DUBAI // UAE BlackBerry users keen to get extra features and applications on their phones, long available in the rest of the world, will have to wait a little longer after the pre-release version of its application store was taken down amid complaints of bugs and crashes.
A beta version of the long-awaited BlackBerry App World was quietly released last month by Research In Motion, the company that makes the popular smartphones. However, RIM was careful to warn that it was intended for testing only – a warning that some users’ experience appears to have borne out.
The service, similar to Apple’s iPhone App Store, was launched in other parts of the world more than two years ago and enables users to search, download and update applications produced by third-party developers.
People who chanced upon the beta version were able to download App World and use it to download applications.
But yesterday customers who tried to use the service were presented with a message saying “BlackBerry App World is not currently available in your country.”
However, Apps that were downloaded while the beta was operating continued to work.
RIM said in a statement: “We are currently still validating BlackBerry App World in the UAE, but we will keep you posted on availability.”
Some BlackBerry fans who downloaded App World regretted doing so. Sara Bianchi, a Dubai resident, said: “The App World icon appeared on my BB and as I clicked it, it allowed me to download it and create a BB ID.
“I received six messages from the application informing me of upgrades available for BlackBerry Messenger, Facebook, MSN, Twitter, AOL Instant Messenger and Google Talk.”
She upgraded three of the apps that she uses, including Facebook, and the handset asked her to restart it to complete the process.
“After I rebooted, all three icons, programs, history and contacts had disappeared from my BlackBerry. Gone! Nowhere to be found.
“I had to download and reinstall BBM and MSN again from my browser – and luckily the contacts reappeared.
“However Facebook can no longer be downloaded or upgraded or installed as from wherever I try, it takes me back to App World and then tells me it is not available! How frustrating!”
Usman Naeem is one of a number of residents who have turned to Twitter to express their anger at the continuing unavailability of App World. He tweeted: “It’s extremely frustrating that the Android Market and BlackBerry App World do not work in UAE.”
The delay in the arrival of the BlackBerry service – which had been launched in the US on April 1, 2009 – is understood to have been caused by the time taken to complete regulatory procedures.
Meanwhile the BlackBerry PlayBook, RIM’s answer to Apple’s popular iPad tablet computer, has gone on sale in the US and Canada to a muted response. There was no sign of the huge queues of buyers seen at the launch of the iPad.