News Report 4

“BlackBerry App World: solid, not sensational”
Suzanne Choney
Msnbc.com
updated 9:09 a.m. ET, Thurs., April. 2, 2009

Blackberry makers Research In Motion or (RIM) launched their version of an application store similar to Apples yesterday. It isn’t quite as easy to use or fun as the apple store is, but in typical blackberry fashion, it’s more about functionality and content. Apple is to college students what Blackberry is to business people. It’s relatively unimaginative and straightforward, where as the IPhones app store is more quirky and interesting to browse.

The two stores are set up in a similar fashion; there is a featured app page, as well as certain categories that you are able to browse through for more specific apps to your interests. The descriptions for the applications are short, and some would argue too short. There is just a few sentences describing each application, and in many cases that is not enough information to help you decide to buy.

There are some uncharacteristic applications for blackberry such as Pandora, which is a streaming internet radio, but for the most part, expect the app store to have many applications that are going to appeal to the typical “crackberry” user. News reports, stock prices, travel information, weather, etc. There are a few free programs available, but for those that will be costing money, the beginning price for the apps is set at 2.99, a full 2 dollars more expensive than the cheapest Iphone applications.

Payment is handled for the applications through pay pal, similar to how people purchase things on Ebay. It’s not quite as easy as “click and buy” functionality that the Iphone and Itunes has, but it could be worse.