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Blackberry Cellphones

RIM Unveils BlackBerry 10, Its Big Turnaround Hope 267

Nerval's Lobster writes "Research In Motion has whipped the curtain back from BlackBerry 10. The revamped operating system is widely perceived as RIM's best chance at staying relevant in a smartphone market dominated by Google Android and Apple's iOS. Once a significant player in mobility, RIM watched its earnings and market-share crumble over the past few years. BlackBerry 10 abandons the longtime BlackBerry user interface, centered on grids of icons, in favor of one built on the same QNX technology that powers RIM's PlayBook tablet. The BlackBerry 10 home-screen offers 'live tiles' that dynamically refresh with updated information, and RIM is playing up how users can move between apps and alerts by swiping and flicking the screen. Other features include BlackBerry Balance, which divides the 'personal' and 'corporate' sides of the phone, as well as an updated BlackBerry Messenger. More details in the article." RIM also announced they are rebranding themselves as BlackBerry. If you like pictures, omfglearntoplay sent in an article that delivers. Gimmicks of the launch include hiring Alicia Keys as their "Global Creative Director."
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RIM Unveils BlackBerry 10, Its Big Turnaround Hope

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  • by localman57 ( 1340533 ) on Wednesday January 30, 2013 @12:10PM (#42738975)
    I heard that in celebration of actually shipping the product, they're preloading them with a port of Duke Nukem Forever. Is this true?
  • i use my personal iphone for work and i seem to manage fine. i have my work email coming in, i have the gmail app on it. i have corporate VPN.

    and no need of some crazy dividing line

    • by Mente ( 219525 )

      Using the corporate tie in allows the corp to push apps and settings to the phone and wipe them upon termination. If I set my iphone up to pop my corp mail, its on my phone and they can't do anything about it when I quit. With the BB they can nuke the corp data from orbit. Still don't want them in my enterprise though. All of the pointed headed people asking what happened to their email and messaging the next time they have a 4 day world wide outage.

      • If I print my corporate email, it's on paper, and they can't do anything about it when I quit. Or export the data. Or photograph the screen.

        You don't want to hand everybody the keys to the kingdom, but I feel like all the emphasis on securing smartphones is a bit like installing steel security doors when you've got loads of single-pane windows everywhere. The security chain is only as strong as its weakest link, and it's usually not hard to find a much bigger security deficiency that's worth targeting befor

        • by zlives ( 2009072 )

          a few minutes before you get fired, your device is remotely wiped... good buy personal contacts, apps and data.

      • by MyFirstNameIsPaul ( 1552283 ) on Wednesday January 30, 2013 @01:38PM (#42740201) Journal
        I've had a BlackBerry since 2005 and I don't recall any 4-day outages. In fact, on the 2 or 3 occasions that it was out for a day or so I was only down for an hour or two, and if you read their press releases this makes sense as the outages rarely affect everyone. Similar things have happened with Apple, as I recall. However, when my phone was swiped from my pocket, I felt good knowing that all of sensitive data was safe. Just like with Carrier IQ was found installed on so many phones, it was not installed on BlackBerry. From my perspective, it is the iPhones and Android phones that are riddled with issues.
        • I've had a BlackBerry since 2005 and I don't recall any 4-day outages. In fact, on the 2 or 3 occasions that it was out for a day or so I was only down for an hour or two, and if you read their press releases this makes sense as the outages rarely affect everyone. Similar things have happened with Apple, as I recall.

          I'm curious as to what you referring to. Apple (and Android mfg's) sells the hardware and doesn't provide the telecom service so I have no idea what kind of "outage" Apple could be responsible for like RIM is famous for.

          • I never experienced a RIM outage that affected Internet, apps, the phone, etc, either, so what are YOU talking about? RIM outages that I've experienced have been loss of email services.
      • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

        Incorrect. If you add your corporate Exchange account to your iphone, you are giving your Exchange admins the ability to wipe your device. I know this because the it happened to a friend of mine - the IT function at her company apparently had a spazz attack and remote wiped ALL the phones.

        iOS remote wipe from exchange [microsoft.com]

    • It's a feature users were asking for. It's not because you don't see value in it that there isn't value.

