It’s not just Apple’s App Store striding past milestones today, Microsoft’s Windows Phone Marketplace has also rounded a notable marker in its development. Specifically, it’s now reported to have passed 25,000 apps by one site tracking comings and goings within it, though that figure’s up for debate as the other WP7 apps tracker still lists the total at just under 25k. The main point is that the WP7 ecosystem is growing, and faster than previously at that — it took until the end of March to accrue 11,500 apps, a span of five months from its launch, whereas the last 13.5k have come in the brisker period of three months. Provided this acceleration continues, and there’s no reason to expect it’ll slow down with Mango on the horizon, Microsoft’s mobile OS reboot promises to be in pretty competitive shape in time for its first anniversary — a notable feat considering how far behind WinMo had fallen. Perhaps RIM can use this as an instructive example?

[Steve Ballmer image courtesy of Reuters]

RIM being a thriving and profitable company is hardly a new story — as confirmed by third quarter earnings of $628 million off the back of a record-breaking 10 million units sold — but the way it’s making its money seems to be changing. More than 80 percent of new BlackBerry subscribers in the quarter were private customers, marking a distinct shift — maybe not away from the corporate arena, but definitely toward embracing the consumer market. In an effort to further consolidate its global empire, RIM has also announced a partnership with China Telecom to go along with its earlier China Mobile deal. Oh, and there’s the small matter of the 75 millionth BlackBerry being sold, but we’re sure the cool cats up in BB HQ aren’t counting handsets, they’re probably too busy rolling around in piles of money.

TORONTO — BlackBerry maker Research In Motion Ltd. surprised Wall Street on Thursday as it reported a 59 percent increase in third-quarter income, boosted by new subscribers and record sales of its smart phones.

More than 80 percent of the Canadian company’s new subscribers were non-corporate customers, a sign of the BlackBerry’s popularity among consumers amid intense competition from devices such as Apple Inc.’s iPhone, Palm Inc.’s Pre and Motorola Inc.’s Droid.

Shares surged more than 12 percent in after-hours trading.

After initially focusing on corporate customers, RIM has expanded its reach into the consumer market in recent years with such touch-screen models as the BlackBerry Storm. Two years ago, half of RIM’s new subscribers were business customers. In the third quarter, they made up less than a fifth.

Source:  AP

One of the natural side effects of being the largest maker of cellphones in the world is that you produce a lot of different models — a lot — which makes it way too easy for product planning, engineering, and marketing to all have corners cut for even the most important devices in the herd. Nokia seems to be coming to terms with that, though, announcing that it’ll scale back from “around 20″ smartphones released this year to roughly a half of that in 2010, allowing it to give each phone the TLC it so desperately needs. Interestingly, the company says that it’s looking to the low- to midrange smartphone realm as a hot new competitive frontier — and an area where it’ll “have tools to play offence [sic] as well as defense,” possibly thanks to its continued involvement in Symbian even as it looks to Maemo to grow the high end. By any measure, it sounds like Nokia’s starting to get the hint — but it’s still anyone’s guess what kinds of products will ultimately see out of these guys over the next 12 to 18 months.

HELSINKI (Reuters) –

The world’s top cell phone maker Nokia will drastically cut back on the number of different smartphone models it rolls out next year as the Finnish firm tries to shrug off new rivals Apple Inc and RIM.

Right on schedule, the latest BlackBerry to grace the Verizon’s CDMA spectrum, the Curve 8530, is now on sale. A 2.5-inch display, OS 5.0, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and yes, WiFi — take that, Tour. Price is $199.99 on two-year contract, with an added $100 discount if you buy it online. Let’s be honest, what else were you gonna spend that money on tonight, hm?

Go places with the new and streamlined BlackBerry® Curve™ 8530 smartphone. Chat with friends, email colleagues, share pictures,and listen to your favorite tunes —it’s all within reach! Featuring Wi–Fi technology, a 2MP camera, BlackBerry push technology, VZ Navigator^sm, Visual Voice Mail, V CAST Music w/Rhapsody and V CAST Video on Demand, Mobile Broadband Connect and support for popular apps like Facebook®, MySpace®, and Flickr™, this smartphone gives you the power to do more of the things that matter in your life. Take your life with you, almost anywhere you go with the new BlackBerry Curve 8530 smartphone.

• 2.0 Megapixel Camera
• Trackpad Navigation
• microSD™ Memory Expansion Slot (up to 16GB)
• Premium HTML Web Browser
• Bluetooth® Stereo Support*
• Wi–Fi Ready
• GPS
• TTY Compatible
• Hearing Aid Compatibility = M4/T4
  For details on Hearing Aid Compatibility, see About Us — Accessibility.
• Meets FCC SAR limit. Manufacturer’s highest FCC reported SAR 1.31 W/kg at ear, 0.66 W/kg on body. Actual SAR may vary.
  For more information on Radio Frequency Emissions, see About Us — Wireless Issues.

