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AT&T bestows BlackBerry OS 6 upon the Bold 9700
AT&T's Bold 9700 owners undoubtedly cringed with jealousy as T-Mobile announced BlackBerry OS 6 for the 9700, though less than a month later, Ma Bell is making amends with an OS 6 release of its own. Yes, the long wait is over, and rather than watching us play with RIM's creation (as you have for months), just hit the source link for some download action to call your own.
RIM to launch 6.1 update as BlackBerry 7 OS at BlackBerry World next week? (update: yes)
CrackBerry has just dropped word via "numerous sources" that RIM will be revealing the next iteration of its mobile OS at the fast approaching BlackBerry World conference -- and no, it's still not QNX. Despite consistent rumblings that upcoming devices like the Bold Touch, and Monaco would be launching with OS 6.1, it seems that RIM has decided to re-brand the update completely as BlackBerry 7, perhaps to increase the value proposition and differentiate new devices being announced along with it. However, the site also speculates that current phones running BB6 may not get any BB7 action right off the bat -- which could make sense, given that new features like NFC are only present in upcoming devices. All this is naturally unconfirmed, but if this is indeed yet another version of the BlackBerry OS, well, that certainly won't help the platform get any more developer love. Update: It's offficial. CrackBerry is reporting that RIM Co-CEO Jim Balsillie has informed investors of the new nomenclature on its earnings call, adding that "It's such a big update from 6." We can't wait to see for ourselves.
BlackBerry 6 OS (finally) available for Bold 9700 on T-Mobile
To all the fine folks carrying T-Mobile's BlackBerry 9700, we commend your patience. As your friends and co-workers enjoyed BlackBerry 6's spoils: keeping up on social feeds, enjoying a deeper and more fluid search, and -- oh yeah, a WebKit browser -- you've begrudgingly contained your jealousy, applying theme after theme in desperate hope to make your phone feel new again. Sure, you knew 6.0 was coming, but after a long, long wait, even the inevitable becomes questionable -- which makes us happy to announce that your BlackBerry 6 OS is now just a download away. So go ahead, cruise over to T-Mobile's website there in the source, and soon enough you'll be cracking jokes with the best of 'em (at the expense of Tour owners, that is.) [Thanks, Alex]
Gartner: Android grabbing over 38 percent of smartphone market in 2011 on Symbian's demise
We like, ok, love poking fun at analysts' long term forecasts given the volatility of the smartphone market. Nobody, neither Gartner nor IDC, predicted the meteoric rise of Android and iOS, thus making their four-year projections (measured to a decimal point) laughable, to say the least. Shorten that timeline to the end of the year, however, and the accuracy of these forecasts tends to increase dramatically. Gartner just released its smartphone projections that align very closely with the numbers released by IDC a few weeks ago. Both research firms see Nokia hemorrhaging its smartphone dominance in 2011 after announcing plans to adopt the Windows Phone platform. Gartner sees Symbian pulling in a remarkably low 19.2 percent (down from 37.6 percent in 2010 or an impressive 46.9 percent share held back in 2009) regardless of Nokia's insistence that it still has some 150 million Symbian handsets to ship -- IDC, as you'll recall, was a bit more gracious with a 20.9 percent projection for Symbian in 2011. Like IDC, Gartner sees Microsoft making a dramatic comeback just as soon as Nokia can flood its global channels with mid-tier handsets by the end of 2012 with the Windows Phone operating system ultimately rising to the number two spot in global marketshare (Gartner says 19.5 percent to IDC's 20.9 percent) by, eh hem, 2015. Gartner expects the iOS smartphone slice to peak with a 19.4 percent share (to IDC's 15.7 percent) in 2011 before dipping a bit under the strain of an Android juggernaut and Apple's reluctance to sacrifice margins (and profits) for market share. Gartner expects Android to increase the 22.7 market share it enjoyed in 2010 to 38.5 percent in 2011 (compared to the IDC's slightly more aggressive 39.5 percent share) on the way to dominating the competition with a 49.2 percent share in 2012. Bringing up the rear then is RIM with an estimated chunk of just 13.4 percent in 2011 (compared to 16 percent in 2010) with further declines through 2015 even after the BlackBerry maker migrates to QNX in 2012. Ouch. As for WebOS: sorry HP, you're in the "other" category along with Bada.
RIM deems BlackBerry OS 6.1 a 'major upgrade,' promises a spring release
We weren't expecting to hear too much about it, but RIM's year-end / Q4 fiscal 2011 earnings call uncovered a good bit of information surrounding BlackBerry OS 6.1. As you've likely learned by now, we weren't exactly throwing our iPhones and Droids into the nearest refuse bin after handling the Torch, and it seems as if quite a few bigwigs at RIM were equally disappointed. In response to a question about the rollout of BB OS 6.1, we were told that it would truly be a "major upgrade" over what's out there now, and rather than being an incremental update, it'll be more like "an overhaul." The company made no bones about its excitement for the release, and frankly, we're having a hard time keeping our expectations in check after listening in. Thankfully, we'll be able to get our paws on it at some point this spring, with a number of elements to be teased at BlackBerry World this May. Naturally, we'll be there to keep you up-to-date with how it's rolling along.
