RIM launched it’s very own application store yesterday, giving Blackberry users quick, on-portal access to third-party apps. Downloadable from mobile.blackberry.com or blackberry.com/appworld, the release has drawn inevitable comparisons to the iPhone App Store. With Blackberry joining the ever-growing ranks of those who have launched their own app store, the question is have they done a good job?
So, what’s the general opinion?
The overall impression is that RIM has made some odd choice, but the overall experience is good.
User-experience: the home screen for App World offers the user four options for downloading apps. There’s a constantly updating carousel that displays new and hot apps. There’s a Top 25 page for the most popular apps. There’s a category search page (currently comprising 13 categories, including entertainment, games, maps and navigation, news and weather, and social networking and sharing). Finally, there’s a keyword search function.
There were somewhere near 200 apps available within a few hours of launch, most of them games. RIM predicts 1,000 apps by the end of the week!
Pricing: The lowest pricing point for apps is $2.99. There are free apps available also, but that’s the lowest price for premium apps.
All PayPal, all the time: In a move that’s caused a few raised eyebrows, RIM has only included one payment option – PayPal. Don’t like PayPal? Tough luck. The upside of that is that a record is kept of all the apps you’ve bought or downloaded for free, making it a snap to re-acquire them if you get a new Blackberry.
A bit slow: There have been numerous complaints that the App World simply isn’t as snappy as the iPhone store.
Developer partnerships: RIM has a much more hands-on approach with it’s app developers than iPhone. Rather than just release SDKs, RIM partners and gets personally involved with every app being released. While that may limit or slow the amount of apps available, it also guarantees a high level of integration and quality, and sidesteps security problems that have arisen on more open platforms.
For a slew of good pics of the new store, check out http://content.zdnet.com/2346-17932_22-283848.html
What we think?
While this really does look like a good app store, I have to raise the point that there’s going to be too many bloody app stores. Windows Sky Market and Nokias Ovi will be along soon, causing more pains-in-the-neck for app developers. Apps have been freely available to Blackberry users for years now, but since iPhone came along everyone has to have an app store. We’ll see where this leads.
