Blackberry App World Announced

by Jordan Yerman | March 5, 2009 at 10:19 am

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Blackberry's application store is now online, though it's the smartphone equivalent of a store with butcher-paper over its windows. Don't call it the "app store", though... the storefront is called App World.

It seems like a sensible interface, since Crackberry users are already versed in modifying their handsets via BES (Blackberry Exchange Server), even for tweaks like ringtone-changing.

Also, the call is out for developers to submit applications for the store.

Price-wise, though, it gets weird: applications are either free, or beginning at a price point of US$2.99. By comparison, the least-expensive (non-free) iPhone app is 99 cents, but I'm not sure how much this difference will affect prospective buyers, since this is only one of many functional differences between the two devices.

Is this a bit to weed out fluff apps (like iBoobs or whatever), or a play for those expense-account dollars?

Support for the Gears Web application framework and other tools will help to make Web applications into "first-class citizens" on the BlackBerry, said Alan Brenner, senior vice president of the BlackBerry Platform, at the company's first developer conference.

BlackBerry App World will work with RIM devices running the company's operating system (version 4.2 or higher) that have a trackball or a SurePress touchscreen (as in the BlackBerry Storm). Initially available in the U.S., Canada, and U.K, App World users must also have a PayPal account to buy applications from the store.