RIM earnings show strong revenue and growth, but weak guidance for the months ahead
Research in Motion just kicked out its year-end and Q4 earnings for fiscal 2011, and while things look fairly rosy for now, shares of the company have sunk around ten percent in after-hours trading. Why? Because even the greatest performance in the world can't ward off skeptical investors who are keyed in on guidance. The outfit reported expected revenues of around $5.2 billion and $5.6 billion, with earnings ranging from $1.47 billion to $1.55 per share. Sounds lovely, but not when you consider that analysts had expected those figures to be closer to $1.65 per share. That said, RIM did manage to ship 52.3 million BlackBerry smartphones, representing a 43 percent uptick over fiscal 2010. Furthermore, fiscal 2011 revenue shot up 33 percent over fiscal 2010 (landing at $19.9 billion), and we were given a confirmed ship date of April 19th for PlayBook. If you're looking for a breakdown in revenue for the quarter, you'll be interested in knowing that 81 percent was attributed to devices, 16 percent to service and just three percent to "software and other revenue." Based on what we've gathered from the earnings call, RIM understands that it'll be selling more lower-end devices going forward (during what it continually referred to as "a transitional period"), and it's expecting stronger revenue to come from software and services based around QNX. In fact, QNX (known as BlackBerry Table OS on the PlayBook) was pinpointed as being an OS for future "superphones," and while we heard a brief mention of the impending BlackBerry OS 6.1 release, it's fairly evident which platform the outfit is salivating over. If all goes well, we're told to expect some sort of RIM superphone in 2012, and while our instincts are telling us that just has to refer to a phone with a 4.3-inch display, no specifics whatsoever were given beyond the moniker. When referring specifically to the PlayBook, it was confirmed that WiMAX, LTE and HSPA+ versions were en route, and when asked about incoming 4G products, we were told that while no specific products could be spoken to (and that "no promises" could be made), there's a "super intense 4G effort" ongoing within the company. We also heard that BlackBerry OS 6.1 would be a "major upgrade," and even though no deets flowed from this call, we were assured that this "substantial" overhaul -- which will launch at some point this spring -- would be teased at BlackBerry World.
ComScore: Android leapfrogs BlackBerry among US smartphone subscribers to take first place in market share
Last time we checked in with ComScore's report on smartphone platform market share among US subscribers three months ago, Android was doing a little happy dance as it overtook iOS for the number two spot overall. Well, the cuddly green bots have self-replicated yet again, enough to overtake RIM this time thanks in part to a 5.4 percent decline on BlackBerry's part (down to 30.4 percent in January) coupled with a 7.7 percent boost on the Android side, moving up to 31.2 percent. We imagine ComScore's next report -- covering the period through March -- will see a little boost on the iOS side thanks to Verizon's iPhone launch, but RIM's knight in shining armor might be further out; we still don't know when QNX-based phones are going to happen, after all, and devices like the Monaco don't really seem like cure-alls.
PlayBook Android app support mentioned during demo at MWC, old BlackBerrys show up in ShopSavvy's Android logs
As far-fetched as it may seem, rumors that RIM is working on some sort of Android app support for its QNX-based PlayBook tablet have persisted in various forms for months now -- and they've turned up once again in a video posted by development community MobileMonday's Rio chapter taken at MWC earlier this month, where a RIM rep seemingly says "we will also support Android apps" after talking about Java-based offerings. Of course, this could've been staged by some rabble rousers or a rep could've simply been echoing back the rumors he's seen on the interwebs -- but regardless, it adds fuel to the fire. Follow the break to see the video of that. But it gets weirder. ShopSavvy -- which makes versions of its app for iOS and Android -- has started turning up a couple of older BlackBerry devices in its Android build's usage statistics on Flurry: the Curve 8300 and 8520, to be specific, along with an 8600 model that doesn't exist (at least, not yet). The 8300, in particular, is pretty ancient at this point and we're having a hard time wrapping our brain around RIM's game plan in porting Dalvik (or a Dalvik-like) VM and associated libraries over to it; if anything, Flurry could be confused. Then again, a next-generation full-touch BlackBerry that just happens to run a full suite of Android apps in a sandbox could be a pretty compelling product, indeed. [Thanks to everyone who sent these in]
BlackBerry Dakota photo, specifications leak
So what's this all about? Oh, just the BlackBerry Dakota which we heard about back in July, and which definitely seems to be real. This one, pictured above in a photo procured by BGR, looks like it's going to boast that up top 2.8-inch (VGA resolution) capacitive touchscreen we'd heard about, with the BlackBerry Bold-style keyboard you've come to know and love below. Yes, this 'Berry is quite attractive in the looks department, and spec-wise, it's a quad band GSM/GPRS/EDGE device with tri-band UMTS. It also packs a 5 megapixel cam with HD video recording, 4GB of storage, plus 768MB of RAM. The phone will also have WiFi and be 3G hotspot-enabled, and it'll run BlackBerry OS 6.1. Like we said, from the looks of it, this thing is legit, but there's no word on pricing or availability as of yet.
