Does RIM’s App World measure up to Apple’s App Store?
RIM’s App World officially opened up for business yesterday, and the big question on everyone’s mind is “How will this measure up versus Apple’s iPhone App Store?” Ultimately, this will be determined not only by end user adoption of applications served up by the store but also by the number of developers providing applications as well. For RIM, this is a much needed capability, and up until now, the market for add-on applications for BlackBerries has been a patchwork composed of carrier mobile stores, RIM’s own site, software company sites, and third-party web sites like Handango. Getting customers to buy these apps has understandably been somewhat difficult, as each store had completely different ways of paying and of getting the apps licensed. In contrast, Apple has gone for simplicity, handling the licensing and payments (tied to a user’s Apple ID which is connected to a credit card) and sold around 300 million apps through the end of 2008. The trojan horse for Apple was also applic
