Research In Motion today launches BlackBerry App World, the company’s new on-device application store for BlackBerry smartphones.
RIM says that BlackBerry App World is immediately available to BlackBerry smartphone users in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada, with more country launches to follow. Users in these countries can download the BlackBerry App World application to their BlackBerry smartphone by visiting www.blackberry.com/appworld from their handset (available for BlackBerry smartphones with a trackball or touch-screen running BlackBerry device software 4.2 or higher).
According to RIM, BlackBerry App World is designed to automatically present the relevant catalog of applications available for a user’s specific BlackBerry smartphone model.
MacDailyNews Take: Sounds like a developer’s worst nightmare come true.
Users can access BlackBerry App World over both Wi-Fi and cellular networks. Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO at Research In Motion, will highlight BlackBerry App World in his keynote this morning at CTIA 2009 in Las Vegas.
Applications on BlackBerry App World can be reviewed by users and those reviews are reflected in star ratings. Users can easily access and read reviews from other users, see screenshots and read a description of each application before they download it. BlackBerry App World supports both free and for-purchase applications.
MacDailyNews Take: Something about this sounds familiar and, the funny thing is, we literally can put our finger on it.
RIM says that they expect “approximately 1,000 applications” to be posted by partners on BlackBerry App World this week.
More info here.
MacDailyNews Take: What a great idea! How in the world did RIM ever come up with this concept?