Just got a BlackBerry? The best apps, accessories, and tips
So you just got a BlackBerry, huh? First off, welcome to the world of glorious hardware keyboards and the holy grail of mobile messaging we mortals call BBM. Once you get past the novelty of sending the obligatory "mypin" texts to everyone you know, you're probably thinking to yourself -- what now? Luckily for you we've compiled a list of our favorite apps and accessories, as well as some veteran tricks of the trade, so head past the break for a crash course in doing more than just playing BrickBreaker on a BlackBerry. Hey Android friends, we got you covered, too! Did you get an iPad? Check out our guide here! Found an iPhone in your stocking? Read our list of must-haves!
ComScore: Android keeps chugging, BlackBerry falters, world awaits Windows Phone 7's numbers
Compared to last month's report, it's more or less business as usual in ComScore's latest smartphone market share numbers for the three-month period ending in October, but there are a few interesting points worth calling out. Most notably, RIM's decline seems to have accelerated -- they've lost a claimed 3.5 percent of the US market in the latest period compared to 2.8 percent prior, which means they're now down to 35.8 percent. Of course, that's still more than enough to keep them comfortably in first place, but it's a situation they're going to want to reverse sooner or later -- hopefully with TAT's help. Meanwhile, Apple's tacked on a slightly larger slice of the pie, but they're still holding fairly steady; Google, meanwhile, continues its stratospheric rise, tacking on another 2.1 percent since last month's numbers to hit 23.5 percent -- nipping on Apple's heels, we'd say. The most intriguing story, though, would have to be Microsoft: they're lower than before at just 9.7 percent of the market, but these figures don't include Windows Phone 7 yet -- and clearly, no one's buying WinMo 6.5 gear at this point. Should start to get interesting in the next month or two on that front.
Adobe confirms Flash Player 10.1 is coming to BlackBerry, Windows Phone 7 and more
We've already known that Adobe would be bringing Flash Player 10.1 to Windows Phone 7, but the company has just now made that fully official at its currently-happening MAX conference (alongside its Air 2.5 announcement), and it's also confirmed exactly which other mobile platforms the plug-in will be headed to. That includes WebOS 2.0, which we've already seen first hand, along with BlackBerry OS, Symbian, MeeGo and, last but not least, the LiMo platform -- those will all of course join Android 2.2, which already supports the plug-in. Unfortunately, there's still no timeline for a release on each platform, with Adobe only saying that Flash 10.1 is "expected" to hit each mobile OS. Head on past the break for the relevant snippet from Adobe's press release.
Android is number one OS among US phone buyers over the last six months
BlackBerry OS? Dead! iOS? Dead! Symbian? Never stood a chance. Android's exponential growth has today been illustrated by Nielsen's statisticians who present us with the above chart of recent US smartphone purchases. It shows that over the six months leading up to August 2010, 32 percent of American new phone buyers had grabbed themselves a device with Google's OS on board, which is comfortably ahead of RIM at 26 percent and Apple at 25 percent. These results corroborate NPD's figures on the matter -- which peg Android at 33 percent of new US purchases -- and reiterate the idea that Android is headed to a place whose name starts with D and ends with omination. One more chart showing total market share can be found after the break (hint: BlackBerry still reigns supreme overall).
Android accounts for one-quarter of mobile web traffic, says Quantcast
It's terribly difficult to get reliable statistics, as numbers tend to vary drastically depending upon whom you ask, but if you're inclined to believe that Android is mopping up Apple and RIM's declining mobile mindshare in the US, you'll find nothing but corroboration from Quantcast. The analytics firm reckons a full one-quarter of mobile web traffic stateside comes from devices running Google's OS, though it's important to know that the iOS tallies apparently don't include the web-friendly iPad. You also might want to note that this is mobile web traffic here -- these days, we spend an increasing amount of our internet time in apps -- and since we're on a roll with the disclaimers, let's just add that these numbers have nothing to do with a company's financial success. Nokia can attest to that.
