BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM) says the release of BlackBerry 10 will give the ailing company a "clear shot at being the number three platform on the market".
RIM CEO Thorsten Heins made the comments at a special press event held at BlackBerry Jam Americas, in San Jose, California, on Tuesday (25 September), shortly after he unveiled the latest beta version of BlackBerry 10.
According to Heins, BlackBerry 10 has a good chance of beating the Windows Phone 8 platform to be the third most popular platform after Google's Android and Apple's iOS. BlackBerry 10 was initially due to be unveiled in the second half of 2012, but the release date has been pushed out to early 2013.
With BlackBerry 10, Heins says RIM is pushing a new smartphone interaction model with better multitasking and seamless switching between applications. He also commented that RIM is not just building a device now, but an "entire mobile computing platform".
Heins added that RIM was fighting for its future, saying: "There is new energy and a new fighting spirit in this company... BlackBerry 10 is our most important launch ever."
RIM shares went up 5% on Tuesday, after Heins revealed the BlackBerry subscriber base has grown to 80 million users (in the quarter ended 1 September), which is up from the 78 million figure the company reported earlier this year. It had been speculated that RIM would report a drop in user numbers.
The success of BlackBerry 10 will be crucial for the company, as its aging line of smartphones has failed to keep up with the level of innovation from other industry players, leading to a major loss in smartphone market share over the last few years.
According to him, RIM is getting positive feedback from telecoms carriers on its BlackBerry 10 devices. "We are making believers out of our partners. We are making believers out of those who had previously written BlackBerry off."
Reuters quotes independent mobile apps developer, Paras Wadehra as saying the new BlackBerry OS is a definite improvement. "They have brought the older BlackBerry into the modern world. They are taking a step in the right direction, but they are walking slowly."
CCS Insight mobile analyst John Jackson says the new platform is gaining traction with developers and will offer a unique user experience.
"The question now is whether the devices will be sufficiently competitive and that is in no small way a function of RIM's ability to spend massive marketing dollars to cut through the competitive noise."
Hub and Flow
At the same event, RIM showed off new native Facebook and Foursquare apps that will be built into the BlackBerry 10 platform. According to RIM, BlackBerry 10 will also feature new LinkedIn and Twitter apps.
Showing off some of the new functionality of BlackBerry 10, Heins said: "From day one, our software and design teams focused on reimagining the mobile experience, and have been motivated by simple yet powerful concepts. We call them the BlackBerry Hub and the BlackBerry Flow."
BlackBerry Flow refers to the new swipe gestures introduced into the BlackBerry 10 interface, while BlackBerry Hub integrates all services including e-mail, calendar, BBM, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and others, at the user's discretion. Together with BlackBerry Flow, the Hub is accessible at any time through a simple swipe gesture.
"The Hub is actually not a feature, it always runs on top of the platform. It's intrinsic in the architecture," said Heins, adding that there is no need to open any application to access it. "No more application grid and no more in and out."
The new OS also has a feature similar to the live tiles on Windows Phone, in the form of "active frames". Using BBM as an example, the active frame is visible from the homescreen and automatically shows friends' updates without having to enter the app.
Dev tools
Heins also announced the latest update to the BlackBerry 10 development tools beta. According to RIM, BalckBerry 10 is the "most open ecosystem in mobile".
"Developers can choose to develop apps with the languages and frameworks they're comfortable using, including; Native C/C++, Qt, HTML5, Adobe AIR and Android Java runtime technologies. Developers can use the skills and knowledge they already have to quickly and easily build high quality and engaging apps," says RIM. Developers can also now start developing BBM-enabled applications for BlackBerry 10 smartphones.
RIM says it has also manufactured a second round of BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha testing devices for distribution. "This is a sign of our commitment to our developer community. We are making sure they have the best software tools to build, and with this device, the best hardware to test."
Heins has said that countries like SA and Nigeria are "priority one" markets for RIM, and will be among the first to receive the new BlackBerry 10 devices next year.
In contrast, SA and Nigeria are having to wait until probably the end of the year to get Apple's latest iPhone 5, while the smartphone has already gone on sale in markets such as the US, Japan and Australia in the last three days.
Share