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Research In Motion Ltd. RIM is stealing a page from rival Apple Inc.'s playbook as it prepares to write the latest chapter in the ongoing struggle between the two companies for control of the global smart phone market.

Today RIM will take the wraps off BlackBerry App World, a Web-based marketplace for software and games designed for BlackBerry devices, that will allow the Waterloo, Ont.-based technology firm to better compete with the iPhone maker as it seeks to carve out a larger slice of the rapidly expanding consumer market for multifunction smart phones.

Last July, Apple launched the App Store, where iPhone users can buy and download applications specifically designed to run on its touch screen smart phone. In less than two months, more than 100 million applications were downloaded and the App Store was a bona fide consumer sensation.

Beginning today, users will be able to log on to RIM's App World from their computer or BlackBerry and download games, screen backgrounds and other software to customize their device.

Although many applications will be free, premium applications will start at $2.99, more than the 99-cent (U.S.) price floor Apple enforces for paid apps in its Store. RIM has partnered with eBay Inc.'s PayPal service to handle the payments.

“ The app store is absolutely pivotal to the success of every existing and emerging mobile platform ”— Carmi Levy, analyst at Toronto-based AR Communications

Although there have been thousands of applications developed for BlackBerrys and other mobile devices in the past, it wasn't until the App Store came along that technology companies saw the importance of creating a central database and storefront to simplify the process for consumers.

Now, smart phone makers RIM, Palm Inc. and Nokia Corp. as well as mobile operating system vendors Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp. are locked into a race to bring their own competing marketplaces to consumers. Google unveiled its Android Marketplace last fall, while Microsoft, Palm and Nokia are expected to launch their own app stores in the coming months.

“It's really more about creating an experience for your customers and organizing it in the easiest format,” said Canaccord Adams senior analyst Peter Misek. “RIM has to offer it as part of a storefront or a way of cataloguing and organizing all of their apps. This has made sense for a long time.”

Still, the App World is not expected to be a big profit driver for RIM. Instead, the company will be relying on the App World to drive interest in BlackBerry devices and increase the number of things users can do with their devices. The strategy is similar to how Apple makes little profit from the iTunes music store but continues to operate the service in order to drive sales of its iPod music players.

“The app store is absolutely pivotal to the success of every existing and emerging mobile platform,” said Carmi Levy, an analyst at Toronto-based AR Communications. “As time goes on, the decision criteria for choosing a particular device or a particular operating system will be skewed to how many applications are available on that platform, in much the same way that the success of Microsoft Windows has long been based on its ubiquity in the market.”

Analysts say RIM will look to differentiate itself from Apple's service by offering developers a bigger cut of the revenues generated from the sale of applications – 80 per cent of the price of each application, compared with 70 per cent with Apple – and by making the approval process for inclusion in BlackBerry App World more transparent. Apple has faced criticism for the sometimes secretive process the company uses to green-light applications to be sold in the App Store.

“There are some developer studios who have invested huge amounts of money ... and their applications have sat in limbo while Apple has decided whether or not to allow them for sale or has essentially said nothing,” Mr. Levy said.