Research In Motion (RIM), which is rebranding itself as BlackBerry, has officially unveiled the flagship BlackBerry Z10 and Q10 handsets - the first devices to run the completely redesigned and reengineered mobile operating system, BlackBerry 10.
RIM says it is still working with its South African carrier partners to finalise local pricing and availability, but in the meantime the Z10 will go on sale in the UK on 31 January and in Canada on 5 February. Meanwhile, CEO Thorsten Heins has announced that RIM is officially rebranding itself as BlackBerry.
8ta says BlackBerry 10 deals and devices will be available through 8ta flagship stores and Telkom Direct stores from 1 March.
"Customers can pre-order the BlackBerry 10 devices and deals for delivery on 1 March 2013. Pre-orders will qualify for exclusive BlackBerry 10 accessories. Details of the BlackBerry offers will be made public in due course."
The Z10 features a 1.5GHz processor, 2GB RAM, 8MP rear-camera, and 2MP front-facing camera as well as a 4.2 inch screen. The mid-level Q10 is a hybrid device that features a full qwerty keyboard and a touch-screen.
Rory O'Neill, VP Product & Channel Marketing at BlackBerry, says: "Worldwide there will be a few radio variants of the Z10, in some markets there will be 4G LTE versions, in other markets there are 3G HSPA versions. It's really dependent on how widespread the 4G LTE networks are, but we will absolutely keep pace with our carrier partners.
"For SA it will be the HSPA variant at launch, but we are working very closely with our carrier partners to introduce the LTE/4G variants as soon as we can," says O'Neill.
The BIS proposition
While local pricing is still to be determined, as an indication the US pricing for the Z10 starts at $199 on a subsidised contract, and $599 on an unsubsidised contract. O'Neill confirmed the new BlackBerry 10 devices will not be bundled with the BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS), but the service will continue to be available for BlackBerry 7.
O'Neill explains: "First and foremost, the R59 per month unlimited data for BlackBerry 7 is a proposition that we really believe in. We work very closely with our mobile network partners to keep that proposition in market. So we're not end-of-life-ing BlackBerry 7. We're continuing to innovate BlackBerry 7 and for the segment of the market where social messaging and that experience is really important, we will continue to have, and we will continue to build out new experiences both from a hardware and software perspective."
O'Neill says the first release of BlackBerry 10 is targeted at a different market segment to BlackBerry 7. "It's a segment where there's a richness required in the mobile Internet above and beyond just core social messaging. So there's a requirement to have rich apps that stream data, there's a requirement to have rich apps that do video conference calls, that's a different type of profile and a different type of user."
On the popularity of BIS in SA particularly, O'Neill comments: "It's amazing to come here where BIS is a brand in its own right; it's really amazing to us. What's really refreshing in this market is that many people's first experience of the Internet is through a BlackBerry, and that's tremendous. We're still working through with the mobile operators exactly what the commercial terms are and the price points, but it's really fundamental to us that the BlackBerry 7 market, which is known as BIS here, is continued, and is there and is a real social messaging proposition."
On whether he thinks the lack of a BIS proposition for BlackBerry 10 could hurt sales, O'Neill says: "I don't think it will hurt BlackBerry, to be honest, because I really think they are two different segments of the market and it's important that we keep both segments served."
Differentiated experience
In terms of the BlackBerry 10 handsets, O'Neill says: "As you would expect smartphone-wise the specs are comparable or even better in terms of what's on the market today. But honestly, that's not what's going to differentiate BlackBerry 10. What will be the differentiator is the software experience, and that's what's really important to us.
"Two-and-a-half to three years ago we made a very tough decision to build our own OS and own UI, and that's because we wanted to have a differentiated experience." He adds that BlackBerry 10 matches and surpasses the competition with an "incredible browser, is super-fast, has great apps".
"With 70 000 apps at launch, that's more than any other new platform, ever. We've worked with major top brands and what is important to us is rich app experiences with major properties. lf you look at the way we've integrated Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn into the BlackBerry Hub, it's a great example of what we're trying to do - it's not just about covering the brands, it's about having the brands embedded into the core of the experience."
Addressing the inevitable question of whether BlackBerry World features the apps consumers are accustomed to, O'Neill says: "We're very well covered in the core experience of what we're trying to do. The reality is that it's still a new platform and the devices aren't in the market yet. There will be some properties that will be pulled in only after going to market - and you'd expect that.
Hyper-connected
"We've built BlackBerry 10 to really help hyper-connected people keep moving. That's the type of market we're after." According to O'Neill, the core differentiators of BlackBerry 10 are BlackBerry Flow, Hub, Peek, the keyboard, BlackBerry Balance, BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), Story Maker and Time Shift.
BlackBerry Flow, Hub and Peek are all features that work together to create a seamless multi-tasking experience. The Hub streams all conversations into the same place, and is always accessible by swiping from the left-hand side of the screen (a gesture called 'