Another player in the mobile apps game -- and one with a big enterprise base: BlackBerry.

RIM's initial approach to an on-device app store is differing from Apple's. While the iPhone App Store is the one-and-only hub for developers to sell apps and consumers to purchase them, it seems RIM is really providing the Application Center as an additional tool for carriers to more easily distribute their supported apps (think carrier billing for apps that are not free). At this point I'm not expecting to see thousands of BlackBerry Apps available for purchase on-device anytime soon (carriers tend to be pretty stringent in terms of what they're going to support). Besides...that's what the CrackBerry App store is for...

Gizmodo does not love the Application Center model: "[T]he store will be run on the carrier's side, which will give your mobile provider the chance to veto an app even after it's been approved by RIM. The apps -- and this is pretty weird -- are actually downloaded through the device's browser, as the App Center is only able to search, monitor and delete programs from the device. Yeah, that's right: the App Center program can't directly install apps."

What's clear is that mobile apps have become a huge story in a very short time.

Related: Paging Dr. Zittrain.