RIM to Launch New BlackBerry App Store in India

Apple really grabbed the attention of everyone involved in the mobile device market when it came up with the iPhone App Store even if things have not always gone as smoothly as users might have liked.

Then, just last month, we reported how Microsoft was looking to enter the App Store business with 'Skymarket' for Windows Mobile downloads early next year.

Now, pretty much inevitably, Research in Motion has announced at the BlackBerry Developer Conference in California that it has two major new 'distribution initiatives' for BlackBerry applications.

These take the shape of a new online application storefront plus a new 'on-device' application centre to provide consumers with easy discovery of and access to a wide range of BlackBerry apps. Those businesses with either BlackBerry Enterprise Server or Professional Software deployments will still control the applications that can be downloaded within the corporate infrastructure.

RIM tells me that the application storefront is scheduled for a March 2009 debut, but BlackBerry developers can start submitting stuff for inclusion as soon as December. The pricing model has also been confirmed, with developers being allowed to set their own prices.

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