The good folks in the land of the rising sun have one more great thing to wake-up to this morning. BlackBerry App World. RIM has made it official, and has launched the application-stocking App World for BlackBerry-toting customers in the country.
To get started, folks in the country can hit up http://ap.blackberry.com/jpn/appworld or mobile.blackberry.com. I just took a peek at the online catalog, and while I can’t read Japanese, it sure does look like the number of apps contained within is significantly less than we’re used to. C’mon developers, it’s time to pump in Japanese support into your apps!
Congratulations to all of the folks in the area. Hopefully users have fun browsing and downloading apps to their hearts content. Before anyone gets started though, they’ll need to make sure they’re using a trackball, trackpad or touchscreen Berry running on OS 4.2 or higher. Press release after the jump.
BlackBerry App World Launches in Japan
Japan – Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today announced that BlackBerry App World™ is now available in Japan, offering BlackBerry® smartphone* customers easy access to a broad mix of free mobile applications.
The official on-device app store for BlackBerry smartphones allows customers to easily discover, download and enjoy apps that are purposely built for their BlackBerry smartphones.
Customers can now download BlackBerry App World directly to their smartphone by visiting http://ap.blackberry.com/jpn/appworld or mobile.blackberry.com. BlackBerry App World can be conveniently accessed over both Wi-Fi® and mobile networks in Japan and it automatically presents customers with the relevant catalog of applications available for their specific BlackBerry smartphone model.
“BlackBerry App World offers a broad spectrum of both personal and business applications. Customers can easily find the applications they desire and download them on-the-go. We are very pleased to offer this enhanced experience to our customers in Japan,” said Ueno Kimiaki, Managing Director of Japan, Research In Motion.
Key Features:
- Front Page Carousel – showcases several applications on its front page carousel, making it easy for users to browse through a select number of featured applications. Featured applications vary from time to time, helping users discover new applications.
- Top Downloads – The “Top Downloads” area lists applications that are the most downloaded.
- Categories – a variety of application categories, including entertainment, IM and social networking, news, weather, productivity and more.
- Search/Filter – includes a keyword search with filtering capabilities.
- Reviews – Applications can be reviewed by users and those reviews are reflected in star ratings. Users can easily access and read reviews, see screenshots and read a description of each application before they download it.
- Recommend – recommend applications to other people through email, PIN, SMS message or BlackBerry® Messenger.
- Application Storage – includes a folder called My World, which keeps track of applications the user has downloaded. It is a personal storage space that allows users to uninstall and re-install applications.
- Application Archiving: users can archive applications to a microSD card or built-in storage memory on their BlackBerry smartphone.
- Update Notifications: Users are notified of updates to applications they’ve downloaded on BlackBerry App World.
- BlackBerry App World is also accessible from a user’s desktop computer at http://ap.blackberry.com/jpn/appworld.
Partners from all over the world provide a variety of applications on BlackBerry App World, including apps from popular brand names such as:
- Bloomberg
- Myspace
- New York Times
- salesforce.com
- Shazam
- Viigo
- WorldMate
*App World is available for BlackBerry smartphones that include a trackball, trackpad or touch-screen running OS 4.2 or higher. Users require an active data service plan to access App World. Data charges may apply for customers that have limited data plans.
[Via: RIM]