NYTimes: BlackBerry to Open App Store

"BlackBerry is a step closer to opening its official applications store, to be called “BlackBerry App World.”

Cue fanfare of trumpets.

If you want to be alerted when the store goes live you can sign up here after 10 p.m. Eastern today.

The current BlackBerry site doesn’t sell apps, but has links to sites that do. The new App World will handle sales directly.

A spokesperson for Research In Motion, which makes the BlackBerry, was unable to answer by my posting time if this would affect the company’s relationship with Handango, which was a sort of unofficial BlackBerry app store. Handango had not returned my call by deadline. The BlackBerry app site has referred users to Handango in the past."