      The feature protects your personnal data from you're work and vice versa. It "APPEARS" to cover the issue of mobile device security in work places where intellectual property is mission critical to protect. That just being a general overview. You can get more details on their web site.

    • by otherniceman ( 180671 ) on Wednesday January 30, 2013 @12:55PM (#42739681)

      If your company is involved in litigation and you have work email coming in to your personal device, then under FRCP (if in the US) your personal phone could be imaged and examined for relevant documents. With balance their is a complete separation of work and home.

    • You may think it's fine but I bet your corporate security group has other feelings on the matter.

  • by ub3r n3u7r4l1st ( 1388939 ) on Wednesday January 30, 2013 @12:24PM (#42739211)

    Their stock price says it all.

    Last september/october it was around $6-$7 a share, now it is more than doubled.

    • by sjbe ( 173966 ) on Wednesday January 30, 2013 @12:42PM (#42739483)

      Their stock price says it all.

      No it really doesn't. Their stock price is not based off of any fundamentals, merely opinion and short term speculation. Their competitive position has not changed and it remains unclear if consumers will buy their latest products in sufficient volume.

      Last september/october it was around $6-$7 a share, now it is more than doubled.

      So did SCO when they announced their lawsuit against IBM. Their stock price jumped and then steadily dropped as people realized they were doomed. Stock prices do not in the short term reflect objective facts about a company, merely opinion. If their stock continues to grow for the next 3 years then and only then will you have a valid argument.

    • It was $150 in 2008...
    • by gmuslera ( 3436 )
      Is losing 6% today, the previous BB10 announcements/leaks raised hopes, but somewhat the presentation didnt manage to catch enough attention. Anyway, maybe is soon to say how it will end.
    • Their stock price says it all.

      Last september/october it was around $6-$7 a share, now it is more than doubled.

      Based purely on "press," not on the product. The stock market became a game of stealing every penny that you can from the small investor, and not about anything in the realm of reality quite a while ago. Think of professional poker players. No different.

  • I am interested to see the Balance feature both from a user experience and technical perspective. Currently both the major platforms Droid and IOS simply do not really offer the features Enterprise security needs even when paired with an MDM solution; of if they do they do so in a way that will not be acceptable to end users in a BYOD environment.

    We have been promised Droid VMs for two years now and seen nadda. The idea being you'd have a personal phone environment and a business phone environment. One

  • by dubbreak ( 623656 ) on Wednesday January 30, 2013 @12:45PM (#42739517)
    Looks like they are trying to compete directly with Apple and Samsung. Looks like around $650 in Canada ($150 with 3 year shackles.. which is about $500 credit towards a phone). If businesses go back to them, yeah it could work at that price (it's not as though they are paying more than an iPhone they are already supplying their sales guys with), but a bit cheaper would have given an extra push.

    $359 Nexus 4 vs $650 Q10 for me as a consumer.. the Nexus wins out for sure. Then I can buy the next Nexus as soon as it comes out and hop to the next cheapest carrier at that time.

    I didn't read anything about it being locked, but I assume it's carrier locked (that's the norm in Canada). That's BS for travelling. Maybe big corps don't mind paying roaming fees, but I tend to grab a cheap sim card any time I cross the boarder and save myself hundreds in roaming and data fees.

    Admittedly I'm not the target market, but at this point I'd think it'd be best for BB to appeal to as broad a market as possible. If they could profit at $350/phone then they should saturate the market, rather than pricing high now, then dropping the price like the Playbook. Nothing makes your product look more unappealing than staging it as a premium product then dropping the price because it doesn't live up to the premium status.
    • I think this is totally wrong... you have to think like a manager or executive to understand their market. Until laptops were commiditized (sp) the Thinkpad had a certain caché that said "I am busy and important, don't f with me". Now that technical focus is on phones an executive has few options. Iphones are nice but the guy serving him latte with an earring in his nose has one, + the Apple tie ins and consumerism make the phone feel like a toy. The Samsung is nice, but his gamer nephew and the smelly
      • BB isn't a BMW. They'd like to be one, but their new phone is more like the first generation of Hyundai Genesis priced like a BMW. Only difference being they had some history but became irrelevant, so basically worse off than someone new to a segment. And contrary to your argument they are trying to argue features/specs as a reason to buy not quality, mystique or exclusivity.

