on the matter and registration for the service are available on RIM's website here and here.
