App World has arrived in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Venezuela. It’s not clear whether this will be the same App World that we see here in North America, but chances are that the same applications will be distributed.
The only major difference is that users can choose to download BlackBerry App World in English or Spanish. A Portuguese version of the client interface is expected to be available later in 2009
Not only is this good for Latin America, but it should prove fruitful for the entire BlackBerry nation. App World does a great job of spreading smartphone application awareness, and teaching users that everyday tasks can be made much simpler with the use of a BlackBerry app. This smartphone lifestyle will promote more young Latin Americans to take up development as a career, and hopefully bring more bright minds to the BlackBerry platform.
This also reflects RIM’s strategy of making a tremendous push into Latin America as an emerging market. According to a recent interview with Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis, the region could prove very profitable for RIM. “The thought that Latin America and Western Europe could someday be like North America in terms of market penetration gets us very, very excited,” says Balsillie. Let’s hope he’s right!
Great news for iDEN BlackBerry users not on the Sprint network. RIM and NII Holdings jointly announced the impending release of the BlackBerry Curve 8350i in Latin America during Q1 of 2009. the iDEN BlackBerry will see release in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Peru.
