BlackBerry Buzz

RIM's new OS comes out Jan. 30

By Anca Gagiuc on Jan 11, 2013 in Technology

Once considered the go-to phone for the business elite, today BlackBerry struggles to stay above water in a marketplace dominated by iOS and Android operating systems.

Three years ago, Research in Motion (RIM) held 50 percent of the smartphone market in the US; in September of 2011 there were eighty million worldwide subscribers to BlackBerry, and 200 million shipped smartphones. But with no newly released device in over a year, BlackBerry now holds less than 5 percent of the smartphone market.

Corporate giants have been stepping away from using BlackBerry devices, giving the exodus heft and volume. Marissa Mayer, Yahoo’s CEO, told Fortune that her company is one of them, moving “from BlackBerries to smartphones.“

“One of the really important things for Yahoo’s strategy moving forward is mobile,” Mayer told the magazine. “So it was really important that our engineers, our salespeople, really everyone throughout our whole organization really understand Android, iPhones, and, you know, Windows 8 and really get a sense of what’s happening there and how to create an amazing experience… so we decided we wanted to get everyone upgraded to smartphones.”

Goldman Sachs employees were given the option to use iPhones in fall 2012. The White House, which previously used the BlackBerry for security reasons, recently started supporting the iPhone (President Obama reportedly uses his iPad during cabinet meetings). BlackBerry’s popularity has been dropping considerably, even the most loyal users are either thinking about replacing their devices, or are already carrying two devices, the secondary one being an iPhone or an Android.

CIO writer Al Sacco wrote a thoughtful piece that sums up the current situation in an ingenuous manner: users love their BlackBerry devices for the keyboard, notification systems and messaging capabilities, but at the same time they are very aware that the outdated OS leaves them helpless for tasks easily performed by other smartphones.

RIM CEO Thorsten Heins expressed his confidence in the future of the company. He is determined to bring the company back to its former glory. RIM is taking care of the last preparations for a much awaited launch of the BlackBerry 10 operating system, which is scheduled for Wednesday, January 30. It is expected that two devices will be put on the table with it: the all-touch BlackBerry Z10 and a QWERTY smartphone that, rumors say, will be equipped with BlackBerry X10.

The BlackBerry 10 L-Series is rumored to work on a dual core 1.5 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8960 processor for the US and Canada markets, with a 4.2-inch display with 1280×768 resolution at 356 PPI. From a connectivity point of view, the phone options include NFC, Bluetooth 4.0, 3G, 4G LTE and Wi-Fi. The phone will be equipped with two cameras – an 8 megapixel AF rear facing camera and 2 megapixel front facing one with 1080p video recording and support for micro HDMI. 2 GB RAM and a removable microSD card (up to 32 GB) will be compatible.

Its functionality is described in the video below, showcasing some unique features for BB up to this point.

 

Heins says that he isn’t turning his back on consumers, but that the company is far more interested in government and business contracts – accounts on which they continue to have a firm hold. “That’s where I want to be number one. That doesn’t mean I’m giving up on smartphones and tablets. They’re an element of my future business model.” Heins said, adding that RIM’s BlackBerry 10 enterprise network has already has been certified for use by U.S. and Canadian government officials. “I don’t define myself as I want to be number one in the smartphone segment, we built this platform because I want to be a clear innovation leader in the mobile computing domain,” he said.

Has your firm moved away from BlackBerry? Would any improvements or new functionality motivate you to give RIM another shot at your business?