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BlackBerry app store comes to India
By siliconindia   |   Tuesday, 10 November 2009, 15:27 IST   |    4 Comments
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BlackBerry app store comes to India
Bangalore: Research In Motion (RIM), the maker of BlackBerry smartphone has announced the launch of its application store in India, which includes third party applications by Indian media and entertainment firms such as Hungama, broadcaster CNBC-TV18 and application developer Geodesic. Some of the applications available in the app store include Hungama MyPlay App, a music player and an online store to browse and download content such as latest ringtones, wallpapers, music tracks and videos clips. CNBC-TV18 app is an application that displays live news from CNBC TV-18 and Moneycontrol.com, and allows users to search stock prices on National Stock Exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange and global indices as well as use personal finance tools. Mundu Radio app, is a Geodesic application that accesses free Internet radio stations and streams music on the handset. There are also applications with which users can use social networking sites, Orkut and Facebook on BlackBerry, reports MediaNama. In June, Google offered its mobile application for 'My Location' and voice search to BlackBerry users in India. This and a customized version of its chat application GTalk, are now available on the India application store. A factor that affects the success of an app store is its range of applications. Other handset vendors such as Apple and Nokia were able to tie up with many Indian developers and media partners to offer India exclusive applications on their respective application stores, but RIM has only managed three. Will Indian users be dismayed by this small-scale, pocket-sized attempt? One wonders if such launches could spark off more independent mobile app sites on the lines of Getjar.com. Recently, at the Geodesic earnings call, Kiran Kulkarni, Managing Director of Geodesic, had revealed something that suggests the app store might not find many takers. He said, "Fact is that 79 percent of the Blackberry users use only voice in India and not its e-mail features." So much for its 'push e-mail' slogan, RIM might need to come up with new strategy for India and invest largely in advertisements that expound the real value of the handsets and that will encourage users to explore its functions.

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