Counting Down the 20 Best FREE BlackBerry Apps – BlackBerry App World

Since early August, I’ve been publishing a weekly series where I identify the Top 10 Free BlackBerry Apps based on downloads via BlackBerry App World. Though it’s important to keep tabs on the most downloaded Apps, number of downloads is only one indicator when trying to find the best Apps. For example, though the Facebook App is among the most downloaded BlackBerry Apps, it’s only rated an average of 2.5 out of 5 stars by users. Using a formula I created that takes into account the number of downloads, rating and reviews, here’s a list of the 20 Best Free BlackBerry Apps on BlackBerry App World. I’ll be publishing this listing every three months. Enjoy!

20. Nobex Radio Companion (Music Services) – Stream radio stations, get songs & ringtones and see lyrics of any songs. Read song and artist info & more. . If you have problems streaming, send us an email to support@nobexinc.com and we’ll guide you how to set up the connection to the carrier network.

19. YouMail Visual VoiceMail Plus (Productivity) – Works by replacing your wireless carrier’ s existing voicemail service. Forward, save & organize your voicemails, access your voice mails via e-mail, set personal greetings for friends, etc.

18. Pocket Express North America (News & Information) – Get news, sports, weather, stocks, entertainment, search the yellow pages, find flight schedules & hotels and more.

17. BlackBerry App World (Shopping Tools) – Downloading this App gives you quick and easy access to all the Apps listed as well as countless other free and pay Apps.

16. Shortcovers (References & ebooks) – Get free e-books or read the first chapter of many pay e-books to try before paying. Over 10,000 books to choose from.

15. iheart radio (Music & Services) – Streaming radio stations. Bookmark your favorites, view song lyrics and listen to all the best radio stations.

14. WHERE (Local Search) – Find local restaurants, news, weather, gas, friends, traffic updates, maps & directions and more.

13. WeatherEye (Weather) – Select from any city & get current conditions, short and long-term forecasts and warning updates from The Weather Network.

12. Snaptu (Social Networking) – Suite of social networking services such as Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Picasa, etc. Also provides applications for news, sports, movies, Sudoku & more.

11. Vlingo (Voice Dictation) – Instantly send a text or email message, call a friend, search the web using Google or Yahoo, update Facebook & Twitter status by speaking.

10. BigTinCan BuzzMe (Gadgets) – Gives your BlackBerry the ability to ring and vibrate at the same time. New version also lets you control the LED color, with 12 color options.

9. Bloomberg Mobile (News & Information) – News, stock quotes, company descriptions, market leaders & laggers, price charts, market trends analysis, customized list of stocks and more.

8. Ka-Glom Free (Games) – Falling blocks, with two block types (jelly is explosive). Connect four Ka-Gloms of the same color to start an explosive reaction eliminating all connecting blocks of that color.

7. Viigo (News & Information) – News, Weather, Entertainment, Live Sports Scores and Schedules, Markets, Stock Portfolios,Movies, Shopping, Twitter and more. The new version includes Twitter & streaming audio podcasts.

6. Slacker Radio (Music Services) – Listen to 100+  stations or create your own custom stations. Gives you detailed artist biographies, full album reviews and more.

5. QuickPull Light (Utilities) – Works by simulating a battery pull, refreshing your device and freeing up memory.

4. BlackBerry Messenger (Instant Messaging) – Making the top 5, thanks to the excellent version upgrade, this App lets you share your pin or barcode & connect with friends by chatting, sharing pics, videos & more with individual contacts or groups.

3. ScoreMobile (News & Scores) – Provides up-to-the-minute sports scores, boxscores, fantasy player stats, betting odds, game previews, recaps, top stories, and league standings. Personalize favorite teams & data refresh intervals.

2. Poynt (Local Search) – Find people, businesses, movie theatres, retailers and restaurants near you. Uses GPS or cell-site locations to help you find phone numbers, map directions, purchase movie tickets, add reservations to your calendar, invite friends & much more.

1. Pandora (Music Services) – Best of the best! Personalize your radio by entering a favorite song or artist. It creates a radio station of music similar to what you choose. Give a thumbs up or down to each song to further personalize and adapt your playlist.

In the weekly listing of top free downloaded Apps, Pandora was ranked #1 five of the ten weeks and ranked in the top 5 nine out of ten times. With over 3000 reviews, users ranked Pandora  stellar 4.5 out of 5 stars. WeatherEye was the only App to make the top 10 all ten weeks, but many users found the App to be just average, at 3 out of 5 stars. Other impressive Apps were Poynt and ScoreMobile who both clocked in with a 4.5 average user rating. Though the Apps listed are great, it’s important to note that these Apps are only the Official BlackBerry Apps. Many third party Apps would give most of these Apps some quality competition. What do you think of the list?