With BlackBerry App World™ 3.0 beta coming soon, I was thinking about the evolution of BlackBerry App World and how far we’ve come. The BlackBerry App World™ storefront launched a little over two years ago, and over that time, we’ve made many feature improvements, enhanced the look and feel, and added a ton of compelling apps. BlackBerry App World is now in over 100 countries, seeing an average of 3 million downloads per day, and we recently crossed the 1 billion app download milestone!

I’ve been hearing about a number of great app success stories and I thought it would be fun to highlight a few of them here (and be sure to stay tuned to the Inside BlackBerry Developer’s Blog to learn more about some of these and others in the coming months!).

Bellshare GmbH
Bellshare GmbH is based in Germany and offers a variety of interesting apps for BlackBerry® smartphones, including BeBuzz (free and paid versions), which is designed to let you assign LED light colors to particular contacts, and BeWeather, which is one of the leading weather apps on BlackBerry App World. In fact, Bellshare GmbH have almost 10 million downloads for the free versions of their apps combined, and have also achieved over $1 million dollars in sales through BlackBerry App World!

Doodle Blast
Doodle Blast, by BlackMoon Design, uses Flash® technology and is exclusive to the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet. Doodle Blast is a puzzle game where physics plays a major role – you need to draw lines in order to guide falling marbles so they will fill the jar. It is quite addictive to play. In fact, in just 3 months on BlackBerry App World, Doodle Blast has surpassed 40,000 downloads.

EA Games
EA Games is a popular gaming platform and has many games available through BlackBerry App World that I’m sure you’re familiar with including Bejeweled®, TETRIS®, SCRABBLE®, MONOPOLY®: HERE & NOW™, YAHTZEE® Adventures, The Sims™ 3, THE GAME OF LIFE, MONOPOLY®, The Simpsons Arcade, SimCity™ Deluxe and of course Need for Speed™, which comes pre-loaded with the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.

Jingu Apps
Jingu is a popular app that leverages the BlackBerry® Messenger platform to allow users to create an avatar, upload emoticons and chat with friends. In less than one month on BlackBerry App World, Jingu surpassed over 700,000 downloads and is now well on the way to a million downloads.

PolarMobile
Polar Mobile has created over 180 Super Apps for the BlackBerry® platform including Globe Life and Rogers SPORTSNET Mobile in Canada, as well as CNN Money and CBS Sports in the United States. Their apps concentrate on delivering an integrated and optimal user experience for BlackBerry smartphone users.

ScoreMobile
ScoreMobile is one of the most popular sports apps in BlackBerry App World today and is a true mobile application built from the ground up for all BlackBerry smartphones. This app provides up-to-the-minute sports scores, boxscores, player stats, betting odds, game previews, recaps, top stories, and league standings. In addition they even publish exclusive live blogs for key games and allow you to track live games with push alerts.

We’ve already started the move to BlackBerry App World 3.0 with the launch of Vendor Portal 3.0. The beta of BlackBerry App World 3.0 will start later this month, and we continue to evolve and improve the experience for both our developers and consumers. And as always, be sure to stay tuned to the Inside BlackBerry Blog for more updates!

If you’re like me, you must find yourself checking the BlackBerry App World™ storefront on your BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet everyday to see what’s new, what’s popular, and what’s featured. I recently tweeted that I was going to write a post for the Inside BlackBerry blog on what your favorite BlackBerry PlayBook tablet apps are…and the responses were both awesome and overwhelming! Based on the feedback, I now present the Top 5 BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet Apps – as chosen by #TeamBlackBerry.

#1 Facebook for BlackBerry PlayBook tablet

The Facebook® for BlackBerry PlayBook tablet app was the most mentioned app and a personal favorite of mine. It also received a nice update recently, so read more about that here: Facebook for BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet Update Now Available. With BlackBerry Tablet OS v1.0.5, we’re also preloading Facebook for BlackBerry PlayBook on all BlackBerry PlayBook tablets now. Current BlackBerry PlayBook tablet users who update to v1.0.5 will automatically receive the updated Facebook app. Alternatively, you can grab the update to the app from BlackBerry App World, of course!

#2 Poynt for BlackBerry PlayBook

Need a recommendation for dinner? Want to buy movie tickets for a date night? Well, the awesome Super App – Poynt for BlackBerry PlayBook – is there for you. #TeamBlackBerry ranked this the #2 BlackBerry PlayBook tablet app – and for good reason. Beyond the awesome BlackBerry PlayBook tablet version features, it also integrates with Poynt on your BlackBerry smartphone – allowing you send a restaurant’s address and phone number directly to your contact list. Watch this video to learn more:

[YouTube link for easy mobile viewing]

#3 Doodle Blast

#TeamBlackBerry gamers love a challenge, and nothing quite delivers like the addictive Doodle Blast from FlexibleAIR. You have to use your doodle drawing skills to get all the marbles into the cup – without running out of ink (not as easy as it sounds! – Ed.). I’ve spent many a conference call playing this game. Uh, I mean intently paying attention.

#4 Need for Speed™ Undercover

One app that really kicked off excitement for BlackBerry PlayBook tablet apps is the Need for Speed Undercover for BlackBerry PlayBook. Personally I love Electronic Art’s TETRIS® for BlackBerry PlayBook more – but I’m biased towards puzzle games.

#5 GeeReader

I wasn’t surprised by the fact that GeeReader is another #TeamBlackBerry favorite – I believe this is one of the best RSS readers out there, especially with its awesome Google Reader integrations. You just sign in with your Google account and boom – all your favorite feeds appear in one easy-to-read view. If you like GeeReader, you might want to also check out the recently released BlackBerry® News for BlackBerry PlayBook app.

Here’s your next assignment, #TeamBlackBerry: It’s June and that means vacation time for many. What are your top 5 apps for travelling? Post a comment here and tweet @BlackBerry with your favorites and you’ll see a new Top 5 post soon!

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

We wanted to kick off our Mobile World Congress 2011 coverage with a blast, and there’s no better way to do that than with the first ever hands-on demo of Need For Speed Underground by Electronic Arts running on a BlackBerry PlayBook. Along with Tetris, the full version of Need for Speed Underground will come pre-loaded with the BlackBerry PlayBook (for free!).

Fellow blogger and Director of Developer Relations, Mike Kirkup, provides an excellent demonstration of the game and the performance of the BlackBerry PlayBook while playing (and winning!) a race in the video above. Some additional points on the game you should know: you can upgrade and purchase additional cars; Need for Speed Underground was built natively using the BlackBerry Tablet OS SDK; there are multiple driving modes; it’s free!

Post a comment and let us know what you think.