BlackBerry World (previously known as BlackBerry App World) is an application distribution service, aka an '

app store An App Store (or app marketplace) is a type of digital distribution platform for computer software called applications, often in a mobile context. Apps provide a specific set of functions which, by definition, do not include the running of the c ...

', and application by

BlackBerry Limited BlackBerry Limited is a Canadian software company specializing in cybersecurity. Founded in 1984, it was originally known as Research In Motion (RIM). As RIM, it developed the BlackBerry brand of interactive pagers, smartphones, and tablets ...

; for

BlackBerry 10 BlackBerry 10 is a discontinued proprietary mobile operating system for the BlackBerry line of smartphones, both developed by BlackBerry Limited (formerly Research In Motion). BlackBerry 10 is based on QNX, a Unix-like operating system that was ...

devices, the

BlackBerry PlayBook The BlackBerry PlayBook is a Tablet computer#Mini tablets, mini tablet computer developed by BlackBerry (company), BlackBerry and made by Quanta Computer, an original design manufacturer (ODM).

, and a majority of

BlackBerry OS BlackBerry OS is a discontinued proprietary mobile operating system developed by Canadian company BlackBerry Limited for its BlackBerry line of smartphone handheld devices. The operating system provides multitasking and supports specialized i ...

devices. The service provides BlackBerry

users Ancient Egyptian roles * User (ancient Egyptian official), an ancient Egyptian nomarch (governor) of the Eighth Dynasty * Useramen, an ancient Egyptian vizier also called "User" Other uses * User (computing), a person (or software) using an ...

with an environment to browse, download, and update

mobile app A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a phone, tablet, or watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop applications which are designed to run on d ...

s, including third-party applications. The service went live on . Of the three major app stores of different

mobile operating system A mobile operating system is an operating system for mobile phones, tablet computer, tablets, smartwatches, smartglasses, or other non-laptop personal computing, personal mobile computing devices. While computers such as typical laptops are "mobi ...

s, it had the largest revenue per app at $9,166.67, compared to $6,480.00 by the Apple App Store and $1,200.00 by

Google Play Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store and formerly the Android Market, is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certified devices running on the Android operating sy ...

. On 21 January 2013, BlackBerry announced that it rebranded the ''BlackBerry App World'' to simpler ''BlackBerry World'', as part of the release of the

operating system. BlackBerry devices since 2015 (with the release of BlackBerry Priv) no longer use the BlackBerry 10

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ef ...

, but

Android operating system Android is a mobile operating system based on a modified version of the Linux kernel and other open-source software, designed primarily for touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Android is developed by a consortium of d ...

instead, which uses the Google Play app store.

History

In 2003, Research In Motion (RIM) (now known as

) launched the ''Mobile Data Service'' to enable customers to access

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mo ...

-based third-party enterprise applications using the secure real-time

push Push may refer to: Music * Mike Dierickx (born 1973), a Belgian producer also known as Push Albums * ''Push'' (Bros album), 1988 * ''Push'' (Gruntruck album), 1992 * ''Push'' (Jacky Terrasson album), 2010 Songs * "Push" (Enrique Iglesias s ...

-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. It was also announced that the store was scheduled to be open in March 2009, and would work in conjunction with

PayPal PayPal Holdings, Inc. is an American multinational financial technology company operating an online payments system in the majority of countries that support online money transfers, and serves as an electronic alternative to traditional paper ...

's services. On 19 January 2009, RIM began accepting submissions of applications from developers. On 4 March 2009, RIM officially named the store 'BlackBerry App World' (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 is a trade association representing the wireless communications industry in the United States. The association was established in 1984 and is headquartered in Washington, D.C. It is a 501(c)(6) nonprofit membership organization, and repre ...

(CTIA) trade show, RIM announced that App World had gone live. At the BlackBerry-sponsored Wireless Symposium, it was announced that an average of one million apps were being downloaded each day. 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. 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. On 21 January 2013, BlackBerry rebranded the 'BlackBerry App World' to 'BlackBerry World'. On 18 June 2014, BlackBerry announced an official relationship with

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technolog ...

, which includes access to

Amazon Appstore Amazon Appstore is an app store for Android-compatible platforms operated by Amazon.com Services, LLC, a subsidiary of Amazon. The store is primarily used as the storefront for Amazon's Android-based Fire OS. including Amazon Fire tablets, a ...

in BlackBerry 10.3. On 14 December 2017, BlackBerry announced that BlackBerry World would close at the end of 2019, however the store was not closed, and continues to function as of August 2020. On 1 April 2018, BlackBerry removed payment features from BlackBerry World.

