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BlackBerry App World 2.0 leaves beta, includes cheaper apps and new payment options
The latest version of BlackBerry App World is now available to all, and it includes a number of welcome additions. First off, RIM has dropped the $2.99 minimum from paid apps, so now BlackBerry developers can release $0.99 and $1.99 apps just like everybody else. It's also easier to buy those apps now, with credit card and carrier billing becoming available, and the new BlackBerry ID function lets you both perform those credit card payments and to easily move all your apps over to a new BlackBerry device when the time comes. RIM has also enacted a few new app discovery mechanisms for hunting down those "Super Apps" (BlackBerry users know what we're talking about), but it's not all gravy: the developer revenue split is down to 70 / 30 from RIM's original exception-to-the-rule 80 / 20. PR is after the break.
RIM dev webinar hints at BlackBerry OS of the future?
See that Storm-esque device there? You may have noticed that the home screen looks positively nothing like the experience you're used to -- and that's because it's not. Shown off as part of a slide deck in RIM's "Super Apps" webinar for developers last week, the company's official explanation is that this is a pure, off-the-cuff mockup, not indicative of anything they're working on for future devices or releases of BlackBerry OS. To be fair, when you take the shot in context with the bullet points and the fact that this presentation was geared squarely at devs, we can imagine that they really were just using it to get folks' creative juices flowing -- but it makes you wonder, doesn't it? There's enough active and location-aware content here to make even a heavily-widgeted Android home screen drool, so seriously, why not do this in 6.0, RIM?
