BlackBerry App World? Catchy.
by John Paczkowski
Posted on March 5, 2009 at 5:24 AM PT
Research in Motion’s (RIMM) effort to emulate Apple’s (AAPL) phenomenally successful App Store has a new name: BlackBerry App World.
Not much of an improvement over “BlackBerry Application Center,” but an improvement nonetheless. A placeholder page for the yet-to-be launched mobile application storefront went live last night, along with a developer FAQ that reveals the store’s tiered pricing model. Like Apple’s App Store, BlackBerry App World will offer some apps for free, but it’s set the minimum price for paid apps at $2.99. That’s a $2 departure from Apple’s 99-cent minimum price and it has generated no end of jawing among tech observers. But does anyone really believe that RIM’s business customers will balk at a $2.99 minimum price point? And in the end, isn’t a higher minimum price point better for developers? At worst, it might potentially discourage the development of smaller throwaway apps. But it might also make App World a bit more financially intriguing to iPhone-obsessed developers. And that certainly can’t hurt.
