It's been rumoured for a while, but Research In Motion has now announced its plans for BlackBerry's equivalent to the App Store or Android Market.

It's not launching until next March, although developers will be able to start submitting their games and apps before the end of this year. RIM is following Apple's lead in having its store available both online and on handsets, rather than Google's purely on-handset store.

Developers will keep up to 80 per cent of revenues from their apps – better than Apple's 70 per cent App Store payouts – while billing will initially be handled by PayPal. Apparently operators will be able to get involved too, which could complicate the revenue share equation.

In truth, it's doubtful that mobile game developers and publishers will be quite as hyped about the BlackBerry store as they have been with the App Store and Android Market.

That said, most major mobile publishers have now released at least a few BlackBerry games, so the existence of a new 'official' route to market may spur further development.