BlackBerry World

BlackBerry World was an application distribution service (app marketplace) by BlackBerry Limited. The service provided BlackBerry users with an environment to browse, download, and update mobile apps, including third-party applications.

BlackBerry World
Developer(s)BlackBerry Limited
Initial release30 July 2010 (2010-07-30)
Stable release
5.4.0.8 / May 2020 (2020-05)[1][2]
Written inJava, C++
Operating systemBlackBerry OS, BlackBerry 10 OS, BlackBerry Tablet OS
PlatformBlackBerry
Size260,000+ apps (all OS)
Available in14 languages
List of languages
English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Dutch, Indonesian, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai, Finnish, Korean
TypeDigital distribution
LicenseProprietary
WebsiteBlackBerry World

The service went live on 1 April 2009 (2009-04-01), originally named BlackBerry App World. It worked with BlackBerry 10 devices, the BlackBerry PlayBook, and a majority of BlackBerry OS devices. At one point in 2011, BlackBerry World had the largest revenue per app at $9,166.67, compared to its rivals ($6,562.50 by Nokia Ovi Store, $6,480.00 by Apple App Store and $1,200.00 by Google Android Market), although total revenue was lower than Apple App Store.[3]

BlackBerry devices after 2015 (with the release of BlackBerry Priv) no longer use the BlackBerry 10 operating system, but Android operating system instead, which utilise the Google Play store instead. BlackBerry World servers alongside other BlackBerry services shut down in January 2022.[4]

History
Home screen of BlackBerry World on BlackBerry Z10
BlackBerry App World main screen depicting a featured app on a legacy BlackBerry OS device (pre-2013)
BlackBerry World home screen on the legacy BlackBerry OS device Curve 9380 (pre-2013)

In 2003, Research In Motion (RIM) (now known as BlackBerry Limited) launched the Mobile Data Service to enable customers to access Java-based third-party enterprise applications using the secure real-time push-based BlackBerry infrastructure.

Later on 21 October 2008, RIM announced at the BlackBerry Developer Conference that the company would open an application store for their devices.[5] It was also announced that the store was scheduled to be open in March 2009, and would work in conjunction with PayPal's services. On 19 January 2009, RIM began accepting submissions of applications from developers.[6]

On 4 March 2009, RIM officially named the store 'BlackBerry App World'[7] (previously called the BlackBerry Application Storefront). It was also confirmed that the service would not initially be available for desktops, and only a web-based catalogue would be accessible from non-BlackBerry devices.

On 1 April 2009, at the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association (CTIA) trade show, RIM announced that App World had gone live.[8]

At the BlackBerry-sponsored Wireless Symposium, it was announced that an average of one million apps were being downloaded each day.[9]

On 19 August 2010, BlackBerry App World 2.0 was released. This new version introduced BlackBerry ID; a single sign, account system that can be used on both the BlackBerry client, and the BlackBerry App World desktop storefront. In addition to BlackBerry ID, BlackBerry App World 2.0 also introduced direct credit card billing and carrier billing for AT&T Wireless subscribers.

On 3 December 2010, Research in Motion announced that daily downloads were two million apps per day.[10]

On 2 February 2011, BlackBerry App World 2.1 was released. This version introduced in-app purchases of digital goods, allowing for add-ons to be purchased within applications.[11]

On 21 January 2013, BlackBerry announced that it rebranded the BlackBerry App World to simpler BlackBerry World, as part of the release of the BlackBerry 10 operating system.[12]

On 18 June 2014, BlackBerry announced an official relationship with Amazon, which includes access to Amazon Appstore in BlackBerry 10.3.[13]

On 14 December 2017, BlackBerry announced that BlackBerry World would close at the end of 2019,[14] however the store was not closed, and continued to function as of August 2020.[15] On 1 April 2018, BlackBerry removed payment features from BlackBerry World.[16][17]

The store eventually closed in January 2022 with other BlackBerry 10 and BlackBerry OS services.[4]

Milestones

At the beginning of 2011, 16,000 apps were available on BlackBerry App World. A year later, the app store passed 60,000 apps (January 2012), and a month later 70,000 apps (February 2012). At BlackBerry Jam in September 2012, RIM announced that App World had more than 105,000 apps.

