RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis is slated to take the stage later today in Las Vegas at the CTIA show and all eyes will be focused on RIM’s answer to Apple’s App Store. While we wished that RIM had held off on the launch of BlackBerry App World until Lazaridis’ little talk, there’s nothing that could have prevented this announcement from hitting at midnight. So, ladies and germs, I present to you BlackBerry App World. Please ensure that you have a PayPal account, OS 4.2 or higher and a trackball or SurePress touch screen (aka Storm) BlackBerry before proceeding.
I must say that BAW is laid out much better than the initial screen shots that RIM released many months ago. But before we dive into it, you should probably download the BAW storefront. Simply navigate here or here from your BlackBerry Browser and experience the awesomeness that is BAW. A circle icon with the BlackBerry emblem will appear on your desktop.
The BAW homescreen features four icons across the bottom and “Featured Items” which can be navigated through by scrolling left or right. The first icon – a set of folders with a blue tab – is your Categories folder where you can search for apps by genres such as Games, Music and Video, or Personal Health and Wellness. Next to the Categories icon is the Top Downloads section (25) – denoted by a starred folder – of BAW that tells you which apps you are most popular. You can also search for applications by clicking on the magnifying glass icon; search works within categories as well.
The download process is simple and straightforward, but we still hate the fact that RIM wasn’t able to implement a backend payment structure of their own. I just don’t trust PayPal and I know lots of folks (besides myself) who have had issues with them over the years. Anyway, clicking on any app that tickles your fancy will present you with the following options: Download, Reviews or Screenshots. I don’t think I need to go into detail or describe what each of these entail, but I will tell you that when you purchase a free application you’ll be taken directly to My World (we’ll get to this in a second), but if it’s a paid app you’ll be asked to sign into PayPal before proceeding.
Now that we’ve searched through apps and purchased a couple or downloaded all the free apps, you’ll want to hit up that last icon with the outline of a person or My World. In My World you can keep tabs on all the apps that you’ve downloaded, write reviews, recommend or uninstall apps. A nice feature about My World is that you can virtually host apps that you might not use all the time without actually having the app downloaded to the device. If you want to reinstall an app that you previously deleted, you just need to log back into PayPal and voila.
We’ll update this post once BAW goes live with a full list of available apps, which might not happen until later today. Please refresh every few minutes as we continue to add apps.
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Featured Apps (11)
Viigo for BlackBerry – Free
Yahoo Messenger – Free
Facebook – Free
Bloomberg – Free
Texas Hold’em King 3 – $5.99
MySpace – Free
AOL Instant Messenger – Free
Brain Challenge 2: Stress Management – $4.99
New York Times Crosswords – Classics Vol 1 – $4.99
Google Talk – Free
ICQ – Free
Entertainment (9)
PhoneyFart – $2.99
Fart Storm – $2.99
Mobile Bartender – $4.99
ELLE – Free
ELLEgirl – Free
ELLEgirl Latina- Free
People Mobile – Free
Premiere – Free
Woman’s Day – Free
Games (126)
Arcade & Action (37)
Card & Casino (29)
Puzzles & Mind Teasers (32)
Sports (10)
Strategy & Board (18)
Maps & Navigation (8)
Text2C – Free
ConnectorLocal – Free
GPS Tracker – Free
Geocache Navigator Free Trial – Free
SOS-GPS – $2.99
Telmap Navigator – Free
Trimble Outdoors Free Trial – Free
e-Mobile GPS Companion – $19.99
NIM Gokivo Navigator – $9.99
TeleNav GPS Navigator – $99.99 (1-year unlimited service for the Storm, 8330, 8130 and 8830)
Music & Video (10)
Shazam – Free (Enhanced version is $4.99 after May 31)
Relaxing Sounds – $2.99
FlipSide MP3 Player – $19.99
Flycast – Free
Hip Hop Official by GoTV – $4.99
MP3 Ringtone Creator – $4.99
MajiPlayer – $9.99
Nobex Radio Companion – Free
Pandora – Free
Slacker Radio for BlackBerry – Free
News & Weather (17)
Viigo for BlackBerry – Free
AP News – $2.99
Boston News Web Shortcut – Free
CBS News – Free
ELLE Canada Mobile – Free
Fox Business Bookmark – Free
Fox News Alert – Free
Fox News Bookmark – Free
Handy Weather for BlackBerry – $17.99
Maclean’s – Free
Newsweek – Free
Noticias de AP – $2.99
Slate Magazine – Free
The New York Times Politics News Notifier – Free
