BlackberryOs
Latest
RIM's Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis are out, new CEO Thorsten Heins may license BlackBerry 10
After months upon months of investor backlash, RIM's making some significant changes. And by "significant," we mean the co-chief executives (and founders) are out. As of tomorrow, both Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis will be stepping away from the top posts, enabling "a little-known company insider" to take over, according to The Wall Street Journal. Purportedly, this is all part of "a board and management shuffle," with COO Thorsten Heins (seen above) to step into what many expect to be an impossible role to thrive in. The Globe and Mail asserts that he'll be immediately seeking a Chief Marketing Officer to polish up the company's severely damaged brand, and he "will not rule out licensing RIM's new BlackBerry 10 operating system to other handset manufacturers." In an interview with the outlet, he stated that he'll be executing "flawlessly" and with vigor -- not unexpected, but still, bold words.Startlingly, Heins also asserted that he's "confident" in the existing lineup of BlackBerry handsets and the software update recently made available for the PlayBook; call us crazy, but he'd be wise to just spout out reality and make clear that RIM's existing lineup is nowhere near competitive in the grand scheme of things. As for Mike and Jim? The former will become "vice-chair of the board with special duties to examine innovation," with the latter becoming a traditional director. In an interesting move, outgoing co-CEO Lazaridis stated the following: "I think it's that unwillingness to sacrifice our long-term value for short-term gain. That's why we didn't choose Android. That's why we decided to build the future on QNX." So wait, RIM had the chance to choose Android... and didn't? No time like the present to reach back and shake things up, Mr. Heins.Update: Catch an introduction video to the new CEO just after the break!
Android leads US market share, iOS may have stopped growing, RIM is still falling
NPD just published its latest plotting of the great American smartphone OS rivalry, and although the report covers annual rather than quarterly trends, it's perhaps more interesting to hold it up against the previous set of figures we saw -- those for Q2 2011. Back then, Google's OS had a 52 percent share, but these new figures suggest a marginally better performance of 53 percent between January and October. Meanwhile, iOS's 29 percent share is identical to what we saw in Q2, hinting that its growth has slowed right down or even stopped. RIM's share of the pie is 10 percent, compared to 11 percent in Q2, showing that the Summer flurry of new BB7 handsets like the Bold 9930 and Torch 9810 had little immediate impact. WP7 obstinately refuses to overtake Windows Mobile, although these figures are pre-Titan, while the doomed Symbian and webOS are barely clinging to life. Aside from all that, perhaps the only stats that are genuinely still shocking are those at the top of the column for 2006. Click below for further detail's in NPD's press release.
Download leaked BlackBerry OS 7.1 now, make your mobile hotspot dreams come true
An early peek at BlackBerry OS 7.1 revealed that RIM's handsets would finally be getting mobile hotspot capabilities. Now you can download the leaked update yourself and start sharing your Torch 9810's data connection. Of course, it goes without saying, this is not an official update yet and the usual caveats about stability and the danger of bricking your device apply. Then again, that might seem like a small price to pay for a feature that's become standard on practically every other mobile OS. Hit up the source link to get your hack happy hands on the unsanctioned 7.1 upgrade for the sliding BlackBerry.
RIM loses BBX trademark battle, next OS is named BlackBerry 10
Die-hard fans of RIM's mobile efforts should put those BBX tattoo plans on hold, as the US Federal Court has blocked the company from using the BBX trademark, favoring the existing use by BASIS International for its software. As a result, the boys from Waterloo just announced at BlackBerry DevCon Asia that the new name for its next phone OS is BlackBerry 10 (and the Roman numeral for 10 is... ah, we see what you did there.) Let's hope RIM's plans for pulling its tablets and phones into a single unified platform are better executed than its naming process -- next time, they should probably just leave it up to the machines.
RIM unveils BlackBerry Mobile Fusion for enterprise, extends reach to Android, iOS
In an apparent attempt to solidify its standing in the corporate world, RIM has unveiled a new platform that allows IT specialists to more tightly manage company devices -- even those from rival manufacturers like Apple and Android. With the BlackBerry Mobile Fusion software, announced this morning, companies will be able to set up rules governing employee passwords apps and other software across a variety of smartphones and tablets, including the iPhone, iPad and Android handsets. The system also allows managers to remotely wipe and lock any devices that go missing or stolen, potentially bringing enhanced security to a workplace that's become increasingly fragmented. "Our customers have been saying, 'We're moving to these different adoption models, and we'd like you on board with that,'" said Alan Panezic, vice president for enterprise product management, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. Slated to launch during the first quarter of next year, Mobile Fusion represents RIM's first foray into the multi-platform management market, and may expand even further to encompass Windows Phone devices, as well. Compatible with BlackBerry OS and BBX, Mobile Fusion will also allow users to remotely manage PlayBooks from BlackBerry handsets, though that won't happen until February, when the tablet finally receives a software update. No word yet on pricing, but Panezic says it will be "competitive" with the market.
