RIM joining Google and Apple with app store for Blackberry
By Susan Wilson
My stepson has an iPhone and I have a Blackberry Curve 8320. We are forever comparing our devices and different apps (applications). I have the best business apps and he has fun though senseless apps like a downloadable Zippo lighter whose flame will shift as you tilt your iPhone. Cute but . . . .
With the advent of iPhone, and soon Google phone, online applications storefronts (app stores), RIM (Research in Motion) is feeling a need to create its own dedicated storefront for developers. RIM will also be providing carrier customizable app centers for installation on Blackberry’s right out of the box.
Unlike Apple or Google, that have never sold applications through established online stores, RIM applications have been available for quite some time through Handango, Handmark, and a variety of Blackberry specific websites.
RIM’s new application storefront, which according to Rim’s website will be available in March of 2009, may actually be a boon for developers. Developers will be able to set their own prices and keep 80% of the proceeds from the sale of their apps. Not a bad deal considering that selling apps through an already established online store will result in a much lower percentage for developers.
It will be interesting to see how Handango and Handmark will respond. Both stores have been selling applications for Palm OS and Windows Mobile OS devices for years. These sites only started selling Blackberry applications within the past few years.
RIM also announced that a new carrier specific app center would be created so that Blackberrry owners could buy and download apps from the homepage of their smartphones. Handmark currently provides a widget that you can download that will give owners the same ease of use.
Clearly these new initiatives of RIMs are less for hardcore Blackberry fanatics than the new entertainment smartphone users that RIM has begun to lure into its fold. Most business oriented Blackberry users will download the applications that will refine the workhorse image of their devices.
The new more entertainment oriented Blackberry users might find the new dedicated app store more appealing – especially if it carries cool apps like a downloadable Zippo.
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