        My point was that they can't afford to just target business anymore. People are happily plugging away on whatever they have now. Th
      • My observation is that the manager will get an iPhone.

    • Admittedly I'm not the target market, but at this point I'd think it'd be best for BB to appeal to as broad a market as possible. If they could profit at $350/phone then they should saturate the market, rather than pricing high now, then dropping the price like the Playbook. Nothing makes your product look more unappealing than staging it as a premium product then dropping the price because it doesn't live up to the premium status.

      They tried that already. Their entry-level devices broke down early (hardware and/or software issues, e.g. BB Storm), damaging their reputation for quality and reliability.

      Unlike the big Android manufacturers, BB (the company) doesn't have many other products to fall back on. Their BB Curve line is about $300 without contract from Rogers, and their margins on it are probably very thin. Even at $0 on contract, it did a poor job saturating the market.

      Carriers also started discounting the Galaxy SIII soon afte

  • by smist08 ( 1059006 ) on Wednesday January 30, 2013 @02:03PM (#42740479)
    I used to have a Blackberry Curve. I now have an iPhone 4S. I like my iPhone, but it has some definite drawbacks over my old BB Curve. The Curve's battery would last for a week or more, my iPhone I'm lucky if the battery lasts 2 days between charges. The Curve seemed to be able to get e-mails without incurring roaming charges, when I traveled I could inexpensively text, phone and email. With my iPhone I get big bills, since if Wifi isn't available I have to turn on data roaming to download email. I also found the email and the keyboard much more productive on the BB. If BB still has these advantages, I'll probably go back to BB. If now the battery sucks and it runs up roaming, then I'll probably go to the next Apple phone.
    • As long as the battery lasts through the day, I have no problem plugging it in overnight.

      Hell, you might as well just go back to the Palm Vx, which could go a month of constant daily use between charges. Or the Palm IIIs and what not, which just took AA batteries.

  • by erp_consultant ( 2614861 ) on Wednesday January 30, 2013 @02:12PM (#42740585)

    The BB unveiling was streamed live on CNBC and I watched it. Some observations...

    1) The CEO - Thorsten Heins - has absolutely zero charisma. I understand that English probably isn't his first language but he didn't look very comfortable during the presentation. Yeah, we're there to see the phone but getting someone with some presentation skills would have helped.
    2) All that aside, they have done a very nice job on the phone. True multitasking. Personal and Business sandboxes. Full encryption. Nice screen. BBM now has a video client similar to Skype.
    3) BBM video - was it just me or was the audio not working for the guy in London? The video looked fine but I don't recall hearing him say anything.
    4) Apps - I'm tired of hearing about "apps" all time time. Look - no matter what phone you get you're going to have access to more apps than you can shake a stick at. Everyone (Apple, Android, Microsoft, Blackberry) has a collection of about 50 apps that most people want or need. The rest of it is a combination of copies of those 50, niche products, and utter shit. Everyone has Angry Birds, Skype, WhatsApp, Evernote, Dropbox, etc. Just get the phone you like and don't worry about the apps.
    5) Good move releasing a phone with and without a physical keyboard. Having had a BB in the past I have to admit that having a physical keyboard is a nice feature. If you don't type on it that much you probably don't need it.
    6) I think they said it was going to cost $149. That undercuts Apple and Samsung by $50.
    7) No mention of memory, storage, processor, camera specs, etc. I think that was a mistake. That kind of stuff is important to a lot of people (well, me anyway). It would be nice to know if it has an SD card. How does it stack up against the iPhone or Galaxy 3? If they want people to switch they have to show why the BB is a better phone.

    Overall it looks like a great phone and I hope they do well with it.

  • The Canadian news bias towards BlackBerry is not doing the company or investors any good. The level of hype north of the 49th is out of control.

    Full disclosure: I'm a BB user.

    When a product gets this much hype, the expectations outpace the market. We need to really sit back for a bit and see how it all shakes out.

    My personal attitude is: hopeful - hopeful that it 'takes'. I would not, as yet, put myself into the category of optimistic.

    It's going to be very interesting to see what BB does to carve out ma

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