RIM Touts PlayBook Apps, Actively Courting Bigger Players

BARCELONA - Research in Motion today touted its app eco-system and denied that recent delays and missteps deterred developers from investing in the platform.

"You always end up with people who jump in early and those who wait and see," Alec Saunders, RIM's head of developer relations, said during a press roundtable here at Mobile World Congress.

RIM its long-awaited BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 last week. Marty Mallick, vice president of global alliances and business development at RIM, said today that that the number of apps in BlackBerry App World have increased by the thousands since the launch of the updated OS. RIM is also seeing a "significant number of PlayBooks" coming online after the 2.0 release, he said.

The PlayBook hasn't exactly been a huge hit for RIM. In early December, the company related to lackluster sales of the tablet.

During today's roundtable, RIM talked up the benefits of launching an app within BlackBerry App World, bringing in execs from Zinio, Marmalade, and 100 Milligrams to sing its praises.

100 Milligrams has an app called Pacemaker, which essentially turns the PlayBook into a live DJ booth, complete with two turntables and a mixer. Pacemaker founder Jonas Norberg said the PlayBook was "the most responsive tablet out there. As a DJ, you want immediate action."

Still, the PlayBook lacks some of the more popular apps found on iOS and Android, like Skype and Netflix. Last week, Netflix said it had for the PlayBook, though it later noted that "our plans can change."

When asked how RIM is working to attract major players to its tablet, Saunders said there is a "significant effort underway" to attract as many apps to the App World as possible.

"For some apps, it's a question of timing," he said. "They'll release on their timetable."

In March 2011, RIM said the in addition to apps developed for the BlackBerry platform. The idea from a developer perspective was to give them an opportunity to try things out on the PlayBook so they'll perhaps opt for a PlayBook-specific version in the future, Saunders said.

The Android community has really stepped up, Mallick said. One phenomenon the RIM didn't expect, however, was people submitting Android apps that weren't their own. One app, he said, was submitted 10 times - but none of those submissions were from the owner.

Though Mallick said RIM vets the apps that are added to App World, Engadget reported this week that at least one unauthorized submission made it through. The makers of the Dolphin HD browser, MoboTap, were surprised to find their app in the App World; turns out it was submitted by white label store Handster.

"There's a surprising amount of piracy" with the Android apps," Mallick said.

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