RIM have finally announced this week two major distribution initiatives for BlackBerry smartphone applications at the BlackBerry Developer Conference. A new online application storefront and a new on-device application center will help application developers and carriers reach millions of BlackBerry smartphone users worldwide and will provide consumers with greater choice, enhanced application discovery and an easy method for managing installation, upgrades, and purchases.

This news probably comes as no surprise, as we have already learnt that the new BlackBerry Storm will be running on various apps and these applications had to come from somewhere. I hope this also answers one of the question our reader pointed out regarding support for YouTube, flash, etc. With RIM developing a massive app store for their latest and upcoming smartphones, even if they won’t be supported, I’m sure developers interested will be looking into that in no time.

Much like Apple’s iTunes App Store, RIM plans to launch the application storefront in March 2009, in which BlackBerry application developers can begin submitting their applications and content for inclusion in the storefront in December 2008. The storefront will allow developers to set their own prices for applications and developers will retain 80 percent of the revenue generated from their applications.

RIM is also working with its carrier partners to provide carrier-customized, on-device application centers to help foster after-market application downloads. The BlackBerry application center will allow each carrier to offer a convenient catalog right on the device where a customer can discover and download applications. RIM has already worked with carriers successfully to provide this type of on-device distribution system for individual software applications, such as the popular Facebook for BlackBerry Smartphones application.

The new BlackBerry application center will allow a carrier to build on that success with a broader catalog and provide customers with a convenient and easy method to purchase and download applications.

[via Pocket-lint]