The New York Times Web Shortcut – Free
Washington Post- Free
WindTrack – $6.99
Personal Finance & Banking (9)
A Personal Assistant Premium – $9.99
EzQuote – $10.99
Market Simplified – Free
Mobile Checkbook – $9.99
TheStreet – Free
Tipper – $4.99
iStockManager – Free
trackIT: Expense Edition – $14.99
trackIT: Vehicle Edition – $14.99
Personal Health & Wellness (9)
Army Body Fat Calculator – $11.99
AllSport GPS Free Trial – Free
Calorie Count Nutrition Search – Free
Canadian Living – Free
ECG Guide – $7.99
Fast Food Calorie Counter – $4.99
FitDeck Mobile – $14.99
Health Diet Manager – $19.99
vClinic Mobile Health – Free
Productivity & Utilities (88)
Clocks Calculators & Utilities (29)
Document Management (8)
On-the-Go Productivity (20)
Personal Organization (30)
Professional & Business (14)
Bloomberg – Free
AlertMatrix – $29.99
BigHand – Free
BillableGoal – $7.99
Biz TrackIt – $39.99
RepliGo Reader – $19.99
ReportAway – $29.99
SalesNOW – Free
SalesForce Mobile – Free
The New York Times DealBook Notifier – Free
WebMessenger Message Alerts – $6.99
Wireless Database Viewer Plus – Free
pMDsoft – Free
powerOne Finance Calculator – $29.99
Reference & eBooks (22)
BEIKS English Dictionary and Thesaurus – $19.99
Berlitz Basic Dictionary Chinese – $19.99
Berlitz Basic Dictionary French – $19.99
Berlitz Basic Dictionary German – $19.99
Berlitz Basic Dictionary Italian – $19.99
Berlitz Basic Dictionary Spanish – $19.99
Duden Corrector mobile (DCM) French – $2.99
Duden Corrector mobile (DCM) German – $2.99
Duden Corrector mobile (DCM) Italian – $2.99
Duden Corrector mobile (DCM) Multilingual – $2.99
Duden Corrector mobile (DCM) Spanish – $39.99
Duden Corrector mobile (DCM) UK English – $2.99
Duden Corrector mobile (DCM) US English – $2.99
HNHSoft Advanced English Dictionary – $19.99
HNHSoft Advanced Chinese Talking Dictionary – $49.99
HNHSoft Advanced English French Dictionary – $29.99
HNHSoft Advanced English German Dictionary – $29.99
HNHSoft Advanced English Italian Dictionary – $29.99
HNHSoft Advanced English Spanish Dictionary – $29.99
Kaplan GRE Exam Vocabulary Flashcards – $4.99
gFlashPro Flashcards – $2.99
gRefPro Reference Guides – $2.99
Social Networking & Sharing (17)
MySpace – Free
Facebook – Free
Windows Live Messenger – Free
Yahoo Messenger – Free
Google Talk – Free
ICQ – Free
AOL Instant Messenger – Free
ITookThisOnMyPhone – Free
BlipPlus from Blackline GPS – Free
CellSpin – Free
GypSii – Free
Loopt – Free
Postelly – Free
SwooshSMS – $4.99
VH1 Watch and Discuss – $2.99
Wauwee – Free
WikiMobile – $9.99
Sports & Recreation (36)
The Hockey News Mobile – Free
Maple Leafs – Free
Car and Driver – Free
Golf Tracks – $4.99
GreenFinder – $39.99
MLB.com – Free
Mariners.com – Free
Orioles.com – Free
Basically every baseball team has their own app and it’s free
Travel (17)
WorldMate Live – Free
Auto TimeZone – $2.99
HRS Hotel Organizer – Free
Lonely Planet Czech Phrasebook – $9.99
Lonely Planet French Phrasebook – $9.99
Lonely Planet German Phrasebook – $9.99
Lonely Planet Italian Phrasebook – $9.99
Lonely Planet Japanese Phrasebook – $9.99
Lonely Planet Mandarin Phrasebook – $9.99
Lonely Planet Spanish Phrasebook – $9.99
Lonely Planet Thai Phrasebook – $9.99
Lonely Planet Vietnamese Phrasebook – $9.99
Taxi Magic by RideCharge – Free
TheFastPages – Free
Trapster – Free
Travel Genius – $2.99
WHERE – Free
Update: One problem that I think a lot of folks will encounter is the lack of on-board memory on most BlackBerry devices. Compared to the iPhone, you don’t have 8GB or 16GB of memory to work with on your BlackBerry. I’m adding as many free apps now to see what happens when the memory on my 8900 gets full. It’d be nice if RIM allowed you to store apps on external memory cards, but you might have to uninstall apps and store virtually as you go.
Update 2: It appears that some developers are allowing trials for paid apps and not just lite versions. Also, you can’t move the BlackBerry App World icon from your homepage.
nice interface, but I’m not impressed by the apps
yep, no lighters and only two farts
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Does it handle upgrading previously downloaded app?
I haven’t come across any apps that need to be upgraded, Danny. I might be misunderstanding your question, though. However, even though the Facebook app has not been updated with the launch of BAW, My World does not recognize it. Hope this helps.
About time they got their app store together. I’ve had a Storm for months and hearing “There’s an app for that” from the iPhonies all day is killing me.
Do they indicate which, if any, came out of the Blackberry Fund?
