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Mobile Monday recap: RIM’s App store rollout and market positioning

by Phil Barrett

It was great to see another big turnout this week at Mobile Monday Toronto with over 200 people packed into the Mars venue on College street for the second month in a row.

This month’s event featured Tyler Lessard who is the Director of blackberry alliances & developer relations at RIM.

The session provided some updated information on the BlackBerry Developer and Partner Ecosystems, and the upcoming BlackBerry Application Storefront

Here are some of the highlights:

  • App store is scheduled to launch in March 2009
  • Apps can be ad supported
  • Developers can distribute apps any way they wish… and do not need to be exclusive to their App store.
  • Not intent on blocking Apps… but they need to be mindful of Apps that may impact network stability. Does this mean Adult oriented Apps will be accepted?
  • North America, UK or English speaking Europe will be the first priority
  • Expansion into broad set of languages with an international platform will roll out “soon” after initial launch
  • Developers can choose what carrier and device to optimize for… one sign that it’s difficult to build once for all? Why else would you need that?
  • Alerting feature on device will enable one-click to update Apps
  • No mention of whether or not subscription fees will be possible, but developers will be able to set their own price (including zero)
  • Consumer storefront is the primary focus – and App categories will reflect that
  • Payments will be made through paypal
  • Push to Java apps coming soon – which will be fantastic as Apps can auto-update without forcing user to go through multiple-steps
  • Today they have over 100,000 developers on their platform and expect that to grow once the App store is released
  • Tyler spoke to the growing importance of context, personalization and social integration

One of my favorite quotes from the evening was when Tyler said he believes the App store will change the way people use their mobile device. I couldn’t help but think… ummm hasn’t that already happened?

Even though RIM is a bit late in coming to the App store party, they have an opportunity to capitalize on  industry momentum – assuming they have applied sufficient energy into usability and focus on launching with a deep and rich applications.

  • http://www.sashaonthestreet.com/ sasha

    Will Blackberry and Apple continue to battle it out on the market? And will this mean the end for other smart phones? I haven’t yet seen a ‘real’ palm pre, only on 24, but do they have their own app store too?
    I still haven’t really played with the iPhone app store. I still do the majority of my stuff on my laptop.
    It seems like the mobile market, like so many other markets, is becoming a monopoly/duopoly market and is controlled by the suppliers, apple and blackberry, and not the users. I hope apple continues with it’s user experience model and that blackberry can catch up.

  • http://www.sashaonthestreet.com sasha

    Will Blackberry and Apple continue to battle it out on the market? And will this mean the end for other smart phones? I haven’t yet seen a ‘real’ palm pre, only on 24, but do they have their own app store too?
    I still haven’t really played with the iPhone app store. I still do the majority of my stuff on my laptop.
    It seems like the mobile market, like so many other markets, is becoming a monopoly/duopoly market and is controlled by the suppliers, apple and blackberry, and not the users. I hope apple continues with it’s user experience model and that blackberry can catch up.