It may have some 48,000 or so to go before it catches
the runaway leader in app choice, but doubling up its catalog after
launching just 3.5 months ago ain't nothing to scoff at. As RIM suffers through the traditional growing pains with its fledgling
BlackBerry App World, it has managed to amass around 2,000 programs for users to love, hate or feel completely indifferent about. According to Jeff McDowell, vice president of global alliances, that number is apt to rise when it goes live in Italy, France, Germany and Spain this month. Also of note, Mr. McDowell declined to say just how many downloads had taken place, but he did note that RIM was "very happy" with the response. Unfortunately, we're not so certain that the company is eager to raise that 2,000 figure to something much higher, with ole Jeff spouting off that "[it doesn't matter] whether it's 40,000 or 2,000 [apps], you've still got a broad range of choice." We're willing to bet the public sees that a bit differently -- right, public?
[Via
Electronista]
posted Jul 8th 2009 8:51AM
App World still sucks- there aren't enough free apps or cheap ones. Most of the stuff is incredibly overpriced.
Plus it even takes long to load on a 3G connection.
Go Blackberry
Actually Apple App Store sucks for the same reason that greg gave.
Am I missing something? They are cheering 200 apps but My Bold has a limited memory for apps and I can barely have a handful of apps due to that software limitation where you CANNOT use your phone memory or MicroSD card for apps!! I have free memory in my phone of 900MB and 3GB in MicroSD but can use only 14MB for software. RIM is still living way back in 2006. If I knew that I would have stayed away from RIM. I still wonder how people accept this limitation. I know it is good for email and messaging but that is about it! BAD for RIM.
Am I wrong? if not then RIM is failing soon unless they fix this!
What he said. I might use the App store on my curve IF I could get it to load and not essentially lock up my phone every time.
Go to Crackberry and download their own app store to your BB. It blows RIMs out of the water so bad its embarrassing. It has tons of apps, better organized, and faster. Works great on my Storm.
I don't understand why anyone would get a BB for a *personal* phone at this point. (I understand completely about business users.) The fact that the platform ONLY excels at email is just not enough and that installed app limit is absolutely inexcusable.
@ Scott
While my BB is from my work, but even it I had to have a phone personally I really like it. I can take just about any mp3 and make it a ringer or a notification, Google Chat works great, text messaging works fairly good (I do like the "iChat" interface of SMS on the iPhone), the "phone" part works excellent, the (Sprint) navigation program is great, the keyboard is wonderful, Apps can integrate with other apps, etc....
I had an iPhone, but gave it to my wife, since I did not want to carry two phones. You know what I miss the most. Bejeweled 2.
RIM's App World is just set to crush Apple's App Store in a month or so. Numbers mean nothing, it's all about quality. It's about 2,000 super-high quality BlackBerry apps beating out 54,000 fart apps and 2,000 flashlight iPhone apps. Only the Apple App store will have these types of weak apps. No other corporate store will allow them.
I predict the Apple App store will be out of business in two months, give or take thirty days.
This is much better Palm Pre Store which has only 30 apps! Of course, this is nowhere near iPhone App Store.
Give Pre some time.
All we are saying,
is give Pre a chance.
I'm sure an officially released SDK would help.
There are some homebrew apps out now that are not in the catalog. I have installed about 7 apps in the past 2 days on my non hacked pre. Still, we need more official apps.
I'd rather have 2000 quality apps than 20 000 ifart clones
I concur!
If it gets to the point where there are 20,000 farting apps... imagine how many real quality apps there are going to be.
If there are 50 farting apps (http://krapps.com/2009/01/07/the-toothless-one-speaks/) per 15,000 total apps (both numbers as of this past January), then if there are going to be 20,000 farting apps, there are going to be about 400 times more apps than there were in January, or 6 Million total apps.
If you cant find what you are looking for in 6 Million apps, then you dont deserve an iPhone.
I think what he meant by "fart apps" is stupid pointless apps that only impress people that have the attention span of a goldfish. Of which could possibly be the majority of the apps in the iphone's app store.
@MJZimmer.
ZING! Gotta love it when people smash other peoples facile conclusions with pure, incontrovertible logic.
Facts suck, don't they Bernhard.
"then you dont deserve an iPhone."
I don't I've ever met someone who actually "deserved" and iPhone. Are there qualifications? Because most people I've met with iPhones think ARM is an appendage.
