RIM Begins Looking for Apps for Its “App Store”

      by Wyatt Walter

RIM has announced it is looking for software developers to create apps for its answer to the Apple App Store. RIM, the maker of Blackberry announced in October that it was going to launch a central store to buy applications for Blackberry devices similar to the Apple and Google stores which has helped the platforms’ popularity. Having the store would mean that users would have just one place to go to get new applications as well as updates for those applications. Giving developers easier access to users makes the platform much more attractive and will help embed Blackberries into businesses as well as create a more pain-free experience for consumers. Applications that are submitted will have to go through a review process, much like the Apple store.

RIM and Palm seem to have settled in to do battle with Apple over the smart phone market. Meanwhile, Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer seems to think Apple should be the one adapting its own strategies and laughed it off before it was even released. Obviously, RIM has a lot more to lose than Microsoft if they lose their share of the smart phone market place (well, they have everything to lose..), but Ballmer doesn’t even seem to be taking the iPhone seriously. Time will tell on whether or not this new store from RIM will help the Blackberry, but it certainly helped the iPhone and iPod Touch. As long as RIM can release a good SDK and keep the developers happy, RIM’s new store should help them get entrenched in the market even better than before. The store was promised to be launched in March of 2009.

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Filed under News : Comments (0) : Jan 23rd, 2009