Apple ’s App Store concept has essentially colonized the idea of mobile app statistical distribution , with every major smartphone platform rushing to open up their own . RIM ’s spoof , BlackBerry App World , launched yesterday . How is it ?
https://gizmodo.com/put-me-on-your-blackberry-tele-phones-with-my-cousin-ap-5193266
The Scope
In a individual metaphor , if the iPhone App Store is Whole Foods , RIM ’s App World is more like the food department of a Target — it does some of the thing the App Store does decently enough , but it does n’t match the width and depth or the polish that clear you feel good about having spent $ 8 on a bagful of local handmade sustainably farm artisan organic granola .
The grocery metaphor in reality extends a bit further : While Whole Foods can be your exclusive grocery store , Target ’s food section is n’t potential to be the only place you shop — similarly , the App Store is the exclusive ( sound ) post to get iPhone apps , while you ’ve always been able to snaffle your BlackBerry apps from anywhere you desire . So App World is more about creating a convenient centralize point to funnel the BlackBerry weapons platform ’s already immense developer community and software system through — not to create a brand new ecosystem , like the App Store did . Still , increased interest and development will probably find as a result . They ’ve got a few hundred app in the store to start , which is n’t too tatty .
The Shopping Experience
It takes the iPhone App Store and turns it into a very BlackBerry experience — lots of scroll text leaning , knock the BlackBerry menu button to access cutoff and secondary functions ( like reviews ) , or to go to the top level App World menu . It work well with the trackball , even if it is n’t as fun to graze as the iPhone ’s App Store . ( I have n’t tested App World on a Storm , but if it ’s exactly the same , the UI would suck on a touch phone . ) Even though you ’ll run into tons of onward motion bar as you move around the storehouse , it does dilute fairly quickly , even over EDGE .
I wanted to invalidate comparisons to the iPhone ’s App Store , but RIM so clearly mock up theirs on it , it hurts . You even have basically the same set of icons on the botton as the App Store : Search , Top Downloads , Categories and My World ( which name your own apps ) . Instead of a “ featured ” button , featured apps take up most of the screen , with one app displayed at a time , master by an Apple - style app image ( Bloomberg ’s especially ) . It ’s nice , but not particularly nonrational if you want to quickly glance at the list of featured apps .
Payment for paid apps is clumsier , as Walt Mossberg notes — you have to link it up to a PayPal report . Granted , BlackBerry does n’t exactly have iTunes already sitting there for a simplified system of rules , like Apple does . It would be very cool if it could be tie in up to , say , an Amazon news report , where I could seamlessly pay for apps along with music , movies , book and whatever else they ’ll sell digitally .
Downloading and instal free apps is hitch - loose , just get across and smash , you ’re downloading . Then you get the usual o.k. / Run verification when it finishes . download and installing the Ticketmaster app over Wi - Fi with an average 5Mbps downstream accord to Speedtest — a mere 171 KB app — train about 45 seconds . The 1.2 megabyte Google Talk take about a minute to download , and another 20 second to install . Over bound , I had more than timeout download a larger app like Facebook .
The app manager screenland feels a slew like Firefox ’s download managing director , in reality . Some apps wed up your earpiece while they ’re put in ( at least on our test Curve 8900 ) , but usually , not for very long . Uninstalling apps — or installing a new version to replace an old edition — however , is a pain . When I uninstalled the Facebook app , I had to restart the earpiece ! And when I installed a raw translation of Google Talk , I had to re-start again . What bizarro world is this , Windows 98 ?
Other griping
Some of the more prominent BlackBerry apps also look to be missing from storage — notably , TwitterBerry . presumptively , this will switch over time as more apps pop up and App World becomes the determinate clearinghouse for BlackBerry apps .
The UI could use some fireworks stuffed in its airless pant — for the most part , I care the BlackBerry UI , but I experience like it needs a more dynamic panache to make app shopping playfulness . You guys want me to spend money , right ? ( Making it literally easy to spend money would facilitate with that as well . ) Oh yes , a desktop version would be nice too — a gripe we had with Android as well .
Overall , it works well enough — it ’s definitely easier than scouring far - flung niche of the internet to find the apps you ’re face for , provided they ’re useable in App World . But there ’s decidedly way for it become a more alone , liquid and sexier experience . [ BlackBerry ]
BlackBerrycellphonesfirst impressionsSmartphones
Daily Newsletter
Get the effective technical school , scientific discipline , and civilization newsworthiness in your inbox day by day .
newsworthiness from the future , delivered to your nowadays .
You May Also Like
