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Mar. 8, 2009

RIM (Research in Motion) says that it is planning to open an online store for its popular Blackberry smartphone. Supposedly called Blackberry App World, the new online store aims to be a convenient location for BlackBerry owners to download games, social networks, personal productivity applications and more.

The Blackberry App World will feature freeware applications along with for-pay apps. Pricing for the applications will start at zero, then will jump to $2.99 at the low end and at an incredible $999.99 on the very high end of the spectrum.

Blackberry App World currently is only open to mobile developers, but there is a sign up page for users who want to be notified of when App World goes live for the public.

There are a plethora of applications and themes for Blackberries, but they are scattered all around the Internet, sometimes on some confusing websites.

The problem is aggravated when the software is installed via the Blackberry Desktop Software rather then being downloaded directly onto the phone. If the the software is easy to install while using the phone, the store will be a welcome addition to the popular smartphone.

While the store is a good idea, it's not above criticism. Some people are complaining that the $2.99 minimum price as being too high, citing the $0.99 minimum at the iPhone store. Along with the $2.99 minimum, RIM is charging a $200 administration fee for every 10 application submissions.

While people aren't so happy about the decision, it could work to keep the clutter down, and it has been suggested that Apple should implement a similar policy to cut down on the chaff in the App Store.

Once RIM opens its new Blackberry App World store, only Nokia, Microsoft and Palm will be left waiting for them to follow suit with similar online stores.

Additionally, platform fragmentation is another concern among some observers. App World will only stock software designed for Blackberries with the 4.2 operating system and a trackball, but the current Blackberry line is a very complex mix of phones with varying equipment levels.

The Blackberry Bold has Wi-Fi, GPS, 3-G radio and a QWERTY keyboard.

The Blackberry Storm has GPS, 3G radio and a touchscreen, and the Curve and Pearl are older pre-3G models with their own hardware specs.

Wireless and mobile developers are also worried about having to support all of the devices or being locked to just one single device.

Others disagree. Time will tell if RIM will narrow down the list of its various Blackberries that it offers its users, or if it intends to phase out a few models in 2009.

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Source: Research in Motion.