BlackBerry App World hits one billion downloads and it took a smidge over two years for the company to claim the milestone. A number of factors have likely led to the relative snail’s pace in the BlackBerry storefront, including the outfit’s rocky relationship with developers and the company has begun a video series that allows seasoned RIM aficionados to offer their rationale for working with the mobile OS…………….
BlackBerry App World, RIM‘s online software program store for its BlackBerry smartphones and the PlayBook tablet has now reached one billion total downloads. The store was launched in April of 2009 and represents a relatively slow growth. To put Apple‘s numbers into perspective, five billion of that total was achieved in the last six months, so the App Store nearly achieved in each of those last six months what RIM has in more than two years. The Android Market, in comparison, reached 4.5 billion app downloads in June and was launched at the end of October, 2008. Reasons for the slow development haven’t ever been officially given, but multiple rough development sets and a lack of clear guidance have been common factors. PlayBook developers have complained about a lack of explanation and the need to pay for a copy of VMware Fusion just to start working. The platform itself has also been an issue; BlackBerry devices won’t have full 3D support until BlackBerry 7 ships alongside the Bold 9900 in late summer. Gaming dominates mobile apps and has been instrumental to iOS’ rise. BlackBerry App World 3.0 is coming soon with the beta version due to start later in July and Vendor Portal 3.0 is now out.
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