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REDWOOD CITY, Calif. -- Research in Motion plans to go live with its BlackBerry App World store this month as scheduled. App World is the mobile device maker's answer to Apple's phenomenally successful App Store for the iPhone, which already offers over 25,000 applications following its release last year.

"We're excited, very soon it'll be out there," said Alan Brenner, senior vice president of BlackBerry Platforms at RIM. "There's a huge pent up interest in simpler discovery and acquisition of applications for the BlackBerry."

Brenner was interviewed as part of a keynote luncheon presentation at the Dow Jones Wireless Innovations conference here. He declined to get into much detail on what applications will be available at launch, but did note they cover a broad range of categories from business and productivity to entertainment.

"The market expects volume and quality," he said. "We have a history of solutions that are very sticky; applications that people spend a lot of time with."

He said he isn't sure how many applications have already been built for BlackBerry phones, but said some estimates put the number as high as 80,000. "Certainly there are tens of thousands," he said.

Brenner also took pains to explain that RIM has expanded well beyond its initial business and enterprise focus, noting that RIM's roughly 25 million active users are about equally divided between enterprise and consumers.

"The enterprise (only) focus of BlackBerry may be a little out of date image," he said.

But he also noted that consumer/business lines often blur when it comes to mobile devices like the BlackBerry because they are used for both business and personal use. Brenner himself said Facebook and MySpace are among his favorite applications on the BlackBerry along with Slacker, an online music radio station.

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