@MJZimmer
You're assuming a linear growth rate for fart apps per good apps, is that really applicable? It's a serious question since (@Nick said) we're speaking "with pure, incontrovertible logic. "
iScoutingParty
http://www.dilbert.com/strips/comic/2009-07-08/
I agree. I like Apples App Store but the amount of junk is ridiculous. If there was some good way of sorting out the information better, then you could find the gems but otherwise you are searching 40,000 apps for the 5 apps you will actually use. Quite annoying.
I just don't understand the people on here. Sure there are fart apps. Some people like fart apps. There are also around 49,950 others for those that don't - if you can't find 20 games that you love and 50 apps that you can't live without then you're rubbish at searching. Everyone I know with a phone supporting any other app store finds the selection pathetic and drools over the app store.
Well done to RIM though, getting there!
The fart app joke is old and tired. Anyone who has used the App Store knows there's plenty of apps on there that are very high quality that sell for rock-bottom prices. So much so that much has been written about from a developer perspective on the prices being too low for the amount of effort being put into the apps.
Ah, yes... the fart-app argument. It's always the same:
"I rather have X number of 'quality' apps (where X=2000 for BB, 30 for Pre) than a bunch of fart apps".
Who says those 2000 apps or those 30 apps are quality apps? You're really saying that no one has written a useless app for BB or Pre?
No darren i dont see it differently. The iPhone App store is being over run by crap that kids crank out in their basement over the weekend hoping to see a cheap buck.
2000 good blackberry apps are better than 50 000 medicore iphone one or 1 million crap winmo ones.
Who says all 2000 of those are great? They probably are, but probably in the same way the Apple AppStore was full of good solid apps initially.
There aren't enough distinct problems in the world to be solved with a billion apps, so once all the main ones are done, all that is left is fart apps.
I don't disagree but how about some facts to substantiate your claim. Otherwise you just as well be flamebait. With 20,000 apps, there is a good chance that I'll find a free one I can use. With 2,000 the chances are not as good. Basically, Apple's iPOD with a gazillion apps is becoming the defacto mobile OS the same way Windows is today the defacto desktop OS.
If you're a brilliant investor want to launch a mobile app, it's going to be on the iPOD and maybe later for the BBerry.
"With 20,000 apps, there is a good chance that I'll find a free one I can use. With 2,000 the chances are not as good."
Not as good is not the same as impossible.
It's 2000 programs. Who on earth will ever need 2000 or 20,000 applications? Windows has millions of them, and sometimes I still cant find what I need. There's tons of junk on any platform.
"Basically, Apple's iPOD with a gazillion apps is becoming the defacto mobile OS the same way Windows is today the defacto desktop OS."
Windows runs on hundreds of computer models, iPhone on 3, with hundreds of other phones running other OSs. That model simply doesn't translate.
Blackberry App World - 2000 Apps - 1 works over WIFI . The Browser.
I loved my Blackberry bold untill I realized that the only official app that works over wifi is the browser. Not even the IM clients or most 3rd party apps work over wifi and force you into using your carriers data plan.
Every wifi enabled phone that I have ever used has wifi support for all Apps, except Blackberrys.
The only 2 essential features in a phone that I look for is - a QWERTY keyboard and WIFI.
The Bold has one of the best, if not the best QWERTY keyboard I've ever used on a phone, the OS and interface was top notch, the screen was crystal clear, the processor was blazing fast ( 624 Mhz If I remeber correctly )and the media player was great. Too bad Blackberry throttles you into using your carriers data package.
I'll be the first to return to Blackberry as soon as they enable unrestricted WIFI access on all applicable applications.
I'll have some quality with those 2,000 downloads =)
I love how fast you idiots are to use that argument when it's been pointed out that App World only has 1/25th of the App store's selection, but you can't reverse the argument and say the same for Mac software. Hypocrite much?
First of all - very few of those 2000 apps on App World are quality apps. VERY few.
Second, the App Store has the advantage of more choice, more options. Isn't that what you Windows-using morons are always blathering about when it comes to the amount of software for the Mac? That quantity is the only thing that matters?
Third, if you really believe that nonsense about "there are fewer apps so they must all be higher quality", then you should be using a Mac for the exact same reason.
I mean would you guys make up your minds? Is quality what's important or quantity? You can't have it both ways. Pick one.
@ Zak
I think you need to learn how to chillax.
No there isn't an app for that... put down the damn phone and interact with people face to face.
Your buddy,
Simon
"We're willing to bet the public sees that a bit differently -- right, public?"
