Blackberry Applications Store arrives in March

Let’s not bother with the fact that Blackberry was a little late to the party, having not given the concept of an online applications store a moment of attention until Steve Jobs unveiled a the half billion dollar iTunes App Store economy almost overnight. No. Let’s embrace the fact that Blackberry has turned up to the table.

Although the Storm features a rather nifty App Store with an all encompassing 5 or 6 applications (“5 applications should be all any mobile user ever needs?”), the question of a generally available Blackberry App Store a la iTunes has been something I’ve spent the past few months nodding at when people ask.

“It’s coming,” I said. Sort of. I mean, goodness knows what they’ll dream up.

I hope it’s not some buy-your-mobile-app-with-a-credit-card-online a la o2 Litmus. (Incidentally, Litmus have got a LOT of explaining to do on that one).

The Dallas Morning News carries a report referencing the app store that will be useful to many in the MIR developer audience:

It [Blackberry] plans to open an online applications store for BlackBerry users in March, showcasing content deals with Slacker, an Internet radio device, and Shazam, a music recognition service.

I hope it’s as easy to develop for as iTunes or Android…

But I won’t hold my breath.