The holidays present a fun time for many of us, whether your form of enjoyment is snowy activities, hot boozy beverages, or new gadgets released specifically for the Q4 buying season. If you count yourself in that last category, you may have been lucky enough to acquire a shiny smartphone recently. It's a BlackBerry, you say Well, you've come to the right place.

Once you get that sucker out of the box and power it up, the first thing to do is download BlackBerry App World. Now, you have a gallery of apps just waiting to fill up your phone. There's only one problem--figuring out which programs to download first.

That's where our BlackBerry Starter Kit comes in. We've assembled our top recommendations for productivity, communication, music, and business--if you intend use your BlackBerry for work as well as for play.

Of course, our list of essential BlackBerry apps is far from exhaustive. We steered clear of games, and of applications for hobbyists and specialized communities in an effort to make our app suggestions applicable to as many new BlackBerry owners as possible. If you've got must-have suggestions of your own, you know the drill--leave 'em in the comments.