Ordinarily in this feature we compare an up-and-coming smartphone with the king (or queen) of all smartphones - the iPhone 3G. And often, one of the most tenacious battlers for Apple's throne is RIM with its ever-improving, always innovative Blackberry series (heck, now the President even uses one). What's also become glaringly apparent in the past year is that the Apps market--3rd party applications--is where smartphone makers are seeing their biggest business converging around. With that in mind, then, we take a slight (but relevant) diversion from comparing smartphones to the inimitable iPhone and instead compare Apple's iPhone App Store to RIM's Blackberry App World.

The iPhone App Store (also sometimes called the iTunes App Store) came first, and has enjoyed plenty of time tweaking its system to best suit the marketplace. So with that kind of head start, it should be a hell of a lot better than RIM's copycat incarnation.

Apps for the Blackberry have existed for a long time, but this is the first time that Blackberry users have a one-stop shop from which to load up (or down, as the case may be) on useful, convenient, and fun new functionalities and capabilities. Like the iPhone App Store, Blackberry App World sorts apps by type for easy browsing and includes a handy search feature too. And like with the iPhone, many of the apps are totally free.

While the iPhone comes with iTunes App Store access built in, Blackberry users must download the free store software to their Blackberries before being able to go online and browse the apps available. The biggest drawback to Blackberry App World is that, unlike the iTunes App Store that runs its own checkout platform, RIM reroutes buyers through PayPal.

One online reviewer summed the difference up nicely when he said that it's all about culture. He even went on to say that Apple is more about the company and RIM about the customer. Whether that's necessarily true or not, there is truth in that Apple and its products, from the iPhone to the App Store, have to be hip and cool, focusing more on style than substance in order to serve its niche market; while RIM, to serve its market, had to focus on creating a more toned-down, business-oriented service for the more toned-down business-oriented culture it serves.