*The RIM BlackBerry® 8530 supports the following Bluetooth profiles: Headset (HSP), Hands–free (HFP), Serial Port (SPP), Dial–up Networking (DUN), Advanced Audio Distribution (A2DP) and Audio/Video Remote Control Profile (AVRCP). OBEX Profiles: PBAP.

The BlackBerry and RIM families of related marks, images and symbols are the exclusive properties of and trademarks or registered trademarks of Research In Motion Limited – used by permission.

This premium device gives me the cutting edge technology to keep me productive and “in the know” in work and life when I am away from my computer without trading off style. A BlackBerry data service is required.

RIM’s successor to the original Bold — the BlackBerry Bold 9700 — has finally landed on our doorsteps. The 9000 is in many ways a hard act to follow. Hardware-wise, it lived up to its name, going where most phones never went with its retro, leathery, nearly clunky looks in an age of rounded edges and shiny curves. Don’t get us wrong — we loved the 9000’s aesthetics obsessively — which is why we couldn’t wait to get our hands on its newborn child. A few questions we had in mind: would the 9700 live up to its predecessor’s notoriously uncompromising fashion sense? Would the new Bold feel as good to hold and use in the hand as its loving parent? How would it stack up against other, new devices from RIM? If these are the kind of questions you think you might want answers to, read on for our impressions.

Windows Mobile lost 28 percent of its smartphone market share between last year’s third quarter and this year’s third quarter, according to market researcher Gartner.

Figures released Thursday by Gartner show that Microsoft’s mobile OS had 11 percent of the global smartphone market in Q3 2008. A year later, it had 7.9 percent. Meanwhile, the iPhone’s share rose from 12.9 percent to 17.1 percent, and Research In Motion’s share jumped from 16 percent to 20.8 percent.

Symbian’s share fell from 49.7 percent to 44.6 percent over the same period–a 10 percent drop. The open-source Android OS from Google had no market share in Q3 2008 because it had only recently been introduced. In Q3 2009, however, it had 3.9 percent share.

“From one side, the market is going open source,” Gartner analyst Roberta Cozza said. “On the other side, they have more closed environments like Apple and RIM. Microsoft is caught in the middle. They have to think hard [about] what they can do.”

The BlackBerry Bold 9700 will have its U.S. debut on Monday. T-Mobile USA will be the first carrier in this country to offer RIM’s latest smartphone, which will also be T-Mobile’s first BlackBerry to support its 3G network.

This wireless carrier is going to ask $200 for the Bold2 with a two-year contract. Those who don’t want to sign up for a T-Mobile contract will have lower monthly service payments, but will have to pay more for this device: $450. An installment plan will also be an option: $22.50 per month for 20 months.

The 9700 will be available on Nov. 16 at T-Mobile retail stores, authorized dealers. and T-Mobile.com.

An Overview of the BlackBerry Bold 9700
The Bold2 will have the same general design as its predecessor, including a QWERTY keyboard, but with a new look. It will be smaller than the original, and also have a slightly smaller screen, but at the same HVGA resolution. In place of a trackball will be an optical trackpad.

It is going to run BlackBerry OS 5.0 on a 624 MHz processor, and will have RIM’s standard suite of productivity and entertainment software.

This phone will include a microSD card slot, and be bundled with a 2 GB memory card for storing music, video, and other files.It will also include a 3.2 MPx camera, a GPS receiver and a 3.5 mm headset jack.

The BlackBerry Bold 9700 will be a quad-band GSM phone, with tri-band UMTS/HSDPA. Naturally, the T-Mobile version will support this carrier’s unique 3G frequency.  It will also have Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

A duo of products on display from Unify4Life shows us just how much less productive we could be on our ‘Berrys if we had ‘em on us. The AV|Shadow and Garage|Shadow connect over Bluetooth and let you control a bevy of AV devices and your garage door, respectively. The demo we saw had the app controlling a PS3 and allowed use of the BlackBerry’s keyboard and trackball to input text and move around, and it seemed to work pretty well. The Blackberry app itself looked pretty customizable and the UI was nicely done. Check out the gallery to see the photos of our demo with the PS3, but strangely they couldn’t bring in a garage door to show us that product — but we’ll just have to take their word for it.

Apple’s iPhone probably has too many remote apps for its own good, but Unify4Life is looking to provide RIM’s BlackBerry Storm with just one — the best one, in fact. The company’s admittedly impressive AV Shadow software, which we happened to experience ourselves at CES, is reportedly coming soon to RIM’s first ever touchscreen ‘Berry. How soon? Try “later this week.” If you’re interested to know precisely what you’re waiting for, give that play button above a push.