Research in Motion (RIM), the makers of Blackberrys, have for some time now been out of the limelight. They suffered a massive global operating loss of $643 million last year and fired co-founders Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie. The wave of Apple and Android washed away RIM’s beloved contracts due to poor battery life, outages and outdated features. The new Operations Chief, Thorsten Heins, has been given the task of bringing RIM back to life. Their first unveiling is a make or break event being held on January 30th. This event will display their new operating system, two new smartphones and their new App store.
RIM’s main effort is to regain the market share, lost to Apple and
Android, with their new operating system Blackberry 10. Here are some of the
projected features:
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Flow Interface: Their new interface is designed
for smoother navigation and management.
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Blackberry Hub: Their Inbox collects incoming
messages of every kind(not just email). Swipe to the right and you can
see your inbox and all its functions.
-
Peek: The
name says it all, it lets you peek at other features without closing your app.
Users will be able to view apps running in the background by swiping left or right. You can either return to the previous app or swipe back to go into previously launched programs.
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Blackberry Balance: One of the most important
features. Balance is part of the Blackberry Enterprise Server and allows IT
administrators to deploy, secure and remove apps & data on the phone. The
goal is to give IT admin’s control over corporate assets on employees mobile
devices while leaving personal assets untouched. Balance partitions the phone
in two; work and personal. IT can wipe
the enterprise section clean while leaving the personal section intact. This may be
the perfect BYOD solution (How to BYOD).
The Blackberry 10 OS will debut on two redesigned
flagship smartphones the Blackberry Z10 and Blackberry X10. Both phones will be
powered by a dual-core 1.5GHZ ARM Cortex A9 processor, have 2GB of RAM, an 8 MP rear camera
with 1080p resolution, 2MP front facing camera with 720p resolution, TFT Capacitative Touchscreen, 32 GB expandable MicroSD, Lithium-Ion 1800 mAh battery,
802.11 a/b/g/n WiFi, Blutetooth (4.0?) and a micro USB port. The Z10 is a touchscreen only phone with a 4.2 inch display and traditional Blackberry users will enjoy the X10 with a 3 inch touch display and QWERTY keypad.
The camera is
speculated to have features like Geo-tagging, touch focus, face detection, HDR, and LED flash. The more popular feature is the Blackberry 10 camera app with its 'Timeline' lens. With it, if you miss a photo by a couple seconds, you can cycle back through the cache and take your pick from the previous seconds worth of frames. So if one person is blinking, you can click their face, circle back to when their eyes are open and import that to the original. Very useful for group shots!
One of the major issues Blackberry faced was a lack of
applications. They plan on changing that with their re-developed app store
called Blackberry World. It will start with 70,000 apps and is said to have one
of the most robust music and video catalogs in the mobile world. The music,
movies and TV shows will be available from most major studios, music labels and
networks. Movies will come to the store the same day they are released on DVD
and current television series’ will have next day availability.
January 30th is a big day for RIM. They will try
to reverse their fortunes and persuade lost Blackberry users to come back. This
is a huge challenge given their past failures. It could also substantiate a rebirth for the
company. RIM needs to impress their audience; the future of their company
depends on it. They are jumping to a modern platform and the skeptical
consumers are eagerly waiting what is coming next. The true test of their success
will come with how they present it and how functional their new products will
be. Hopefully, the once mighty Blackberry will intrigue consumers enough to not
end up like the Windows phone.
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