Research In Motion is working on a way to download apps from BlackBerry App World through carrier billing services rather than PayPal. This would be an especially useful feature for those who prefer not to have a PayPal account.

RIM CEO Jim Balsillies announced the upcoming bill carrier changes at the BlackBerry Developer Conference. This will also make it easier for spontaneous purchases.

Soon a BlackBerry Theme Studio will be launched. This will make the user interface more customizable and there will also be a new advertising service for developers to integrate ads into apps.

Dictionary.com has launched a new application on BlackBerry App World. This application resembles the Dictionary.com application that has already been launched on the iTunes App Store. The iPhone/iPod Touch Dictionary.com application is also free and has hit about 3 million downloads.

The BlackBerry version of the app has a list of about 500,000 words, synonyms, definitions, audio pronunciations, and spelling suggestions. The Word of the Day feature in Spanish and English is built-in to the BlackBerry app too. One of the distinguishing features of the BlackBerry version is that synonyms and definitions can be accessed from the Dictionary.com app while reading or writing e-mails.

According to Dictionary.com President Doug Leeds, the company also plans to launch APIs for developers to integrate the application into their own services. The application will be integrated in several e-books too. The Dictionary.com application on BlackBerry App World is free and will be launching in the near future (if not already).

InterActiveCorp’s Ask.com bought out Dictionary.com as part of the Lexico acquisition in July 2008. Dictionary.com is the sister website of Thesaurus.com and Reference.com too.

Poynt is a BlackBerry application that has similar functionality as the Yelp iPhone application. The application on the BlackBerry can detect restaurants near-by and report the reviews of the place. The BlackBerry application can also detect the location of the user and report what restaurants are the closest and draw out a map on how to get there.

Although the application is currently only on the BlackBerry, the iPhone version is on the way. The company recently reported that they have hit one million downloads on BlackBerry App World. The iPhone version of the application will be available towards the tail end of the year.

At the beginning of April, BlackBerry App World publicly launched.  At the time they had about 1,000 applications and about 3.5 months later, the number of applications have doubled.  Research In Motion is now granting users in France, Germany, Italy, and Spain access to the BlackBerry App World store.

BlackBerry App World’s biggest competitor, the iPhone App Store now has over 50,000 applications, but that does not discourage the Canadian mobile manufacturing company.  “I don’t think it matters whether it’s 40,000 or 2,000, you’ve still got a broad range of choice,” stated RIM Global Alliance VP Jeff McDowell.

One of the reasons why BlackBerry App World does not have as much traction as the iPhone App Store is the pricing model.  Paid applications have a price tag of at least $3.  Many of the applications on iTunes are $0.99.  BlackBerry App World is also only limited to the U.S., U.K., and Canada as of right now.

[via Engadget/Electronista]

Evernote is a storage service where users can clip notes from the web, take snapshots, record audio, and search on the computer for that saved information.  Information that is taken can be stored on Evernote’s cloud servers.  Evernote has software available for the PC, Mac, iPhone, Windows Mobile, the Web, and now they have a BlackBerry application available.

To use the software, BlackBerry users can navigate around the interface using the track ball.  At the bottom of the application is a search box that allows you to find notes by tags.  The Menu button allows you to view recently created notes, pending notes that are uploading, and the ability to activate the GPS.  Playing back voice notes requires opening the BlackBerry media player.

The application is free, but subscriptions costs $5 per month for 40MB.  The application works with the Bold, Storm, and the Curve 8900.  It is currently only available through BlackBerry App World.  Evernote raised $4.5 million this past January.

[via DownloadSquad]

Research In Motion Ltd., the manufacturing company behind the BlackBerry handheld devices is preparing to launch their application store today: BlackBerry App World.

BlackBerry App World can be downloaded from RIM’s website. The BlackBerry App World will be starting with a launch of about 1,000 applications. To purchase applications, you will need to set up a PayPal account if you do not already have one.

Jim Balsillie, Co-Chief Executive of RIM stated that he plans to work with wireless carrier companies to see if the company can have application purchases tied to their phone bills instead. Currently Apple charges the credit cards that users have linked to iTunes for application downloads.

Some of the free applications listed on BlackBerry App World include Viigo, Yahoo! Messenger, Facebook, Bloomberg, MySpace, AOL Instant Messenger, ICQ, ELLE, ELLEgirl, Woman’s Day, Text2C, GPS Tracker, Timble Outdoors Free Trial, Pandora, Slacker Radio, Newsweek, CBS News, TheStreet, and Shazam. MobileCrunch has a solid list of applications listed on BlackBerry App World.

To download BlackBerry App World, visit www.blackberry.com/appworld. If the download link is not available there right now, it should be there shortly.

Mike Lazaridis the co-CEO of Research In Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM) will be stepping on stage at the annual trade show in Las Vegas on April 1st.  From that day forward, it is expected that BlackBerry App World will be open to the public.  This is the second challenge to Apple’s App Store after the Google Android Market.

Nokia, Microsoft, and Palm plan on launching application stores of their own soon.  It is rumored that the BlackBerry App World will all require PayPal, new phone models, and a $2.99 minimum price of the applications selling on that market.

Given that BlackBerry is more established in the corporate world, owners of the device tend to be more well off financially.  RIM only plans to take only 20% of revenues from BlackBerry software developers.  Apple takes about 30%.

RIM has been working with developers since 2002 to develop applications for the BlackBerry mobile device.  Since then developers have downloaded over 100,000 kits to write code for the BlackBerry.

Apple’s App Store already has traction going with over 1 billion downloads across 25,000 applications.  The MySpace BlackBerry application itself hit 400,000 downloads in its first week.

[via BusinessWeek]

RIM’s BlackBerry App World store has a few constraints for buyers and sellers.  The constraints are that PayPal accounts are required to buy and sell applications, applications must cost a minimum of $2.99, and old BlackBerry phones won’t work with the store.

PayPal is normally used for eBay for transactions between two parties.  PayPal takes a cut out from parties that accept payments using the service unless there is a special deal prearranged.  eBay acquired PayPal for a couple billion dollars a few years ago.

The minimum system requirements for BlackBerry phones is that it must be using the BlackBerry OS 4.2.0 or above for the applications to work.  BlackBerry phones with track wheels are not supported either.  Only trackballs and SurePress works with the App World.  Below is a list of the phones that work:

* BlackBerry® Bold™ 9000 smartphone
* BlackBerry® Storm™ smartphone
* BlackBerry® Pearl™ Flip Series
* BlackBerry® Curve™ 8300 Series
* BlackBerry® Curve™ 8900 smartphone
* BlackBerry® 8800 Series
* BlackBerry® Pearl™ Series

[via InformationWeek]

Engadget has it that Research in Motion has named their store BlackBerry App World.  More news to follow…  It would have been great if RIM threw a “Super” at the beginning too.