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 is done for BlackBerry World apps about content and quality before is agreed to launch. About 85 percent of the verification is done in

Denpasar Denpasar (; Balinese: ᬤᬾᬦ᭄ᬧᬲᬃ) is the capital of Bali and the main gateway to the island. The city is also a hub for other cities in the Lesser Sunda Islands. With the rapid growth of the tourism industry in Bali, Denpasar has e ...

Bali Bali () is a province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and ...

Pricing and availability

Research In Motion (RIM) announced that the store would initially be available in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

, and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. As of March 2013, BlackBerry World was available in 170 markets, and supports 23 currencies and 33 languages. Over 6 million applications are downloaded daily, with an aggregate of over 4 billion downloads to-date, and accepts payment in all markets, using a combination of

, credit card, and carrier billing. As of August 2020, BlackBerry World is available in 171 countries and territories. Applications were both free and paid; from $0.99, to $599.99 USD in the U.S. After July 2018, some paid apps were deprecated. Maximum fee was $5. Registration and app submission are now closed. The service is available in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

, and

Brazilian Portuguese Brazilian Portuguese (' ), also Portuguese of Brazil (', ) or South American Portuguese (') is the set of varieties of the Portuguese language native to Brazil and the most influential form of Portuguese worldwide. It is spoken by almost all of ...

, among other languages. The store is available for the following BlackBerry devices that are updated to

version 4.5.0 or higher: *

BlackBerry Leap The BlackBerry Leap is a discontinued smartphone developed by BlackBerry Limited. Announced on March 3, 2015, at the Mobile World Congress with initial availability in April 2015, the Leap is a follow-on to the affordable Z3 model with a number ...

*BlackBerry Porsche Design P'9983 *

BlackBerry Classic The BlackBerry Classic, originally known as the BlackBerry Q20, is a touchscreen-based smartphone with a physical QWERTY, AZERTY or QWERTZ keyboard developed by BlackBerry, previously known as RIM (Research In Motion). The BlackBerry Classic was ...

* BlackBerry Passport * BlackBerry Porsche Design P'9982 * BlackBerry Q5 *

BlackBerry Q10 The BlackBerry Q10 is a touchscreen-based QWERTY smartphone developed by BlackBerry, previously known as RIM (Research In Motion). The BlackBerry Q10 is the second of two BlackBerry smartphones unveiled at the BlackBerry 10 event on January 30, ...

BlackBerry Z3 The BlackBerry Z3 is a touchscreen smartphone developed by BlackBerry. Announced in February 2014, it is the first BlackBerry phone produced in partnership with Foxconn. Adopting a similar appearance and dimensions as BlackBerry Z30, Z3 is desi ...

BlackBerry Z10 The BlackBerry Z10 is a high-end LTE touchscreen-based smartphone developed by BlackBerry, previously known as RIM. The BlackBerry Z10 is the first of two new BlackBerry phones presented at the BlackBerry 10 event on January 30, 2013. The Blac ...

BlackBerry Z30 The BlackBerry Z30 is a high-end 4G touchscreen smartphone developed by BlackBerry. Announced on September 18, 2013, it succeeds the Z10 as the second totally touchscreen device to run the BlackBerry 10 operating system (and the first with vers ...

* BlackBerry Bold 9900/9000/9700/9780/9650/9790 *BlackBerry 9720 *

BlackBerry Porsche Design P'9981 The BlackBerry Porsche Design P'9981 was a smartphone by Research In Motion and Porsche Design. Released in December 2011, it was a variant of the latest model of the Bold 9900, sharing all of its internal hardware components. They both shared th ...

9981 *

BlackBerry Torch BlackBerry Torch is a series of smartphones manufactured by BlackBerry Ltd. The lineup consists of the following: * BlackBerry Torch 9800, the first phone in the series, powered by BlackBerry OS 6. * BlackBerry Torch 9810, which physically mimic ...

9800/9810 - Preloaded * BlackBerry Style 9670 - Preloaded *

BlackBerry Storm The BlackBerry Storm is a touchscreen smartphone developed by Research In Motion. A part of the BlackBerry 9500 series of phones, it was RIM's first touchscreen device, and its first without a physical keyboard. It featured a touchscreen that ...

and

2 9500/9520/9530/9550 * BlackBerry Tour 9630 * BlackBerry Pearl 3G 9100/9105 * BlackBerry Pearl 8100/8110/8120/8130 * BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220/8230 *

BlackBerry Curve BlackBerry Curve is a brand of professional smartphones that were manufactured by BlackBerry Ltd from 2007 until 2013. Early series Curve 8300 Series The BlackBerry Curve brand was introduced on May 3, 2007 with OS version 4.5 with the Curve 8 ...

