MANILA, Philippines?Canada-based Research in Motion (RIM), maker of mobile brand BlackBerry, is finally allowing its Filipino customers to purchase applications for their smart phones.

In a statement, RIM said the new version of App World was made available in the Philippines for BlackBerry users to download.

?BlackBerry App World is the official application store for BlackBerry? smart phones and provides customers with an intuitive, integrated service for discovering, downloading, recommending and managing mobile applications for personal or business use,? the company said.

?New features in BlackBerry App World... include a credit card payment option, enhanced discovery and search capabilities, and a new user identification system called BlackBerry? ID.?

In addition to the broad selection of free mobile applications available in BlackBerry App World, customers can also now purchase a variety of additional mobile applications starting at $0.99, the company said.

The new version was also made available to users in Australia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.

The applications will be available for users of BlackBerry smart phones that have either a trackball, trackpad or touch screen, running on BlackBerry OS 4.5 or higher.

Meanwhile, Ayala-led Globe Telecom said it had already become the local market leader for BlackBerry users.

The company said it was the first to introduce BlackBerry?s Bold 9700 smart phone. Globe was also the first to introduce colored variety of Blackberry Curve 8520 smart phones in the country.

The application BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) has also become one of the most popular applications for the network?s BlackBerry users.

?Unlike Instant Messaging services, people do not need to register or set up a BBM account. The application is already pre-installed in their BlackBerry device, so they can get their personal BBM PIN code and start putting together their BBM friends list to send personal or group messages with a single click or even group-chat from different locations,? said Menchi Orlina, Globe?s chief marketing officer.

Aside from BBM, Filipinos also favor other apps, she noted. These include Facebook for BlackBerry and Twitter for BlackBerry.