Major League Baseball (MLB) has announced that one of the most popular sports apps will support Research In Motion (RIM)’s BlackBerry 10 platform. MLB Advanced Media, the developer of the most popular sports app, has given RIM quite a big present: MLB.com At Bat will be available for purchase on BlackBerry 10 smartphones by Opening Day.
For those who have been following BlackBerry 10 news, you’ll remember that the day in question is exactly one week away: January 30, 2013. Unfortunately, pricing for the app likely won’t be known until then.
In fact, details and available features will all be announced “at a later date” according to MLB. All we do know right now is that baseball fans will have access to At Bat’s scores, news, statistics, and so on, through “a user interface optimized for the new BlackBerry 10 mobile computing experience.”
Nevertheless, this is a very big deal for RIM given the popularity of the app. As the company’s executives have underlined many times, the company needs to have a large number of apps at launch, but it also has to have specific apps.
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In other words, BlackBerry 10 is unlikely to catch up with Android or iOS in terms of app quantity, so RIM has to focus on app quality. That also means it needs to ensure popular apps are available as soon as possible, and ideally at launch.
It’s unclear what role RIM played in getting this particular app onboard: the press release doesn’t include quotes from any of its executives. Yet something tells me that the Canadian company made an effort given the app’s popularity.
“We are thrilled to work with MLBAM to bring its award-winning app, ‘MLB.com At Bat(r)’ to BlackBerry 10,” Martyn Mallick, Vice President Global Alliances and Business Development, said in a statement. “Fans can expect an application rich with content about their favorite teams and players, from opening day all the way to the World Series. MLB.com At Bat is a ‘must-have’ app for any baseball fan.”
See also – RIM extends BlackBerry 10 app incentive deadlines following ‘remarkable’ number of submissions and RIM doubles developer ‘Port-A-Thon’ rewards to $2 million in final push for BlackBerry 10 apps
Image credit: Riguy04
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