I don’t think so, but I haven’t had a chance to go through all the apps yet.
looks good already, their app store – this will most certainly heat up things for apple …
Im completely disgusted by the app world. I have the storm and half the apps i downloaded ended up being for the bold. What happens when some1 buys a $30 app thats not even for their phone?
You’ll have to deal with PayPal. ;)
wow, many more apps than I ever dreamed they would launch with. Great news.
Surprised not to see some currently popular free apps like eTrade and Twitterberry. Anyone know why not?
I was really really hoping to see a really good twitter app on here.
Me too. I hear good things about SocialScope, but haven’t tried it myself. I really wish TwitterFon would port over a version for the BlackBerry.
was just thinking…it would be nice if they released their updated Facebook app along with the App World.
OK, folks, I won’t be updating the Games or Productivity & Utilities sections because I’d be sitting here all night. I imagine these numbers will change throughout the week with CTIA going on. In case you’re wondering, there are no free games worth downloading. I was really hoping Pac Man or Tetris would be available for free or at all. But there’s Lemmings!
It’s a hot day for Blackberry app stores. I first heard about BerryStore and downloaded that. They seem to have comparable number of apps as App World, (more free apps, less paid apps).
Not all apps have entered BAW like LiveStrong Calorie Tracker app, but you can email it to yourself from the desktop BAW site.
I need to migrate my iFarts over to my Fartberry. What’s the recommended procedure?
sit on it
Awesome! Just about to download or perhaps purchase some apps now.
My BlackBerry Bold 9000 doesn’t meet system requirements. Any suggestions?
Really? Let me go try with my Bold.
upgrade your firmware bud
Buy an iPhone
I`m getting the same error bud. If you`re with Orange or Vodafone in the UK they`re having some issues with it downloading. Let the customer service guys know.
How do I upgrade my firmware? All help appreciated.
You shouldn’t have to update the firmware on your Bold, MC. Have you tried doing a soft reset? Alt+right side aA+del
I’m getting the error;
“Upgrade your service to a plan that includes browsing and discover a world of possibilities at BlackBerry App World. Contact your service provider for more details.”
I’ve got a curve, and i do have a data plan! My signal isn’t great right now but its working in the browser etc.
So I went to the appworld website and it gives you the option to send a link to your phone to get a direct download of that particular app. I decided to give it a shot and that works fine – but the actual appworld doesn’t want to work on my phone if you click on its icon in the menu.
Gosh I must be getting to be a cantankerous old fart – but not checking of apps that are already installed to see if there’s an upgrade.
This is an April Fool’s joke, right?
Oh, and did RIM/FB get wise and forget about launching 1.5 (aka 1.20001) or are they going to have the brass to give a podium announcement of the “new” Facebook.
I guess this is all probably a system limitation of RIM — but I have to say I’m greatly disappointed that automatic upgrade checking isn’t include though I guess having all the apps in one place is better than nothing.
I’m very happy that we’re live in App World. Wauwee is already seeing quite some downloads as a result. I’ll report back in the coming days with progress.
My Storm is saying I don’t have enough memory! I’ve got an 8 GB card in the SOB….I’m going back to a regular flip phone…this sucks..
Personally I find the app store very satisfactory. It’s got all the business apps I want like taxi magic and worldmate and all of that, and less of the trash apps that are cluttering up the iphone store. Sooner or later that iphone app store’s going to be like a garage sale, mostly crap with a few gems, but if the BB app world does it right they’ll be able to filter out the useless bits
i tried to goto it from my storm and it got a 404
All I can say is I downloaded the MobiHand Blackberry app store and they have 10x the apps that App World offers plus a huge number of themes — I see no themes in App World. And they have a 50% off “Deal-of-the-day”. Think I’m going with their store, not RIMs.
Not very happy that I went all the way through the process of downloading and installing the Blackberry App World app, only to get a message saying “Doesn’t run on Blackberries with trackwheels”.
First of all, as a long-time RIM user, I can’t imagine a Blackberry without a trackwheel. Secondly, couldn’t they have done a hardware detect when I started the download instead of after?
No surprise that they launched it on April fools day. I just wonder if the recent bump in RIM stock is due more to their financial news, or the launch of App World. Seems like they may have released both in close succession so you can’t tel which had a greater impact.
OK…I’ve loaded App World on my Storm….where is it? I can’t find it on my screen, in applications or application center. I’m really feeling pretty dumb.
This is a good idea because it means that the novelty apps will be free and the paid for software of a reasonable quality. For those bemoaning the lack of a $0.99 pricing point I would point out that the equivalent apps for S60 and WinMo are usually free to begin with so iPhone/iPod Touch users are kind of getting ripped off here.
I’ve got a curve, and i do have a data plan! My signal isn’t great right now but its working in the browser etc.
i tried to goto it from my storm and it got a 404
This is a good counter by Blackberry. I still don’t think they will make up a tremendous amount of market share, but it will certainly put the heat on Apple for the time being.