Say hello to BlackBerry App World

BlackBerry App World is the name of their application store. It’s cominatcha shortly.

If you believe the rumour, speculation and behind-the-scenes commentary, this App World was born on the cusp of realisation that Jobs & Co at Apple had a $500m marketplace on their hands after releasing the iTunes App Store.

It’s about time.

Last night, KeynoteSystems sent me a Tweet saying:

RIM has to build their Store from scratch, Apple had the advantage of iTunes to use as a starting point. That was their secret weapon.

… in reply to my Tweet:

Massively underwhelmed by Blackberry’s App Store at the moment….

I don’t have any sympathy for companies playing catch-up. The App Store wasn’t an original idea. Nokia’s had a ‘Download’ feature on their handset for eons. It was just implemented with 1.0 thinking.

I was prepared to give a bit of positivity to Blackberry and their App World concept until I got to the ‘register now’ page. All I wanted to do was register now. But this involves filling out 10 fields on a form, 9 of which are ‘required’. My name, my IMEI number, my inside leg measurements.

Here’s the form:

I looked at the IMEI field. You what? No. No thanks. I don’t want to take off the battery cover AND take the battery out to get it. And I don’t really feel like navigating through the menus to find it and then transplant it into the form. Why do you need my IMEI number?

This form tells you everything you need to know about BlackBerry App World. It’ll be functional. It will do the job. It’s been built by engineers. The UI and branding people have obviously been locked away in a room and only brought out at the last moment to say ‘Yes, but…’ to which everyone takes as their approval.

Can’t I just give you my email — and you email me when it’s all ready to download?

I haven’t bothered filling it in. I don’t really want to see a billion dollar firm like BlackBerry screw it up. I don’t want to see them trying-their-best but failing miserably and delivering some spectacular mediocrity.

I’d rather set my expectations to super-dooper-low so I’m not disappointed when App World actually arrives.

Surely they’ve looked at Apple? Or Nokia’s Ovi? Surely you want to remove as many barriers as possible? What BRIGHT SPARK thought it would be a good idea to put an IMEI number on the form?

Engineers will simply remark that this particular field is optional. You DON’T have to fill it in.

But if you’re a 24 year old girl who doesn’t give a stuff about technology but is prepared to ‘get the App World thing’ — the last thing you want to be exposed to is IMEI numbers. ‘What the HELL is an IMEI?’ I can hear her think.

How many consumers are going to click and then hit the back button? I’m talking Blackberry normobs. People who, when you sit them in front of Apple, just ‘get it’. Because Apple makes it simple. They think about the entire experience.

I’m pleased to see they’re using PayPal to power the store though. At least it’s well known. I totally misunderstood the link on the App World page though. Here’s what it looks like:

I clicked on ‘Set up your PayPal account now’. I thought that meant ‘set it up with your App World account’. Or ‘Associate your account with PayPal so you can do one-click purchasing of Apps’. Or something like that.

My mistake. It takes you to a page to create a PayPal account.

My next issue was I don’t actually know if I’m running operating system 4.2 or higher on my device. I have never bothered paying attention to that. How the hell am I meant to find out? I, at least, have the ability (and desire) to go and resolve this. Your average normob with a Blackberry is going to be mightily concerned. I made the mistake of clicking the instructions on finding out about my operating system using Firefox. You need to be using Internet Explorer in order for the ActiveX control to run so you can download the update. Ridiculous.

It really is quite a painful experience just looking at the home page. I see all sorts of pitfalls for consumers. I was hoping for some smooth sailing.

It’ll be fine for me. For you. If you’re reading MIR, you’re probably interested to try it all out.

I sincerely hope that it’s not going to be a painful experience for the great unwashed with their Blackberries.

I wonder if the best thing to do is for them to simply wait until they get a new Blackberry with App World pre-installed?

Head over to give your IMEI number and life story at the App World registration page here.