In May 2013, at the Blackberry Live Conference, BlackBerry announced that over 120,000 apps for BlackBerry 10 were available to download from BlackBerry World.

Application verification was done for BlackBerry World apps about content and quality before is agreed to launch. About 85 percent of the verification was done in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia.[18]

table of apps on BlackBerry App World
datedownloads per daydownloads to dateavailable apps[19]
30 Jul 2010[20] 1,000,000 10,438
27 Sep 2010[20] 1,500,000
14 Feb 2011[20] 2,000,000 26,179
22 Mar 2011[20] 3,000,000
12 Jul 2011[21] 3,000,000 1,000,000,000 36,781
7 Feb 2012[22] 6,000,000 2,000,000,000 67,310
8 Jul 2012[23] 6,000,000+ 3,000,000,000 77,501
31 Mar 2013 6,000,000+ 4,000,000,000 135,000[24]
23 Apr 2014 234,500[25]

Pricing and availability

Research In Motion (RIM) announced that the store would initially be available in the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States.[26] As of March 2013, BlackBerry World was available in 170 markets, and supporteds 23 currencies and 33 languages. Over 6 million applications were downloaded daily, with an aggregate of over 4 billion downloads to-date.

As of August 2020, BlackBerry World was available in 171 countries and territories.[27]

Applications were both free and paid; from $0.99, to $599.99 USD in the U.S.[28]

The store was available for the following BlackBerry devices that are updated to BlackBerry OS version 4.5.0 or higher:[26]

Storage

Users were initially allowed to archive their apps on a MicroSD, or on eMMC storage of certain BlackBerry smartphone models.[29] The archive to external memory card function was later removed with the release of App World 3.0.[30]

Developer

In 2010, Research In Motion (RIM) announced several new tools to make it easier for BlackBerry applications developers to build, simulate, deploy, and monetise feature-rich applications on the BlackBerry platform; including the BlackBerry Enterprise Application Development Platform, the next generation BlackBerry Web Application Platform, BlackBerry WebWorks Platform for the BlackBerry PlayBook™ Tablet and BlackBerry smartphones, and BlackBerry Payment Service, BlackBerry Push Service, BlackBerry Advertising Service, Location Service, Maps Services, Analytics Service, Scoreloop, BBM Social Platform Software Developer Kits, et al.

BlackBerry embraced open standards, and included a variety of open source libraries out of the box including: Lua, OpenAL, cocos2d-x, and Box2D, and has an open source repository that can be accessed at GitHub.com/blackberry. This open ecosystem helps developers target multiple platforms through partnerships with Appcelerator, Apache Cordova, dojo, jQuery Mobile, Marmalade, NME, Qt, and Sencha Touch.[31]

BlackBerry has changed its whole direction of development tools, mainly embracing their C++ / Cascades as the 'native' road to develop mobile apps for their BlackBerry 10 platform. HTML5 is considered the almost-native second path for development. In April 2014, BlackBerry has announced to stop the support of Adobe Air with the release of BlackBerry 10.3.1 to be released later 2014. From the time of the release of BlackBerry 10.3.1, it will not be possible to upload new Adobe Air-based apps to BlackBerry World.

