RIM says Blackberry apps are popular

We’re not sure if this is RIM toting its usual “nothing’s wrong” attitude or just a new strategy to encourage people to stay with the Blackberry brand.

Research in Motion’s newly minted CEO Thorsten Heins was at a developer’s conference in Amsterdam where he tried to convince attendees that the Blackberry platform was an attractive place for app makers.

Heins hit on the fact that the Android and iPhone marketplaces place a heavy emphasis on free apps, thus devaluing the entire storefront for developers who want a genuine shot at making it big.

According to PaidContent.org, fellow presenter, RIM VP of developer relations Alec Saunders, claimed that 13% of app publishers on Blackberry App World have made at least $100,000 on their digital downloads.

In addition, although App World is generally excluded from the discussion of app marketplaces, it has more than 60,000 apps. Saunders tried to make that sound impressive, but of course on the iTunes App Store there are more than 550,000 apps.

There are apparently 6 million App World apps downloaded every day, which is also noteworthy, but regardless of how many numbers are thrown out there, it’s a tough sell to make developers think Blackberry is more attractive than Android or iOS.