Billing on Mobile

Yesterday Research In Motion launched its BlackBerry App World, in response to Apple’s App Store and expects approximately 1,000 applications to be posted on the store this week, including applications from the New York Times, Shazam, Bloomberg, Gameloft, Lonely Planet and MTV.

But with strong price competition amongst the Apple App Store’s 25,000 apps, doubts are being raised over whether developers can make money out of apps for these stores. Is the RIM app store likely to suffer the same fate?

According to MocoNews, the average cost of building an iPhone app is around $30,000, which is a small sum for a large media brand but is, of course, a more significant investment for a small development shop. Charmin, the toilet paper brand, sponsored the “SitOrSquat” app . It said the effort worthwhile even though the app has been downloaded only 1,600 times (between the iPhone and BlackBerry).

Mobile consultant and analyst Chetan Sharma sums up the hits-driven nature of the business this way: “One good application will get a boost on one day, and then it dies down the next. Then what do you do? It’s not a sustainable model for a company.”

We’d be interested in your ideas on app stores, are they the business model for the future? Do you think you’ll be making money from your bright idea?