See also

References
  1. "BlackBerry 10 users: update your BlackBerry World app!". CrackBerry.com. CrackBerry. 28 May 2020. Retrieved 22 August 2020.
  2. "'No Network Connection' is shown when launching BlackBerry World". Support.BlackBerry.com. BlackBerry Knowledge Base. 25 June 2020 [2020-05-29]. Archived from the original on October 28, 2020. Retrieved 22 August 2020.
  3. Eric Zeman (28 February 2011). "BlackBerry App World generates highest revenue per app". Bacononthego.com. Archived from the original on 22 March 2011. Retrieved 5 May 2011.
  4. Olson, Carly (2022-01-03). "BlackBerry signals end of an era as it prepares to pull plug on classic phones". The Guardian. Archived from the original on January 3, 2022. Retrieved 2022-01-03.
  5. Perez, Marin (21 October 2008). "RIM announces BlackBerry App Store". www.InformationWeek.com. InformationWeek. Retrieved 9 March 2009.
  6. Meyer, David (29 January 2009). "BlackBerry app store open for submissions". News.CNET.com. CNET News. Retrieved 9 March 2009.
  7. Cha, Bonnie (4 March 2009). "RIM store crowned BlackBerry App World". News.CNET.com. CNET News. Retrieved 9 March 2009.
  8. Mies, Ginny (1 April 2009). "BlackBerry App World open for business". www.MacWorld.com. MacWorld. Retrieved 2 April 2009.
  9. O'Brien, Stuart (27 April 2010). "BlackBerry App World generating 1m downloads a day". www.Mobile-Ent.biz. Mobile Entertainment. Archived from the original on 23 November 2012. Retrieved 13 January 2011.
  10. "BlackBerry App World hits 2M daily app downloads". www.MobileBusinessBriefing.com. GSMA Mobile Apps Briefing. 3 December 2010. Archived from the original on 7 December 2010. Retrieved 3 December 2010.
  11. Jason Cipriani (2 February 2011). "BlackBerry App World 2.1 now available for download, brings in-app purchasing". www.KnowYourCell.com. Dennis Publishing. Archived from the original on 21 July 2013. Retrieved 31 May 2011.
  12. "BlackBerry App World web storefront is now BlackBerry World". Blogs.BlackBerry.com. BlackBerry Limited. January 2013. Archived from the original on 23 January 2013. Retrieved 21 January 2013.
  13. "BlackBerry will bring thousands of apps from Amazon's store to its phones". www.TheVerge.com. The Verge. 18 June 2014. Retrieved 18 June 2014.
  14. "Supporting BB10 and BBOS customers and rewarding your loyalty". Blogs.BlackBerry.com. Inside BlackBerry Blog. 14 December 2017. Retrieved 22 August 2020.
  15. "BlackBerry 10 users: update your BlackBerry World app!". CrackBerry.com. CrackBerry. 28 May 2020. Retrieved 22 August 2020.
  16. "Important changes to purchases and paid content". AppWorld.BlackBerry.com. BlackBerry World. Retrieved 22 August 2020.
  17. "BlackBerry World will transition to a free only apps storefront as of April 1st 2018". Support.BlackBerry.com. BlackBerry Knowledge Base. 12 September 2018 [2018-02-28]. Retrieved 22 August 2020.
  18. "Kantor Pusat BlackBerry World Ternyata di Bali". banjarmasin.tribunnews.com (in Indonesian). 20 July 2013.
  19. "Smartphone app market monitor vol 7". www.Research2Guidance.com. Research2Guidance. Archived from the original on 2 February 2014. Retrieved 21 January 2014.
  20. "BlackBerry App World doubles downloads in 6 months". www.BerryReview.com. BerryReview. 23 March 2011. Retrieved 23 March 2011.
  21. "BlackBerry App World crosses over the 1 billion app download mark, 3 million downloads per day". MobileSyrup.com. MobileSyrup. 12 July 2011. Retrieved 12 July 2011.
  22. "BlackBerry App World stats: over 2 billion downloads; 60,000 apps available". CrackBerry.com. CrackBerry. 7 February 2012. Retrieved 7 February 2012.
  23. "RIM marks three billion BlackBerry app downloads, wants to set the record straight about App World". www.Engadget.com. Engadget. 8 July 2012. Retrieved 8 July 2012.
  24. "BlackBerry World - BlackBerry Developer".
  25. "AppWorld Report". www.AppWorldReport.com. Archived from the original on 18 February 2014. Retrieved 23 April 2014.
  26. "BlackBerry App World FAQ". Na.BlackBerry.com. Research In Motion. Archived from the original on 10 March 2009. Retrieved 9 March 2009.
  27. "BlackBerry World availability". www.BlackBerry.com. BlackBerry. Retrieved 22 August 2020.
  28. "BlackBerry App World vendor support". US.BlackBerry.com. Research In Motion. Archived from the original on 24 July 2013. Retrieved 31 May 2011.
  29. "New features of BlackBerry App World 1.1". Na.BlackBerry.com. BlackBerry. Archived from the original on 11 February 2010. Retrieved 19 March 2010.
  30. "Overview of archiving applications in BlackBerry App World". www.BlackBerry.com. BlackBerry. Retrieved 9 February 2013.
  31. "BlackBerry launched new developer tools in fiscal 2013" (PDF). Press.BlackBerry.com. BlackBerry Press. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 April 2013.
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