BlackBerry App World Gets an Update

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When first announced, Apple’s iPhone wowed consumes with its multi touch display (a world’s first, I might add). However, it wasn’t until iPhone OS version 2.0 hit the scene complete with the App Store that Apple secured their foothold in the mobile handset market. Sure, the ability to add third-party applications to your mobile handset has been around for quite some time but no company marketed the feature as much as Apple did with their App Store.

All of that marketing evidently paid off as the App Store (according to Apple CEO Steve Jobs) is now the premiere mobile application market in the world. Feeding off of this success, competing handset manufacturers scrambled to put together their own mobile application stores to compete with the iPhone’s App Store.

Of course we have the Android Marketplace which is gaining steady market share and various other mobile app stores that are struggling to hold their own against more dominant stores. One store in particular though has been generating a considerable amount of buzz considering its theoretical install base which is none other than RIM’s BlackBerry App World.

First released last year, the App World has been available on the majority of BlackBerry devices ever since. However, in order to keep up with the competition, RIM is going to have to continously update and improve the App World, and do that they have.

Today, the popular handset manufacturer has announced that App World 2.0 has gone live and is now available to consumers. Some new features in App World 2.0 include the ability to pay for apps through your monthly carrier bill (I’m sure this will go on to piss a lot of parents off), and the addition of RIM’s new BlackBerry ID system.

Of course, the only way to really make a successful app store is through its contents. Until the App World is further saturated with quality apps, it will trail behind the App Store and Android Marketplace.