BlackBerry App World hits 1 billion downloads

By Geoff Duncan July 13, 2011

blackberry-appworld — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Canada’s Research in Motion might be shedding executives, laying off employees, and responding to anonymous letters purportedly from members of its own management, but the company nonetheless is trumpeting all the positive news it can. One example: the company’s BlackBerry App World has topped 1 billion app downloads since it was launched just over two years ago.

BlackBerry App World is now available to customers in more than 100 countries, and the company says customers are downloading an average of 3 million apps per day.

The announcement comes just as RIM revealed it plans to roll out seven new BlackBerry smartphones in a bid to re-assert itself in the smartphone market.

However, the number of downloads RIM has seen from BlackBerry App World also serve to highlight the distinction between RIM’s smartphone offerings (and now tablets, with the PlayBook and what are increasingly being turned “app phones” like the iPhone and most Android devices. Just last week, Apple announced customers have downloaded more than 15 billion applications for iOS devices; last May, Google indicated its Android Market had seen 4.5 billion app downloads, and adds another billion to that total every 60 days. In comparison, RIM’s BlackBerry App World took over two years to reach its first billion app downloads.

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