A bunch of RIM knowledgebase articles just popped up outlining how common tasks like deletion and installation will work on the upcoming Application Center. As announced at the BlackBerry Developer Conference, the center “allows you to find, browse, install, and upgrade third-party applications that have been selected by your wireless service provider”, so sayeth article number three. What catches the eye is that the environment compatability is limited to the BlackBerry Bold and OS 4.7 (used on the BlackBerry Storm). What gives? The Pearl, Curve (both old and new), and even the 8800 series still have plenty of users who would want to get involved with RIM’s foray into on-device application loading.
Of course, the Application Center is only the first step into this territory – in March the Application Storefront will host third-party applications just like the Android Market and iPhone App Store. RIM has a leg up on both of those platforms by having an extremely wide range of devices and a solid installed base, but if they don’t make the Application Storefront compatible with that wide device range, that’s a lot of potential software buyers RIM’s missing out on, nevermind throwing away their one competitive advantage.