Integrated Carrier Billing Gains Momentum on BlackBerry App World

Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today announced that more than 40 carriers around the world have now deployed integrated carrier billing for their customers on BlackBerry App World™.
Carriers offering integrated billing on BlackBerry App World include:

·         A1 Telekom (Austria)
·         AT&T (United States)
·         Bell (Canada)
·         Digicel (25 markets in the Caribbean and Latin America)
·         Indosat (Indonesia)
·         Rogers Wireless (Canada)
·         SFR (France)
·         Telefonica (UK)
·         T-Mobile (United States)
·         Telus (Canada)
·         Telstra (Australia)
·         Vodafone (Spain, Greece, Italy, Ireland, Portugal, United Kingdom & Netherlands)

BlackBerry App World is now available in 164 markets and territories worldwide. More than 60,000 apps are currently available on RIM’s app store and over 174 million apps are downloaded each month. Over two billion apps have been downloaded to date.

Carriers Experience 120% increase in BlackBerry app downloads

The deployment of integrated carrier billing is an example of RIM’s ongoing commitment to work together strategically with its carrier partners and it has proven to drive significant value for the whole mobile ecosystem, including carriers, developers, content providers and customers.  Integrated carrier billing enables a user to purchase apps or digital goods (such as the additional chapters of an e-book or additional levels of a computer game) without interrupting the user’s app experience.  They can simply charge the purchase to their regular monthly bill, and both one-off and recurring (subscription-based) purchases are supported.

Data suggests that customers’ propensity to purchase apps on BlackBerry App World increases when carrier billing is offered. After implementing carrier billing on BlackBerry App World, carriers on average experienced a 120% increase in BlackBerry app purchases by their customers, with 65-70% of their customers’ purchases being transacted through the carrier.

Dario Talmesio, Principal Analyst, Informa Telecoms & Media, said: “There are clear business benefits for mobile operators when implementing carrier billing, since it enables them to build upon existing billing relationships with customers. RIM has always adopted a strategy of working constructively with operators. It follows therefore that implementing carrier billing through BlackBerry App World represents a rich opportunity for carriers.”

Ronjon Nag, Vice President, App World & Intelligent Systems at RIM, said, “We’re delighted that many of our carrier partners around the world have recognized the value that integrated billing provides, by making it easy and convenient for customers to purchase BlackBerry apps. RIM remains committed to continued innovation in the way we align with our partners in order to best serve customers while providing a profitable platform for the whole mobile ecosystem.”