Just as you were starting to think that iOS and Android were the only viable mobile platforms, the omnipresent Angry Birds from Finnish mobile game developers’ Rovio has just hit the BlackBerry App Store.
But before you get too excited, the game is available for tablets only – so unless you’re a signed-up member of the BlackBerry PlayBook fan-club, you’ll have to wait a bit longer to hurl virtual birds at pigs from your BlackBerry mobile device.
Angry Birds, Angry Birds Rio and Angry Birds Season are available to download for $4.99 each, but you can also use the new Request a Gift feature in BlackBerry App World 3.1, meaning you can send your BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) friends a request to buy you the game for Christmas. (Update: the Request a Gift feature is available for BlackBerry smartphones only).
Back in June, we reported that Angry Birds was being downloaded more than 1m times a day. But it’s not just kids that are at it – a few weeks back, we reported that the game was particularly popular in the over-35s demographic, and is played over 30m times each day across all age-groups.
Angry Birds is taking over the world. We caught up with Rovio’s ‘Mighty Eagle’ Peter Vesterbacka back in June, where he discussed plans for a full-length feature animated movie based on the game. And Angry Birds activity parks are scheduled for launch in Europe throughout 2012.
It’s about time Angry Birds was rolled-out to BlackBerry users, but it seems a bit odd that smartphones will have to wait a while to get access to the game, if they get it at all.
BlackBerry mobile devices have always typically been aimed at the business market, hence why it is less attractive to the consumer-app developer community. But with Angry Birds now making some headway, and with yesterday’s announcement that Spotify is finally available for some BlackBerry smartphones after it left beta, could this herald a new era for the BlackBerry as a consumer brand?
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