If you haven't see the new BlackBerry Storm it is a pretty good looking phone. I know my wife, a BlackBerry user, is very excited about it; she has always had an odd sort of jealous superiority complex about my iPhone. The fact of the matter is her BlackBerry Pearl does things perfectly for her job, but she likes the look and feel of the iPhone. The Storm will combine RIM's BlackBerry-ness with the better at everything else iPhones-ness. Heck, the Storm will even feature an application store.

The BlackBerry Application center will debut with the BlackBerry OS 4.7 and the Storm device. It will, get this, feature downloadable applications, be browsable via the Storm's touch screen, receive updates and manage application installation directly from the mobile phone. Does this sound a bit familiar? No one can blame Research In Motion for this. Heck, Apple's App Store has been an absolute hit. But before the app store, there was this thing called the internet that seemed to be pretty handy for downloading applications.

The Apple App Store and the BlackBerry Application Center are not the new concept. The idea that these phones are become mini-computers - completely ubiquitous and fantastically powerful is the newness. As these devices become faster, more intuitive, and storage prices come down, we will see application stores for every device and carrier. I just can't wait to see what the next big thing will be. Any guesses? I would love to hear them.

Source.