Last week, I posted about the launch of MySpace for BlackBerry, which joined BlackBerry's social networking crew of Facebook and Flickr. Now MySpace and Blackberry maker Research In Motion announce that their joint venture has broken opening-week records for app downloads at both companies, with more than 400,000 downloads and counting. Users of the MySpace app have already transmitted more than 15
million messages and performed over two million status updates since
its debut on Thursday, November 13, 2008.
By comparison, Facebook for BlackBerry, which launched at the CTIA Wireless IT and Entertainment 2007 show on October 24, 2007, took six months to surpass one million downloads.
The increasing popularity of social networking apps with BlackBerry users should come as no surprise. I know a lot of people who use these smartphones, and none of them restrict it to business functions. Since many of these same users also frequently travel for work, they were already killing time at the airport or in a cab by checking email, web browsing or enjoying multimedia. Now they have an easy way to connect with friends and families, so they don't feel too disconnected on the road.
MySpace for BlackBerry is compatible with the Bold, Curve, Pearl and 8800 Series smartphones. (Storm users can get it starting November 24, 2008.)
Download it for free here or, if you're reading this post on a BlackBerry browser, go to m.myspace.com.
