If you’re one of the few many users who use BlackBerry’s App World to download apps, updates, content etc you’ll be very pleased to see that App World 2.0 has just gone live in beta form.
App World 2.0 brings a number of enhancements to the app site, and some much needed new payment options that take it in to the real world.
Payment options now include direct support for credit cards. In the current version users need to go through a PayPal account to buy with their credit cards, which considering the traditional RIM market was never going to be an option that particularly appealed to the majority of the BlackBerry audience.
Additionally there’s also support for carrier billing, but it is only support, it won’t actually be available until deals are done with the networks. Presumably the corporates’ favourite carrier Vodafone are arguing that they don’t need it, as they already have their own app store with Vodafone 360. Although with the recent announcement that they’re scrapping their 360 branded handsets the app store might be the next part of the 360 service to be axed.
The biggest update to the store is the ability to finally drill down into the different top 25 lists. There are now top 25 paid, free, and theme sections – how they managed to not have this on launch is quite unfathomable, anyone with even a modicum of online retail/content experience knows that lists are an important driver to more page views.
RIM have also made it easier for users to navigate and access the site and have changed the BlackBerry ID so that it’s now device-independent so users can buy quicker and make it easier to keep track of their downloaded applications etc.
The new version is available on RIM’s beta developer site here and on their developer doc site here
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