BlackBerry Seeks To Catch Up In The App Race; Introduces BBM Integrated Apps

BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM) has said it will be shortly releasing a series of updates for its BlackBerry apps. This means that now all the social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook and the Blackberry apps like BlackBerry Travel, BlackBerry App World and BBM Music will now include the popular BBM, which will enable the users to automatically share their Facebook status or Twitter update with their BBM friends from the apps, the release added.

Alec Saunders, vice president of developer relations at RIM, said one of every five apps being downloaded on BlackBerry App World is a BBM-connected app. Ontario-based RIM has more than 70,000 apps in its App World store for either BlackBerry phones or the PlayBook Tablet, compared with 200,000 iPad apps, and half a million for the iPhone.

It has been seeing stiff competition lately with steep drop in the prices of Android smartphones and to fight this threat and to make its position stronger in Indian market RIM had recently cut down the prices of several of its handsets. It has also been lately marketing its phone more towards the younger generation and trying to change its image of a strictly business phone.