It has been a long time since I wrote about RIM’s BlackBerry lines and the App World that went live in March 2009. Today is the right time to compare the iPhone and BlackBerry and App Store and App World. 

App Store was launched in July 2008 and the App World of Research in Motion was launched in March, 2009, a difference of nearly a year. The App Store was launched with a few hundred applications on board, same in case of App World. However,  there is a marked difference in the growth pace of the two application stores. 

It’s been five months since the launch of App World and there are more than 2000 applications. App Store crossed the 2000 mark within three months time. Well, the progress of App World isn’t very disappointing, I should say. If growth continues at this pace, App World would fare well in competing with the App Store. 

App Store, one year down the line has more than 65,000 applications and have crossed a record of 1.5 billion downloads. Will RIM be able to create this same software history? RIM and Verizon did a neat job announcing that buy one get one free offer on all BlackBerry devices, millions of units were sold. It is time to reach out to all those new buyers and bring them back to the App World. 

RIM declined to disclose the exact figure of download from the App World so far, but the company said that they are happy with the download volume. This implies, the figure ain’t something that would blow you off the railing. Till now, the App World is confined to users in US, Canada and UK. Italy, France, Germany and Spain would have access to App World this month with India and Brazil to follow in the coming months. 

RIM has about 30 million customers world wide and opening up App World outside US and Canada means reaching out to more customers, which is good for the company. We’ll see soon how App World fare against the mighty App Store.