Palm Pre fake tires of waiting for webOS 2.0, takes up iOS and BlackBerry OS lookalikes instead
We feel your pain: you love your BlackBerry at work and your iPhone for personal use, but as hardware goes, nothing gets your motor running quite like the Pre's pebble-esque shell. Trust us, we've all been there! Well, a new clone out of China seeks solve all your technological woes by combining an iOS-inspired user interface and the Pre's body -- with an iPhone home button thrown in for good measure, of course -- and when the time comes to throw on the suit and tie and head to work, you can switch the UI over to BlackBerry mode. As far as we can tell, it still functions like an iOS clone here, but at least the skin will remind you of the good ol' Bold days. Looks like you can't buy this thing online, but considering how well the software works in most of these things, it's probably for the best.
RIM launches BlackBerry 6 platform
It's been teased since WES back in April -- but with the launch of the Torch today, RIM had to come clean with all the details on its thoroughly refreshed BlackBerry 6 operating system, too. Besides the obvious name change from "BlackBerry OS" to simply "BlackBerry," the software features countless updates, most notably new universal search functionality, social network aggregation, WiFi-powered media sync with your desktop music collection, and an all-new (and desperately needed) WebKit-based browser with support for HTML5. Thankfully, RIM has also committed to bringing BlackBerry 6 as an upgrade to at least a few recent models -- the Bold 9700, Bold 9650, and Pearl 3G, to be specific -- "subject to carrier certifications in the months ahead." Follow the break for the full press release and video teaser.
RIM and AT&T event next Tuesday -- BlackBerry slider and OS 6 en route?
Well well, what's this? We just got an invite to a joint RIM / AT&T event next Tuesday, and we'd guess that means we're about to see the official unveiling of the well-leaked BlackBerry 9800 slider with a side dish of BlackBerry OS 6. Either that, or RIM CEO Mike Lazaridis is going to explain how working two-way Gmail sync is a real problem that affects every smartphone and give us a tour of RIM's top-secret email integration labs, but yeah -- we've got our bets on new hardware. We'll obviously be there live covering every detail, so make sure to tune in!
Adobe Air peer-to-peer video call concept Android app hands-on (video)
If you recall, a few days ago we stumbled upon a cheekily-named concept app (which has since been renamed for obvious reasons) from Adobe that does video-calling on Android. This is pretty rad considering it's just Qik and Fring offering the same service for the green bot right now, so we trotted along to Adobe's London office to get a closer look at this demo. As with many things in life, not all went as planned as you can see after the break -- the video stream froze up on several occasions, but then again Adobe's Mark Doherty only spent three days cooking this simple app. Regardless, this should still help Android developers understand the beefed-up peer-to-peer capabilities in the forthcoming Air 2.5 runtime, which is now "feature-complete" and undergoing extensive testing ahead of launch later this year. Things are less positive for Flash availability on other mobile platforms, though. While Nokia's just waiting for a Linux SDK before it can start porting Flash apps to its devices within 2010, Adobe implied that it's still waiting for two other vendors to respond -- Palm's already been shown a Flash build running on webOS devices, and it's just a matter of the company signing up for Adobe's device certification system; RIM, on the other hand, is a bit more vague, but we were told it's definitely interested in both Air and Flash. And here's the surprise of the day: no comment on Flash for iOS (not to be confused with its digital publishing tools for the iPad), but there's no stopping you from hacking it in yourself. Update: Adobe's Mark Doherty has sent us a statement to emphasize the industrial backing of the Air and Flash platforms for mobile. We've posted it after the break.
RIM shows off BlackBerry 6 multimedia experience, in pictures
While there's still no (official) word on when we'll get any BlackBerry OS 6 hardware, much less that 9800 Bold, RIM has seen fit to provide us another glimpse at the software front. This time round we're looking at multimedia features, including the photo gallery, a brand-new podcasts app and YouTube, alongside extra camera controls (including a face detection mode) and roundabout confirmation that at least some new BlackBerries will support pinch-to-zoom. Oddly enough, there's no video showing off the new multimedia functionality, just a set of stills, but we suppose RIM realizes it's all been done before and Crackberry addicts will take whatever they can get right now.
BlackBerry 6's WebKit-based browser bests the competition in a good 'ol standards showdown
It's been almost a year since RIM picked up Torch Mobile and locked its newly acquired division in a closet, telling those coders to not come out until BlackBerry had a world-class browser. Early tests from Salomondrin, the self-described "007 of the Phone World," indicates that those tired engineers can now finally go home and get some sleep. The new WebKit-based browser, a part of BlackBerry OS 6.0, managed a score of 208 on the Acid HTML5 tests, measuring browser compliance and performance. Meanwhile the iPhone 4 scored 185 and HTC's Incredible pulled down 151. Mind you, benchmark performance doesn't always equate to real-world browser responsiveness, but regardless this is good news for CrackBerry addicts. The only question now is: when will they get their fix? Update: The browsers were run through a suite of tests, and the above scores were actually from The HTML5 Test!
