BlackBerry App World Store Hits 3 Billion Download Mark

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Research In Motion, amid a Beijing stop on its BlackBerry 10 Jam World Tour, announced that downloads from its BlackBerry App World store have exceeded 3 billion. It’s a happy milestone for the smartphone maker, which can use all the good news it can get.

“Three billion app downloads averages out to over 2.5 million downloads each day,” Victoria B. posted July 6 to the Inside BlackBerry Developer Blog. “What’s even more important–and impressive–is that the number of daily downloads continues to increase. It took 786 days to reach the 1 billion mark, 210 days to reach 2 billion, and only 176 days to reach the 3 billion number.”

She added, “I should also note that this number does not include apps downloaded from third-party BlackBerry app stores, or those pushed internally at companies around the world, or those downloaded directly from the Web.”

Also worth noting: There are now more than 90,000 apps available in the App World store–another respectable metric, Victoria suggests, as other app stores often share their numbers of submitted or approved apps, rather than what’s actually up for sale.

For context, Apple, at its Worldwide Developers Conference June 11, shared that it has more than 650,000 apps in its store and has passed 30 billion downloads.

RIM CEO Thorsten Heins talked up the BlackBerry 10 Jam World Tour during the company’s June 28 earnings call, saying he was encouraged and excited by the traction BlackBerry 10 has gained with developers. At the time, Heins said that the 23-city tour which consists of daylong events to help developers become acquainted with RIM’s new platform was sold out in at least eight cities.

“Developers have already embraced the BlackBerry 10 platform, showcasing apps at BlackBerry World in May, the camera integration, our first-in-class HTML5 browser and a social ability for apps beyond anything we ve seen on a BlackBerry before,” Heins said during the call.

Developers–and excellent apps–are the lifeblood of a mobile ecosystem, and RIM has its job cut out for it, not only keeping developers committed to the faltering BlackBerry brand, but encouraging them to stay committed even as RIM has pushed the release date of BlackBerry 10 from the fourth quarter of 2012 to the first quarter of 2013.

“You’ve got businesses to run, rent to pay and investors to answer to,” Alec Saunders, RIM’s vice president of developer relations, wrote in a June 30 post on the Developer s Blog, acknowledging the effects of the delay on this important group. “You are the folks who have skin in the game now, and aren’t just waiting for a new phone personally. We know this delay affects you, and we’re sorry.”

To read the original eWeek article, click here: BlackBerry App World Store Passes 3 Billion Downloads: RIM

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