Research In Motion is definitely hard at work, in an attempt to give its offerings a complete makeover before the BB10 launch at the end of January. The latest is the application store, known till now as the BlackBerry App World. It has now been renamed to BlackBerry World. And as expected, there will be a whole host of new content on the store, apart from apps – music, movies and TV shows included.
This change is pretty much an attempt to bring the BlackBerry application and media store platform at par with the offerings from Apple and Google.
The web version of the BlackBerry World is already Live here, while the applications for smartphones and tablets will be rolled out “in the coming weeks”.
Along with the store refresh comes the new BB Music service, which boasts of “millions” of songs. It will be available for an initial 30-day period free of charge, but will be charged at at US$4.99 per month in the U.S. There is still no word on the international pricing.
RIM seems to be riding a wave of confidence. Earlier this month, they had reported that developers submitted 15000 apps in less than 2 days at one Port-A-Thon event. Stock prices have also seen an upward trend, in the expectation of the success of the BB10 platform.
However, we are still a little apprehensive about how RIM will restructure its service pricing and tariff structure. The tweak is on the cards, and if we go by the pricing for the BB Music Service, it just might be an indicator of increased tariffs for the rest of the portfolio, including BlackBerry Messenger and enterprise services. We surely hope that does not happen.
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