Research in Motion’s comeback attempt starts today with the long awaited release of its next generation smartphone, the BlackBerry 10, a device the company is hoping will be the cornerstone of a revival in its fortune.
You have to give the company credit, it is not launching the new phone in a half hearted manner with events in New York City, Toronto, London, Paris, Dubai and Johannesburg and its executives have informed the world that RIM no longer exists and that it will now be known as BlackBerry.
BlackBerry introduced a pair of phones, the BlackBerry Z10 which has an all touch interface and the BlackBerry Q10 that has touch features but also includes a physical keyboard.
The company originally made its name as a supplier of a phone that served as a top flight business tool and it has not abandoned its roots, although it has also taken major steps in providing features that general consumers demand as well.
Some of the highlights of the platform include a new fast browser that supports HTML5. The BlackBerry Storefront now features 70,000 apps for the BlackBerry 10 family, and while a far cry from the millions available for iPhone and Android platforms it is a good start. The phones also come with some very popular apps now pre-installed including Facebook and Twitter.
The BlackBerry Hub (BBH) is a place to manage work and personal e-mail and social media. It features a messaging app called the BlackBerry Messenger that includes call and voice chat features and a program that is designed to separate your work apps and data from personal content and keep them secure. There is a host of additional features, some smply enhanced from previous versions, included on the new phones.
The company desperately needs a winner here as its woes have been well documented as the once undisputed leader in first smartphones for businesses has witnessed a steady erosion of its sales and market share followed by its revenue and profits following the same downward spiral.
At the same time its rivals are keeping the pressure on BlackBerry. In what is becoming a common game of one-upmanship Samsung picked today as the day it also unveiled one of its latest smartphones, the Galaxy Express 4G.
Apple, one of the other major powers in the smartphone space has been regularly updating its iPhones on a regular basis and the Internet is full of speculation of a new iPhone 5s, iPhone 6 and cheap iPhone or a mixture of all of the above. But you can be sure that the company has an aggressive rollout plan to attempt to maintain its position in the market.
