Research in Motion Ltd. finally launched its App World yesterday and I’ve been trying it out. Things have started to get a bit better but in the beginning there was a lot of lag when searching for apps and some hitches when trying to purchase paid apps. I got an error but when I tried to purchase again I received a message saying that I had already purchased that app. Then I had to go into My World and reload the App. But that was just once. I assume these lags were due to everyone trying out the new appicenter of the Blackberry world. I wish there were more free apps but then again if there were maybe there would even be more fart apps (yes, they’re in App World) and I’d love some 99 cent apps.

While using Paypal is not quite the hassle I thought it would be, since I have an account and use it frequently anyway, I can see why it would be to those without a Paypal account. Larry Dignan at ZDnet said he had trouble when trying to download App World while his Blackberry was tethered to his laptop. Then he later heard from RIM who told him desktop downloads were not available. This despite the fact that there is a link to download from desktops on the App World website.

All in all, I’d say that App World is about what I thought it would be with no surprises one way or the other. Well maybe requiring Internet Explorer on a desktop for download was unexpected and I’m still not clear why that is. And I can’t say I’m surprised with a few glitches starting out. If they continue, that will be a huge problem for Blackberry. I’d have to give App World a ho-hum thumbs up. It is what it is and is just what RIM said it would be.  App World is definitely a work in progress and the things I can most recommend to RIM to make it better are to cut out the Paypal only way of purchasing apps and to add some pricing in between free and $2.99.  I think I’m not alone in wishing for those things or in thinking that RIM will probably not listen.