A Research in Motion spokeswoman also said that later Wednesday, BlackBerry fans will be able to sign up to be notified when BlackBerry App World goes live. The signup sheet will be at and should be live by 7 p.m. PST.

At the same time, the spokeswoman said, RIM will be relaunching its .

BlackBerry App World is RIM's attempt to emulate some of the iPhone's phenomenal success with consumers, who can choose from thousands of applications in the iPhone apps store on iTunes. Similarly, Microsoft has announced plans for a Windows Marketplace for Mobile app storefront that will be exposed in , the next version of its handheld platform.