BlackBerry CEO demands application neutrality from Legislators to be included in net neutrality act

In a latest blogpost published on BlackBerry website, BlackBerry CEO John Chen, says that legislatures should include application neutrality in net neutrality act. For a common person, it means that BlackBerry CEO demanded that any company which makes an app for Android or iOS or any other platform should develop a version for BlackBerry and for all other mobile operating systems too.

Currently, both Android and iOS sit on top of the smartphone market. Therefore, developers of apps usually target these two platforms, leaving BlackBerry, Windows Phone and other low level operating systems out of it. This means that that both the Android and iOS enjoy far more number of apps than BlackBerry and Windows Phone.

In support of his argument, Chen said that BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) service is available for Apple iPhone users but on the contrary, Apple’s iMessage messaging service is not available on other platforms. He also wrote that, “Neutrality must be mandated at the application and content layer if we truly want a free, open and non-discriminatory internet.”

Chen also criticized Netflix for discriminating against BlackBerry users by not allowing streaming movie service available to them. He said that Netflix has been a great advocate for carrier neutrality and yet it doesn’t provide its streaming service to BlackBerry users.

Chen said that developers are creating a two-tier system in which Android and iOS users get far more access to content and apps than users who are using devices running other operating systems. He stated that this is exactly the type of behavior that has been criticized at the carrier level.

Developers, on the other hand, have alternate reasons as to why they prefer certain platforms over the other. According to them, development time, resources availability including money and tech for testing purposes are few of the reasons why their apps arrive on any platform before the other.