BlueSLR dongle arrives for BlackBerry and (some) Android phones
Offering to play matchmaker between your high-end camera and smartphone, XEquals has extended support for its BlueSLR remote control beyond iOS. Yes, Blackberry and Android users can now download their respective app and pair this Bluetooth dongle to their (still Nikon-only) DSLR. The compatible dongle and free app will land later this month, but before you lay down the requisite $149, it's worth checking that both your camera and phone models are supported. As it stands, compatible Android phones are limited to some HTC or Samsung models. While Android support is likely to expand in the future, there's no word on a Pre 3 version.
RIM's Q2 earnings report: $329 million in net income, not enough to fend off critics
The first quarterly earnings report post-Wake Up Call have just been published for Canada's own Research in Motion, and while the cash is still flowing, investors and analysts alike aren't feeling too rosy about the future. Despite Q2 revenue of $4.2 billion and a GAAP net income of $329 million, RIM's stock plummeted nine percent following the news. Why? That reality was at the lowest end of estimates, and as we've seen, it takes a blowout quarter to please the folks on Wall Street. Nevertheless, the company's touting a subscriber base that ballooned 40 percent year-over-year (surpassing 70m total), and while it's quick to trumpet the rollout of seven new smartphones, not a one of them managed to astound the QNX-desiring critics. The report also notes that 10.6 million handsets were moved in the quarter, around $780 million was invested as "part of a consortium of companies that successfully bid to acquire intellectual property assets from Nortel," and it's forecasting that BlackBerry smartphone shipments in Q3 will grow between 27 percent and 37 percent compared to Q2. Sadly, the company only "shipped" 200,000 PlayBook tablets, with the prevailing thought being that it actually sold far fewer. Moreover, nary a forecast was given for future PlayBook sales.As for thoughts from the head honcho(s)? Jim Balsillie, Co-CEO, stated that "overall unit shipments in the quarter were slightly below our forecast due to lower than expected demand for older models," further noting that his firm will "continue to build on the success of the BlackBerry 7 launch to drive the business as we focus our development efforts on delivering the next generation, QNX-based mobile platform next year." Next year is a long, long way away, though, and there's no doubt whatsoever what kind of competition will be in place by the time 2012 rolls around. We'll be hopping on the analyst call here in a few, and you can look beyond the break for any notable mentions.
ComScore calls Android top dog, Apple pulls further ahead of RIM
According to ComScore, out of the 82.2 million people in the US with a smartphone (up ten percent from last quarter), Android came in first as the biggest platform yet again, capturing a whopping 41.8 percent of the market like a boss. In a not-so-close second, Apple was able to snag 27 percent, followed by RIM in the third place spot with 21.7 percent -- down 4 percentage points from last quarter. Pulling up the rear is Microsoft with 5.7 percent, and lastly Symbian with a grim 1.9 percent -- both down when compared to the previous three months. As far as US hardware manufacturers goes, Samsung is still on top with 25.5 percent of the market, while LG got 20.9 percent and finally Motorola with 14.1 percent, down 1.5 percentage points from before. Apple was able to snag some standing in the OEM space with a 9.5 percent share, while BlackBerry-maker RIM only captured 7.6 percent. As the battle wages on, looks like Androids, iPhones, and BlackBerrys (oh my) are still on top -- at least for this quarter. Check out the PR after the break for the full scorecard.
Android still king of the US smartphone hill, Motorola facing a market nosedive
In other obvious news, Android and iOS continue to sit pretty atop the US smartphone market, according to a recent NPD study. The current titans of the mobile industry both saw their pieces of the OS pie increase in Q2 of 2011, putting Andy Rubin's green robot in the lead with 52 percent and Apple at 29 percent. Newly adopted webOS, and Microsoft's WP7 and Windows Mobile all managed to cling to their respective 5 percent shares with no yearly change, leaving only BlackBerry OS to experience an 11 percent decline. But the real meat and potatoes of the report focuses on Google's soon-to-be in-house partner: Motorola. Despite the rosy picture painted by recent acquisition talks, the company appears to be facing tough competition from Android OEM rivals, and the wireless market as a whole. In regard to overall mobile phone share (read: dumbphones, et al.) and smartphone-only, Moto saw a 3 percent year-to-year decline, with its biggest loss coming from Android unit sales -- a 50 percent drop to 22 percent of the market. Will the rosy glow of Mountain View "help inspire new paths to differentiation" for Moto, or are we just looking at a repeat of the "RAZR era?" While you ponder these pressing questions, head past the break to read the full report.
