Research
In Motion (RIM) boasted in a Friday post  on its official blog that customers tallied three billion downloads from
BlackBerry App World.  

The post goes on to note that downloads have been increasing over time. It
took 786 days to reach the 1 billion mark, 210 days to reach 2 billion, and 176
days to reach the 3 billion number.  

“I
should also note that this number does not include apps downloaded from third
party BlackBerry app stores, or those pushed internally at companies around the
world, or those downloaded directly from the web,” a RIM spokesman identified
as “Victoria B” wrote in the post.

RIM
currently has 28,000 BlackBerry App World vendors and a catalog of over 90,000
applications now up for sale.  

RIM
has been fighting for its life recently amid recurring delays of devices based
on its BlackBerry 10 operating system. The company recently pushed out launch
of those devices from fall of 2012 to early 2013, exacerbating talk of a RIM’s
impending demise.

Canadian
news outlet The Globe and Mail on Friday published a rare Q&A
with RIM CEO Thorsten Heins wherein the embattled executive commented on the
delays.  

Heins
said he was “absolutely committed” to the current timeline of rolling out new
BlackBerry 10 devices by early 2013.  

“We
need more time to integrate all the features we have built for BlackBerry 10…We
decided to delay the launch of BlackBerry 10 to give us ample time to integrate
software, test, and polish the final product,” Heins said.