Last week gwabbit let me know that they would be releasing a free version of their application in the BlackBerry App World. Following up on their announcement, I checked the App World and the free version is now available for download.

So what’s the difference between Free gwabbit and Paid gwabbit? The free version of gwabbit for BlackBerry is just like the paid version with one key difference. Free gwabbit includes an alerting feature that lets your contacts know (via email) when you’ve added them to your address book using gwabbit. This service is invaluable particularly for sales and business development. Of course, “gwabbees” can opt-out of the gwabbit alert service at any time if they prefer not to stay current on who’s added their contact info.

The “alerting feature” is a way of raising awareness of gwabbit in preparation of their new features, which I was told will be getting released in Q1 of 2010. The new features will enhance how gwabbit interacts with your contacts by keeping them current with “the cloud”. Contacts will automatically be uploaded to the cloud when they are created by the gwabbit application and the cloud will “monitor contact blocks for changes” to keep your contacts current. Users will have the option of making their contacts public or private. Think of it as a “social network” for your contacts where gwabbit is the universal controller. Sounds like big things are coming to gwabbit!

For more info and to download check out the free version of gwabbit in the App World. The premium version is available in the store for a yearly subscription of $9.99 if you do not want to deal with the free version’s alerting feature.