3G 9300/9330 *

BlackBerry Curve 8900 BlackBerry Curve is a brand of professional smartphones that were manufactured by BlackBerry Ltd from 2007 until 2013. Early series Curve 8300 Series The BlackBerry Curve brand was introduced on May 3, 2007 with OS version 4.5 with the Curve ...

BlackBerry Curve 8520 The BlackBerry Curve 8520 is a smartphone from the BlackBerry Curve BlackBerry Curve is a brand of professional smartphones that were manufactured by BlackBerry Ltd from 2007 until 2013. Early series Curve 8300 Series The BlackBerry Curve b ...

/8530/9320 *

BlackBerry Curve 8300 BlackBerry Curve is a brand of professional smartphones that were manufactured by BlackBerry Ltd from 2007 until 2013. Early series Curve 8300 Series The BlackBerry Curve brand was introduced on May 3, 2007 with OS version 4.5 with the Curve ...

8300/8310/8320/8330 *BlackBerry 8800 *BlackBerry PlayBook

Storage

Users were initially allowed to archive their apps on a

MicroSD Secure Digital, officially abbreviated as SD, is a proprietary non-volatile flash memory card format developed by the SD Association (SDA) for use in portable devices. The standard was introduced in August 1999 by joint efforts between SanDi ...

, or on

eMMC The MultiMediaCard, officially abbreviated as MMC, is a memory card standard used for solid-state storage. Unveiled in 1997 by SanDisk and Siemens, MMC is based on a surface-contact low pin-count serial interface using a single memory stack sub ...

storage of certain BlackBerry smartphone models. The archive to external memory card function was later removed with the release of App World 3.0.

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 The BlackBerry PlayBook is a mini tablet computer developed by BlackBerry and made by Quanta Computer, an original design manufacturer (ODM).

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 OpenAL (Open Audio Library) is a cross-platform audio application programming interface (API). It is designed for efficient rendering of multichannel three-dimensional positional audio. Its API style and conventions deliberately resemble those ...

, cocos2d-x, and

Box2D Box2D is a free open source 2-dimensional physics simulator engine written in C++ by Erin Catto and published under the MIT license. It has been used in ''Crayon Physics Deluxe'', ''Limbo'', '' Rolando'', '' Incredibots'', '' Angry Birds'', ' ...

, 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 Appcelerator is a privately held mobile technology company based in San Jose, California. Its main products are Titanium, an open-source software development kit for cross-platform mobile development, and the Appcelerator Platform. Founded ...

Apache Cordova Apache Cordova (formerly PhoneGap) is a mobile application development framework created by Nitobi. Adobe Systems purchased Nitobi in 2011, rebranded it as PhoneGap, and later released an open-source version of the software called Apache Cordova. ...

, dojo,

jQuery Mobile jQuery Mobile is a touch-optimized web framework (also known as a mobile framework), specifically a JavaScript library, developed by the jQuery project team. The development focuses on creating a framework compatible with many smartphones and ta ...

, Marmalade, NME, Qt, and Sencha Touch. BlackBerry has changed its whole direction of development tools, and is now mainly embracing their

C++ C++ (pronounced "C plus plus") is a high-level general-purpose programming language created by Danish computer scientist Bjarne Stroustrup as an extension of the C programming language, or "C with Classes". The language has expanded significan ...

/ Cascades as the 'native' road to develop

s for their

platform.

HTML5 HTML5 is a markup language used for structuring and presenting content on the World Wide Web. It is the fifth and final major HTML version that is a World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommendation. The current specification is known as the HTML ...

is considered the almost-native second path for development. In April 2014, BlackBerry has announced to stop the support of

Adobe Air Adobe AIR (also known as Adobe Integrated Runtime and is codenamed Apollo) is a cross-platform runtime system currently developed by Harman International, in collaboration with Adobe Inc., for building desktop applications and mobile applic ...

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

-based apps to BlackBerry World.

References

External links

AppWorld.BlackBerry.com
— official website {{DEFAULTSORT:BlackBerry App World Mobile software distribution platforms