RIM Updating the BlackBerry App World Ahead of BlackBerry 10

Canadian mobile phone maker Research In Motion is gearing up for the release of a new major flavor of its mobile operating system, namely the BlackBerry 10 platform, and it is also making changes to some of the services that will be available for it.

The BlackBerry App World, the one place where those who use RIM’s smartphones can find and download apps and games, is suffering some modifications as well. According to the latest reports on the matter, RIM has already sent out notice to developers to inform them on these changes, yet an official public announcement hasn’t been made yet. Some of the main changes that the app portal will suffer include the addition of a new Music Creation category, along with some new categories for children, and the removal of the Beta section. Apparently, the News cat in the BlackBerry App World has been expanded to include magazines and Blogs as well, and it has been rebranded to News and Magazines. 

The Reference and eBooks & Education was split into two sections, one being Education & Reference, while the other is Books. The Shopping section is now called Lifestyle, while Maps & Navigation has become Navigation and Travel and, obviously, includes the Travel category as well. The Music Creation section was added to Music and Audio as a subcategory, and there are also two Children’s Categories, namely Children’s Games in the Games Channel, and Children’s Books in the Books category. 

As mentioned above, another major change involves the Beta category, which is being discontinued. All apps in this category will be moved to relevant sections. What RIM hasn’t explained is how it will handle the beta testing of applications. The vendor already announced that it planned on removing sideloading of applications from its PlayBook tablet, and it might apply the same approach to the BlackBerry 10 OS as well. Only developers will be able to install applications from unofficial sources, which means that the Beta Zone might soon be shut down. Hopefully, the company will provide clarification on the matter soon, so stay tuned for more on this.

Posted in: Mobile Phone, Preview, Software