Technology blog The Verge reported that newly appointed CEO Thorsten Heins took to the stage to reveal BlackBerry owners are downloading apps from the BlackBerry App World at a rate of more than six million apps per day.
“That’s 174 million downloads per month, or nearly 30 downloads per year per user,” said RIM — or over two billion app downloads in total.
Despite having a much smaller app selection than Apple’s App Store or Google’s Android Market, “BlackBerry App World generates 43 per cent more daily downloads per app than Apple’s App Store and has more paid downloads than Google’s Android Market,” reported The Verge.
RIM also claims that its App store is more profitable than the Android Market, second to only to Apple’s App Store.
RIM is hoping to lure Android developers to its app platform to boost app numbers. On February 2, RIM vice president of developer relations, Alec Saunders, tweeted that developers who port their apps onto the BlackBerry platform by February 13th will be given a free PlayBook tablet.
In February market researcher IDC said Apple had reclaimed its position as the leading worldwide smartphone vendor with 23.5 per cent of the smartphone market. Sales of handsets made by Research In Motion fell from 14.6 million units in Q4 2010 to 13.0 million in Q4 2011 while the company’s share of the smartphone market fell to 8.2 per cent.
A February study by analyst firm NPD Group found that Apple’s iPhone handsets were hot right now but that smartphones running Google’s Android platform were gaining popularity with new smartphone buyers. — AFP/Relaxnews
