RIM's apps store to open for business in March

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RIM's apps store to open for business in March

By CAROLINE GABRIEL

Published: 23 October, 2008

READ MORE: RIM

RIM has released more details of its planned on-device storefront, as it follows in the footsteps of Apple and Google to boost support for its BlackBerry devices. The store will open for business in March although RIM will start to accept applications in December and is working with PayPal to build a payment system.

BlackBerry developers will set their own application fees and retain 80% of revenue, RIM said - more generous terms than Apple's for its App Store, and unlike the Android Marketplace, paid-for apps will be supported from day one. RIM is also working with carrier partners create customized, on-device application centers for their subscribers, reinforcing its 'cellco-friendly' stance, that aims to work alongside operators rather than going direct to consumers.

Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis told the BlackBerry developers' forum that it sees the web store as "the entrance to an easy path to getting applications to market … and ramp and low cost way to bring new applications to the BlackBerry platform."

In support of its increasing focus on web services, RIM announced plug-ins for Eclipse and Microsoft Visual Studio, to make development for BlackBerry easier; and added support for Google Gears, a tool for building offline web applications. RIM has also developed BlackBerry Web Signals, an application that lets content providers 'push' alerts to users about new online content.

Lazaridis also outlined, to the first ever BlackBerry developer conference, some advice for making successful applications. Developers must follow the "BlackBerry physics" - based on four principles, "Bandwidth, Capacity, Performance, and Battery Life", he said. These trade off against one another and successful apps not only need to be well programmed, but achieve the optimal balance for the user's needs, he said in his keynote.

Also vital to strong apps and ease of use for developers is version 4.6 of the BlackBerry browser, said RIM. This is designed to more like a desktop browser, with greater support for CSS, Ajax, HTML, XHTML and DOM L2 code - and so should appeal to experienced and advanced web programmers.