Research in Motion is trying to pull potential customers away from the iPhone with a load of new Blackberry apps and wider Web store availability around the globe.
Blackberry's App World opened in April with roughly 1,000 apps, and that number has since doubled, Bloomberg reports. By comparison, the iPhone's App Store hosts more than 50,000 programs.
Still, Research in Motion is pleased with its progress. Jeff McDowell, the company's vice president of global alliances, said volume isn't as important as variety when it comes to apps. Blackberry's selection of downloadable music, video, games and other programs are enough to compete with Apple, he said.
Blackberry is also looking to expand the App World's user base, making the store available this month to users in France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Support in other countries, including Brazil and India, is on the way.
Not mentioned in the Bloomberg article is what Research in Motion will do to market App World. It's been noted that the iPhone's App Store isn't a tremendous money maker, having pulled in an unofficial estimate of $20 million to $45 million for its first billion app downloads. The App Store is more valuable as a way to sell iPhones. To truly compete, the Blackberry needs an answer to "there's an App for that."