No. Quality >> Quantity. Larger numbers means more choices but being inundated by crapware is NEVER a good thing.
Crapware is everywhere, don't expect App World to be any different. People who say there aren't enough quiality Apps in the App Store don't know crap(ware) about what they're talking about for sure.
there are plenty of good apps, just very little are must haves and a lot are just quick access to web services that can be reached through a good web browser.
On the other hand thousands of iPhone Apps are useless.
@paperless
Agreed, crapware is everywhere but less apps means less crapware to swim through to get to those beloved jewels. I'm worried about the App Catalog. I hate these names.
Oh, and by the way I neither mentioned nor implied the App Store. Look at all of the apps available for Windows, there's a lot of crapware there and there's millions of apps for Windows. So don't assume I'm hating on apple and you have to defend it.
"Agreed, crapware is everywhere but less apps means less crapware to swim through to get to those beloved jewels."
Assuming that there are any jewels to begin with. Ultimately, what is a "jewel" and what is "crapware" depends highly on the individual customer. However, I don't believe that a high quantity of applications means that there is going to be a lot of crapware with some jewels hidden in it. It is perfectly possible that everything is crap or everything is jewels. The likelihood is that there will be some crapware and some jewels but the ratio of the two is certainly not fixed and can evolve over time.
Still, if you are already married to one particular platform then this whole discussion is pretty much moot - you simply make do with whatever is available for your platform because your ability to switch is constrained once you begin investing in apps. What is available for another platform is unlikely to impact you very much.
2000 is already a broad choice.
As always it's just plain stupid to judge the any app store just by the numbers of apps available, it's like judging a 2009 CPU by its frequency..
It's just not relevant.
Now if you can find some service available through a iPhone app, that doesn't exist in the BB world and if that particular service is important to you than you have something relevant.
I wonder though weather for any BB user the appstore was a dealbreaker to go to the iPhone in the first case. The appstore is just a nice addition but for most who are centrally controlled by the ICT far from interesting.
Also i dont get this whole app thing in the first case, my BB does exactly what i need, my company fixed me up with whatever software I further need or they think I need without ever having the feeling I lacked something. What´s more important software wise is that you as developer have the freedom to know who gets your software and being able to share your software without a 3d party actually reviewing your work. Sure the iPhone appstore is a nice framework to deliver easy your software to the mass but when it comes to developing company specific software its only a problem.
"Now if you can find some service available through a iPhone app, that doesn't exist in the BB world and if that particular service is important to you than you have something relevant."
Ah, the voice of reason - 'tis nice to hear.
"If you cant find what you are looking for in 6 Million apps, then you dont deserve an iPhone."
Good luck finding the handful of apps you want in a sea of 6 million.
I wonder what percentage of Apple's 50k apps have less then 100 downloads.
True but that is what application reviews are for, both within the App Store itself and in external publications. They do the hard work so you don't have to, which is par of the course for software in general. With the number of applications dramatically increasing the usefulness of these reviews is definitely pretty high.
Some not-small percentage of these 2000 "applications" are nothing more than icons for your home screen that take you to a barely-optimized-for-BlackBerry mobile webpage (I'm looking in your direction, The Weather Channel). The number of high-quality applications available via App World is a MUCH smaller number than 2000, which says a lot about the quality, or utter lack thereof, of development tools for the BlackBerry platform.
And the irony is that if the BB web browser was up to par with iPhone/Pre/Android, they wouldn't even need those web-app launcers!
Yes, the developer tools (if you can call them that) for the BlackBerry are simply pathetic. As a developer, I'd rather be an Iraqi prisoner in Abu Ghraib than than build apps for the BlackBerry.
Also note that there are MANY apps that aren't in the App Store which are easily available to load onto your BB WITHOUT needing to do something like Jailbreaking.
The App store for BB is merely one way to load apps, unlike a certain other phone that requires all apps to be loaded through their "rigorously" sanitized store.
In other words, a BB user has more than one place to load apps from.
So the app store isn't as important as it is for other phones.
true true. The BB has a few different app stores that I think of, not to mention that you can still get themes, and apps through links found on BB forums and websites
Understood but does that really matter? I know people like to jump up and down about Apple's App Store policies (documented or otherwise) but is there anything that is really missing that obtaining from another source would address? Put another way, is it worth losing the good features (yes, there are some) that the managed App Store provides?
I wonder how many app the Android Market has