Blackberry Curve 9360 hands-on
So, the trickle of BlackBerry juice is now a flood. Just weeks after RIM launched its high-end Torch 9810, 9850 and Bold 9900 handsets, it's revealed the refreshed mid-range Curve 9360 (aka the 9350 or 9370, depending on the carrier and region). When compared to the Bold 9900, which can be seen as a richer cousin with a similar form factor, the new Curve clearly comes with key hardware sacrifices in order to meet a lower (but still to-be-confirmed) price point, including an 800MHz processor (instead of 1.2GHz), no touchscreen and a 480 x 360 HVGA+ display rather than the Bold's full VGA panel. Compared to previous Curves, however, the 9360 is a significant upgrade. It sports the new BB 7, a 5MP camera and a physical design that RIM hopes will entice the "youth demographic" as well as the millions of international users who have helped to turn the Curve into RIM's globally bestselling range. The question is, is this device enough of an upgrade, considering it's been a year since the last refresh in the Curve series? Read on for our initial hands-on impressions... %Gallery-131410%
RIM launches new BlackBerry Curve (video)
Want to get your BBM on in style without spending a fortune on RIM's latest trio? Say hello to the new 11mm (0.43 inch) thin BlackBerry Curve, now official in 3 variants -- the dual-mode GSM / CDMA 9370, the GSM / UMTS 9360 and the CDMA-only 9350. These long rumored handsets feature an 800MHz CPU, 512MB RAM, a tiny 2.44-inch HVGA+ (480×360 pixel) display, a five megapixel EDoF camera (with LED flash and VGA video recording), Bluetooth, WiFi b/g/n with UMA, GPS / aGPS and NFC. While there's no sign of that new-fangled touch screen technology, you'll find BlackBerry 7 under the hood, along with a 1000mAh battery to keep it ticking all day long, 512MB of built-in storage (1GB on the 9370) and microSD card support (up to 32GB). RIM is still mum on pricing, but the new BlackBerry Curve is "expected to be available from carriers in Canada this month and from other carriers around the world beginning in September" -- including Vodafone, based on the video (and PR) after the break. We'll have a hands-on later today so stay tuned for more. Update: It's official, the BlackBerry Curve 9350 will be coming to Sprint on September 9th for a perfectly reasonable $80 -- provided you're willing to sign a two year contract and after a $50 mail-in rebate. We've tacked on the PR after the break. %Gallery-131397%
PhoneGap 1.0 lets devs write apps for seven platforms (video)
Until now, mobile app developers have followed a pretty predictable MO: develop for iOS first, Android second, and everyone else after that. Since last year, many of you code monkeys out there have been tapping into Nitobi's PhoneGap, a project that makes it easier to churn out apps for almost every OS, all at once. It's been picking up steam, with about 40,000 downloads per month, 600,000 in total, and a steady stream of donations. That all culminated this weekend with the release of PhoneGap 1.0, which lets devs use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to write and deploy apps for iOS, Android, BlackBerry, webOS, Bada, and Symbian. That's a long list indeed, but we see one glaring omission: Windows Phone 7. Hit the source link to download it for free and check out the promo video below for an oh-so quick overview. Update: Oops! Looks like WP7 is included! Our apologies, and feel free to celebrate accordingly.
RIM brings video editing service JayCut into the BlackBerry fold
If it's going to try and compete in the tablet world, whether or not it wants to be known as the enterprise-friendly slate, RIM will have to step up its multimedia game. The company clearly understands this, that's why it's snatched up the online video-editing service JayCut. It's obvious the startup's expertise will be used to create a video editing app for the BlackBerry platform, but we wouldn't be surprised to see some sort of sharing and cloud storage service built on top of it as well. Obviously we're just speculating for now. Check out the brief announcement posts at the two source links.
RIM aims to launch seven smartphones with BlackBerry OS 7 in 'the coming months'
It may look like it's losing the ongoing smartphone war, but Research in Motion is at least preparing for the next battle with reinforcements. Co-CEOs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis announced at this week's annual shareholder meeting that seven new OS 7-powered BlackBerry smartphones are set to be launched in the near future. As the company struggles to meet its financial goals due to delays, it's confident that releasing a large number of smartphones will make up for a miserable Q1 and get RIM back on track by the end of the year. This seems to be a bitter contrast to earlier rumors suggesting the company scrapped other projects to make room for its QNX "superphone." No word was given by either executive as to which phones we can expect, nor the precise dates when these devices will become available. We also haven't heard if the Bold Touch series is included as part of that count since its launch looks to have been pushed back. Lazaridis mentioned the delays are a result of his company trying to meet (read: not exceed) consumer expectations, and that RIM will "come out ahead" in the smartphone race. Now that's extraordinary confidence; unless the execs had a heart-to-heart with the anonymous letter-writer, however, it's a hard pill to swallow. [Image courtesy of CrackBerry]
Nielsen: majority of US app purchases are games, iOS users play twice as long
Apparently, folks in the US love gaming on their mobile devices and really don't mind forking over dead presidents to do so. That's according to a recent 30-day study by Nielsen pertaining to apps across mobile platforms. The company found gaming apps to be the most popular in that period, citing that 64 percent of users played and 93 percent would pay to play. The average amount of time spent gaming was 7.8 hours, although iOS users took the award for most dedicated by nearly doubling that to 14.7 hours. Android loyalists followed with 9.3 hours of fun times, but those with BlackBerry, Windows, and "feature phones" kept things closer to business hitting under five hours each. Also notable, is that people rocking Berries and dumbphones usually opted for pre-installed games over downloads. You'll find the full breakdown by hitting the source link, and we'll get back to besting our Real Racing 2 lap times.
