Research In Motion has extended the availability of its BlackBerry App World online platform of mobile applications to customers in Australia and New Zealand.
Blackberry owners can access App World via Wi-Fi or mobile networks to access a range of applications across categories such as entertainment, IM and social networking, news, weather, and productivity.
Specific applications include BlackBerry Messenger, Bloomberg Mobile, Facebook, Flickr, The Weather Channel, Tune Wiki and UberTwitter.
App World has a number of features including top downloads, search/filter, reviews, recommend apps, applications storage, and application archiving.
“BlackBerry App World provides a fantastic new resource and enhanced experience for customers and an equally exciting business opportunity for RIM’s partners,” Adele Beachley, managing director, A/NZ at Research In Motion said in a statement.
The move comes after Optus opened a mobile app store for non-Apple devices, becoming the first Australian telco to do so in November.
Optus customers can download and purchase applications from the Optus Application Store on 2G and 3G enabled Symbian, Android, Blackberry, Windows and Java devices.
In December, Apple launched an RSS feed for iPhone app news. Developer News subscribers will receive the latest Apple App Store submission tips, such as the importance of App name and icon consistency, plus data on App Store submission approvals (92% approved within 14 days as of this writing), program updates and testing techniques.
Apple said in November that iPhone developers have created more than 100,000 apps for smartphones and market research firm IDC says there will be 300,000 by 2011. Apple roared past the 2 billion app download mark in September.
Join the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.