Thus far the only way to install an application on the BlackBerry PlayBook is to download it directly from BlackBerry App World. BlackBerry smartphones, on the other hand, can download applications literally from anywhere. This is a huge benefit to developers as they don’t have to abide buy Research in Motion’s rules when it comes to BlackBerry App World, nor do they have to share 30% of their revenue RIM.
There are generally two camps when it comes to installing smartphone applications from places other than their respective application store fronts, or, sideloading, as it is more commonly referred to. There is the BlackBerry smartphone methodology where you simply need to provide the path where the BlackBerry application files can be downloaded from, and, there is the Apple methodology where sideloading requires Jailbreaking your device. In the BlackBerry smartphone install from wherever camp you have Android which gives you an option to install non-Android Market applications (turned off by default). In the Apple install only from App Store camp you have Microsoft where WP7 apps can only be installed from Windows MarketPlace.
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When it comes to app stores for mobile devices, there is no question that Apple’s App Store brings in the most revenue, $1.782 billion dollars in 2010 with 87.2% market share. What you may find interesting, however, is who comes in second place.
Conventional wisdom would tell you Android Market would be in second place, seeing how Android is taking earth by storm when it comes to smartphones, seeing over 350,000 activations per day. RIM’s BlackBerry App World, however, holds claim to the number two spot, and, even as big a BlackBerry fan as I am, I thought to myself, “Seriously?”, when I first heard that stat.
BlackBerry App World currently sits only behind the App Store with $165 million in revenue and 7.7% market share in 2010. BlackBerry App World also grew 360.3% year over year compared to the App Store’s 139.9% growth. RIM is technically gaining on Apple, but, their share is so small in comparison that taking a few points here and there isn’t terribly difficult. Android Market was actually in 4th place over all with 4.7% total share, but, Androids growth was 861.5 % over the previous year. Android Market will catch and surpass RIM relatively quickly if all things remain equal.
[Via CNet]
I was just taking a look at numbers published by mobile analytics firm, Distimo, that outlines Research in Motion’s abysmal performance when it comes to BlackBerry applications as compared to their competitors. The best way to describe the number of applications in BlackBerry App World is to call it a complete and utter embarrassment…
I would even go as far to say that if RIM doesn’t address application support and development on the BlackBerry in a big way this year, you will begin to see the BlackBerry’s gains in total market share begin to turn into losses, especially here in the United States.
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What Apple has been able to do with the App Store, even if you believe the numbers are fudged, is truly astonishing. Apple claims that they recently eclipsed the 3 billion download mark and it only took them roughly 18 months to do so. Market research firm, Gartner, says that 2.5 billion apps were downloaded from the App Store in 2009 alone. Gartner accounts for another 16 million apps being downloaded from other platforms, so, when you do the math, well over 99% of all mobile downloads were from Apple’s App Store.
These kinds of numbers are awesomely impressive for Apple, however, I see a huge opportunity for everyone else.
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Regardless of if you are an iPhone / iPod fan or not, 500 million downloads in a year and a half half a year is impressive…
Research in Motion will soon release the BlackBerry Storm which looks like it will be the most powerful BlackBerry yet in terms of processing power and features. A powerful device allows for really cool applications, however, really cool BlackBerry applications are hard to find and even harder to develop.
I just heard that at the current rate of downloads, the Apple App Store, will cross the 1 billion download threshold by the end of the year. That is a staggering number of downloads in relatively short amount of time.
I will say right here that RIM cannot hope to duplicate this because you already can get BlackBerry applications from all over the place where, on the other hand, the App store is (sort of) the only place to get iPhone applications.
I am just wondering if and maybe hoping that RIM can come up with something that sits somewhere between the App Store and mobile.blackberry.com. Many, and maybe even a majority, of BlackBerry users are only vaguely aware of the BlackBerry Help site, which has a few free BlackBerry applications and games that you can download directly to your device.
Would a portal where BlackBerry users could download hundreds or even thousands of cool BlackBerry applications fly. I know, there would first need to be hundreds or thousands of cool BlackBerry applications developed which would require a much easier way for BlackBerry developers to create BlackBerry applications, however, that is for another post.
Today we will just ask your opinion on if you think RIM could pull anything like the App Store off?