It's an app world, and smartphone makers have to live in it. This week, Research In Motion, propelled by new executive leadership, is attempting to rally application developers about what a great platform they have in the BlackBerry.

On Tuesday, RIM Vice President of Developer Relations Alec Saunders told a DevCon Europe event in Amsterdam that BlackBerry users download an average of 6 million apps every day. More important to developers, he said that BlackBerry apps create 40 percent more revenue for their creators than Android ones do, with more paid downloads than on the Android Market.

Carrier Billing for Apps

Saunders said that this dynamic has resulted in about 13 percent of BlackBerry app developers having made more than $100,000 each, a higher percentage than from apps for Android or Apple's iOS. He added that the company's App World, whose 60,000 apps are a relative handful compared with other platforms, is the most profitable platform for developers after Apple's iTunes App Store. The App Store has more than 550,000 apps.

RIM said its App World has had more than 2 billion downloads total as of January. That figure, while impressive, is still dwarfed by the App Store's 10 billion as of a year ago.

A plentiful flow of great apps, and an enthusiastic developer community, is essential to righting the ship of RIM -- and getting the momentum needed to transition the company's products to the coming BlackBerry 10 platform.

RIM's strategy includes charging for paid apps on bills from carriers, an arrangement that is now available in nearly three-dozen countries. Carrier-based billing is considered an easier transaction for users, while Apple, as a comparison, conducts billing through iTunes.

Europe, Middle East, Africa

Industry research firm GfK Group said last week that BlackBerry is still the best-selling smartphone in the United Kingdom, with about 27 percent of all sales there last year. That is a slight drop from GfK's 28 percent for RIM in 2010, but significantly better than its falling position in North America and the rest of Europe.

Other research firms show conflicting figures, with BlackBerry having lost its top position in the UK as well as elsewhere. RIM is now about even globally with Android and Apple in businesses -- a market RIM used to dominate.

New RIM CEO Thorsten Heins pointed out to the Amsterdam conference that about 65 percent of the markets in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa still use feature phones, highlighting that RIM is not yet shut out of improving its smartphone positioning in the world market.

Al Hilwa, program director for application development for IDC, said the fight was on for what will be the third smartphone ecosystem, after Apple and Android.

Hilwa said the big question for RIM is "when will it have compelling new phones," adding, "It doesn't help them that their new phones are at least six months away."

For app developers, he said, the RIM product line is "still very fragmented" in terms of the app-readiness of their phones, but RIM can "still make it" once they get their new product line out.

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