APP OFF! App Store vs Ovi vs App World vs Android Market

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As part of this week’s App Store birthday extravaganza, I thought it might be an idea to compare what Apple has put together with all the different mobile program delivery platforms out there.

I may have described the iPhone service as a pile of novelty nonsense – you can throw your rotten fruit and broken 2007 iPhones at me later – but how does it measure up against its peers – BlackBerry’s App World, Nokia’s Ovi and the Android Market?

Click on the image below to start the tour

SHINY VIDEO: BlackBerry App World – first look

RIM has launched their app store for BlackBerry devices, as of midnight, known as BlackBerry App World.

Once downloaded the software gives users access to 500 or 600 hundred applications, from today, expected to rise to 1,000 by the weekend. Categories included Games, Maps & Navigation, Personal Finance & Banking with the full list after the jump.

From my first view of the service, it runs surprisingly smoothly over even the GPRS signal and looks a hell of a lot more user friendly than the likes of the Android Marketplace. The front page holds 12 featured apps as chosen and rechosen on a daily basis by BlackBerry. You can also navigate by the top downloads, by category or straight keyword based search.

Developers receive an 80% / 20% split of the profits of downloads with RIM and they can also choose which countries can host their apps with the store changing on your handset depending upon where you are and what software your device can cope with.

App World will work on all BlackBerrys with version 4.2 OS and beyond.

App Categories

  • Entertainment
  • Games
  • Maps and Navigation
  • Music and Video
  • News and Weather
  • Personal Finance and Banking
  • Personal Health and Wellness
  • Productivity and Utilities
  • Professional and Business
  • Reference and eBooks
  • Social Networking and Sharing
  • Sports and Recreation
  • Travel

BlackBerry App World