CSI Virtual MasterCard app bringing mobile payments to iOS, Android and BlackBerry
Shortly after MasterCard announced plans to become entangled with Google Wallet (and a few months after those ambitious Isis plans were shelved), it looks as if the aforesaid company is diving into yet another mobile payment arena. And this time, it's personal. MasterCard and CSI Enterprises already offer a smattering of customized business cards for those with highly specific needs, and soon that partnership will extend to iOS, Android and BlackBerry OS. We've confirmed that the CSI Virtual MasterCard app is currently scheduled to launch in July, presumably enabling folks with a GlobalVCard to use their mobile device of choice to make payments. What's interesting here is the inclusion of RIM and iOS; there's no BlackBerry device (nor iOS device) on the market today with NFC, which leads us to believe one of two things: that's either changing by July, or this here service won't rely on NFC at all. Needless to say, we'll keep you posted -- nothing like another way to more easily indebt yourself.
Seesmic Twitter app drops BlackBerry support, RIM's frown sags even lower
The third-party app experience has always seemed like an afterthought for RIM. Lousy selection and a half-baked install process are just some of the issues plaguing BlackBerry owners and developers, but there's no blow stronger in the app world than when a dev drops support for a platform, after dedicating the resources necessary to bring a product to market in the first place. That's exactly what Seesmic has done with its popular social media app -- effective June 30th, the company will drop support for BlackBerry, "in order to focus development efforts on (its) most popular mobile platforms." It goes so far as to suggest that users "try out Seesmic for Android, iOS, and Windows Phone 7," which would of course mean replacing that BlackBerry with another, more app-friendly device. The move doesn't necessarily indicate that other devs will follow suit, but if jumping ship does become a trend, it could put a significant damper on RIM's future earnings, to say the least.
BlackBerry PlayBook rolling out internationally over the next month
Here in the US and Canada, we're already worrying about things like recalls, while the rest of world is still waiting for its crack at the original BlackBerry PlayBook. RIM today announced that its enterprise-friendly tablet will be hitting 16 more markets over the next 30 days -- though some of the locations, like the UK, have already been announced (you guys will be getting the thing in a mere six days). Recipients include Hong Kong, India, and Australia -- check out the full list in the form of a press release after the break. And when you're done let's start talking next-generation specs.
ComScore: Android grows larger than ever among US subscribers, Apple belittles RIM
The latest ComScore results from the last quarter are in, and the US mobile device wars were hotter than ever as 13 percent more people reported owning a smartphone. Google conquered most users' territory with Android climbing just over five percent (now totaling 36.4 percent) and still claiming first for mobile software platforms. Apple's iOS destroyer took second place (at 26 percent) partially due to RIM's S.S. BlackBerry OS sinking about five percent (now 25.7 percent) to claim third, while Microsoft and HP / Palm rounded out the bunch struggling to stay in the fight with even lower single-digit scores. In the OEM region Samsung claimed first yet again (although slightly dropping to 24.5 percent), with LG and Motorola landing in second and third respectively, each keeping its place from the prior quarter. In the last two slots, Apple again bested RIM whose devices barely dropped half of a percent, but enough to let the slight growth of iDevices snatch up 4th. The source link below is waiting to be clicked if you want the full battle statistics.
Android beats out iPhone in Japan, celebrates with buffet of alphabetical desserts
Google's steady march toward global smartphone dominance scored another major victory, this time in the Land of the Rising Sun. According to new numbers from Tokyo-based analyst group MM Research, Android shot to the top of the mobile OS market share heap, nabbing 57 percent of that country's smartphone market for the last fiscal year. That number is up from 11 percent the year prior, increasing from 250,000 to 4.91 million devices shipped -- it's also a good deal higher than the 37.4 and 38.5 percent that Google commands in the US and internationally, according to recent studies. Apple, meanwhile grabbed second place in Japan at 3.23 million iPhones, according to MM -- or 38 percent of the market -- with Windows Mobile and BlackBerry rounding out the top five. Dessert enthusiasts who don't believe numbers until they see them in pie chart form can check out the graphic after the jump.
