RIM and 7Digital have confirmed that they will maintain their ongoing partnership by making the official BB10 music store operate using 7Digital’s services.
One well known criticism of the existing BlackBerry infrastructure is that it’s never utilised apps and services as well as the competition. As it stands, BlackBerry App World offers BB users a selection of 105,000 apps, whilst the likes of Apple’s App Store and Google Play both feature over 675,000 respectively. Meanwhile services like iTunes and Google Video offer an even broader range of content to mobile users, a notion that hasn’t always translated to the BlackBerry user experience.
7Digital are already a recognised player across multiple platforms, having partnered with a range of OEMs over the years. They offer independent mobile apps for iOS, Android, Windows Phone and BBOS, but also serve as the existing music provider on a number of BlackBerry devices, including the BlackBerry PlayBook.
This latest partnership will see 7Digital reprise their role as the provider of music services from within the music marketplace being integrated into BlackBerry OS 10, set to launch in Q1 next year. The company will be supplying RIM’s latest OS with new releases, best sellers, regional selections, a full back catalogue and independent artists to peruse from the company’s extensive library of 22 million tracks. RIM meanwhile will endow the service with social integration capabilities, likely allowing BB10 users to share tracks, playlists, favourite songs and recommendations between each other and major social networks like Facebook.
With 7Digital still seeing growth and investment in its own right, it looks to be a smart partnership, particularly for RIM who’ll be able to provide users with a robust music service from the word ‘go’.
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