Research in Motion (RIM), makers of BlackBerry mobile smartphones, announced on January 12,2009, that it will only be allowing "low-bandwidth" third-party applications to run on its Storefront.
(The on-device Blackberry Application Storefront will make it easier for the 20 million BlackBerry users on all platforms, to find and download add-on applications for their specific phone models.
These applications include AOL, Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, Gmail and Windows Live Hotmail.)
What this means is that software that replicates the functionality of native BlackBerry applications, or those that are even better than these applications, will be allowed...so too, will those that optimize bandwidth, capacity, performance and battery life.
However, certain types of applications, such as those offering streaming video, might be turned down.
In article, "RIM store will turn away some BlackBerry apps", Mike Kirkup, RIM's Developer Support Guru, stated:
"We are definitely going to be sensitive to people moving a significant amount of traffic over the carrier's network without an agreement with the carrier." He identified streaming video and audio as possible sticking points.
(Applications promoting lewd content will also be turned down.)
Application authors will get to keep 80 percent of the proceeds, with the other 20 percent going to RIM — and, presumably, to the carriers, when users download applications from the carrier-controlled store on their phone.
According to article, "RIM sheds light on BlackBerry apps stores", RIM also announced an in-progress partnership with PayPal that makes the online bill-payment company likely as the prevailing payment system for purchases made on the Blackberry Application StoreFront.)
The BlackBerry Application Storefront is due to go live in March and will work on any BlackBerry smartphone that has a trackball or touch interface.
There will also be a rating system that will enable users to judge the quality of applications sold via the Storefront.
RIM hopes that it will attract even more application developers to populate the online and on-device stores, particularly those more experienced in programming to web standards.
According to article,"RIM store will turn away some BlackBerry apps",RIM opened up the submissions process for Storefront applications on January 19,2009.
(I would like to thank Which? Technology for the use of his Flickr inset picture of a BlackBerry Storm phone, above.)
Gillian
Sources Include
1) Article, "RIM store will turn away some BlackBerry apps", by David Meyer, ZDNet.co.uk, January 23,2009
2) Article, "RIM sheds light on BlackBerry apps stores", by Jessica Dolcourt, CNET News.com, October 22,2008
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