BlackBerry World now up to 120,000 apps including Bloomberg and iHeartRadio

One of the things that killed off the Palm Pre before it was given a chance was the lack of a decently stocked applications marketplace. The huge gap between the number of apps available in the Apple App Store, Google Play Store and the Windows Phone Store are a factor for many when purchasing a new handset.  And last year, when BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins said that size doesn't matter, he was talking about online marketplaces, not seeing who measures up in the bedroom. Heins optimistically hoped that by getting developers to write BlackBerry 10 versions of their popular iOS and Android apps, he could sell potential buyers on the idea that while BlackBerry World might not have 300,000 fart apps to choose from, it would offer the top titles in different regions of the world.

When the all-touch BlackBerry Z10 launched earlier this year, BlackBerry World contained 70,000 titles. Now, just as the QWERTY equipped BlackBerry Q10 starts to roll out globally, the Canadian manufacturer has announced that it has 120,000 apps for BlackBerry 10.1 users to choose from. Back in October 2010, the Android Market hit 100,000 apps on its way to its current inventory of over 750,000 choices for Android users. What gives BlackBerry users some hope is that back then, the Android Market was a third of the size of the Apple App Store. Now, both platforms are roughly neck and neck.

Some of the titles that are coming to BlackBerry World are doing so thanks to the update to BlackBerry 10.1 that is being made available today, via an OTA update, to owners of the BlackBerry Z10. Those sporting the QWERTY equipped BlackBerry Q10 had the latest OS build pre-installed on the device. Some of the more well-known titles being added to BlackBerry World include Skype, Bloomberg Hub, and iHeartRadio. Still missing from the platform are some extremely popular apps such as Instagram, which has already ruled out developing a native app for BlackBerry 10.1. Windows Phone users are also without a native Instagram app, although third party developers are trying to try to fill the void.

source: BlackBerry via TheNextWeb