In the middle of 2007, with the industry still reeling from the shock of iPhone, Nokia’s Anssi Vanjoki made headlines when he candidly remarked that Nokia wasn’t afraid to see a good idea and nick it.

Not his exact words, but you got the gist. Since then plenty of others have reacted with speed and flexibility to the best that Steve Jobs had to offer.

Few better than RIM. True, Apple might have eaten into its enterprise business, but the Canadian company has been on a rapid upwards curve for four years, and it wasn’t about to let new market ideas deflect it. In truth both Apple and RIM have grown at the expense of longer established firms like Motorola.

In the last two months RIM has demonstrated its agility by unveiling an elegant touchscreen device, the Blackberry Storm (exclusively with Vodafone) and – more significantly for the ME audience – confirming plans to launch its own app store with on-device portal. It means RIM is now going head to head with Apple, Nokia, Microsoft and Google in the mobile content retail race.

The storefront will launch in March 2009, with developers able to begin submitting apps for inclusion from this month. As with the Apple App store, developers will set their own prices for content and retain an 80 per cent rev share.

Free content will be part of the proposition too. Intriguingly RIM is working with PayPal to provide consumers with a convenient way to pay for apps from the device. One would assme that not all operators will appreciate this, but RIM stresses it’s working with carriers to provide customised on-device app centres too.

It’s all very exciting, but it’s not just pressure from Apple and G1 that’s prompted the app store move. At the time Mike Lazaridis, president of RIM, reflected that more consumer-friendly BlackBerry features had helped generate thousands of lifestyle oriented downloads, and that this is the next stage.

Indeed, RIM claims that more than 70 per cent of its enterprise customers have deployed BlackBerry apps beyond email, while a survey by Magmic Games and ISG said 65 per cent of BlackBerry or smartphone users purchase a mobile entertainment product at least once every three months.

At present, content is offered to consumers through embedded links in the device that route to operator stores (generally managed by partners such as Sprite Interactive, which works with Orange for example), Blackberry’s own portal (at mobile.blackberry.com) or to third party portals run by Handmark, Handango, Magmic and others.

Clearly RIM takes content seriously. Rory O’Neill, director of solutions and alliances marketing at RIM (EMEA) says: “We’ve got ‘alliance partners’ in every region and they work with 340 carriers in 140 countries to customise the offering. They can either host the content or push it to partners.”

In the last year, there’s been an acceleration in content and services for Blackberry. Puretracks launched a DRM-Free music store while QuickPlay Media brought free video streaming to BlackBerry Pearl users in the US and Canada. Then there was the Facebook client, which shifted over one million months after launch at CTIA in October 2007. Meanwhile lifetime sales of Magmic’s Texas Hold’em King game have exceeded five million.

The question for Blackberry content vendors such as Magmic must now be how to prepare for the ‘app store’ era. Nicholas Reichenbach, EVP of publishing for Magmic Games, is optimistic even though it’s feasible the store could take traffic from Magmig’s bplay store.

He says: “We’re working with RIM on this and see the app store as a destination for our content. It can only improve the discovery process and increase overall demand for apps – and that has to be good for everyone.”

But Magmic has publishing and distribution agreements with just about every major games firm (except Gameloft), so isn’t it possible that these partners could go it alone on the app store instead? “It’s possible. But we have some exclusive agreements and our library is very extensive. Again, I think the store is a great shop window for us.”

Magmic’s future is also insured to a degree by the complexity of Blackberry app files. The file size deters some operators from offering their own OTA stores; the billing systems can’t handle them. This is why Verizon, for example, re-directs users to the ‘bplay’ deck where content is bought with credit cards, and a third of apps are sideloaded.

2009 will be a breakthrough year for the smartphone market. With its new devices and app store, BlackBerry is loosening its tie, shedding its business image and jumping in.

STAT ATTACK: Inside the head of a BlackBerry user

- 65 per cent of BlackBerry or smartphone users purchase a mobile entertainment product at least once every three months
- 45 per cent earn $100,000 or more
- 63 per cent describe themselves as business executives
- 60 per cent enjoyed puzzle games most
- 41 per cent play games during their workday

Source: ISG online survey for Magmic Games