The impact of the release of the new Microsoft products seems to have detracted from the news about the release of other important products from the world of technology and their being placed on the market. For example, the fact that Research In Motion soon will return to the launching arena with a new generation of smartphones—the BlackBerry 10.
The official presentation of the BlackBerry 10 will be made on January 30th of next year. It is a new operating system that presents a radical change in direction for the history of the Canadian company. Throughout 2013 a series of high-end devices equipped with this new software will be placed on the market. Thirty days after the appointed date, the different models will start being released.
A few years ago, Research In Motion’s mobile phones occupied a predominant spot in the sector. However, first the iPhone and then the Android surge in smartphones with Android, Google’s operating system, began to gain ground, achieving between the two practically 90% of the market share.
One of the main changes in the new RIM devices is that the BlackBerry 10 operating system is fundamentally designed for use with touchscreen smartphones, although it won’t leave out the physical Qwerty keyboard feature for which BlackBerry is so well known.
The first devices to be launched will be the BlackBerry London, or the BlackBerry L-Series, a completely touchscreen smartphone. Later a hybrid phone with a touchscreen and a physical keyboard, called the N-Series, will be launched. The BlackBerry 10 will have the following noteworthy features:
- The new digital keyboard has a word prediction system that learns and allows you to type very fluidly.
- Substantial improvements in the emblematic BlackBerry Messenger, such as the incorporation of the BBM Voice system, which will allow users that are connected to WiFi networks to make voice calls without any cost.
- Web browsing speed will be more superior to that of current RIM phones.
- A much deeper integration with social networks, with BlackBerry Hub as the central element to the said platform. The Hub consists of a notification center that allows you to quickly access updates from Facebook, Twitter, and others from within any application, in addition to personal email and SMS messages.
Another change in course that Research In Motion will take with its telephones and the new operating system is target a wider audience. That is, traditionally BlackBerry has been used in the corporate world; however, now it will try to open up to a broader audience spectrum, but without neglecting its traditional market niche. It will incorporate technology such as the BlackBerry Balance, which allows you to use your BlackBerry 10 for both work related tasks and at a personal level by separating the accounts, data, and contacts from the user’s business world and those from their private world, thus achieving that neither your personal nor your business security be compromised.
On another note, there are the apps. RIM is also working hard on this ground, knowing that applications today are essential for the success of any line of smartphones. The Canadians have put into place an incentives program to attract developers that are capable of creating quality apps so that BlackBerry 10 users have an exciting catalog on the online store App World, with incentives that include awards of up to $10,000 for those who create really successful applications.
The Canadian enterprise is betting its entire future on the success of this new generation of devices. Undoubtedly there won’t be another opportunity for the BlackBerry manufacturer to recover after the successive negative balances in recent times and all the economic problems it has gone through. Without going any further, Research In Motion’s stock has lost more than 90% of its value in the last four years. Today, the true capital that the company has is the prestige of the BlackBerry brand and the fact that these phones are still in high demand in many developing countries such as Latin America and Asia.
With the BlackBerry 10 devices, the company will compete with the latest iPhone and more sophisticated Androids, such as those from Samsung’s Galaxy line, although the more immediate battle will probably be fought with Windows Phone 8 from Microsoft to dispute for who will take the third spot in the smartphone market behind the Apple/Android binomial.
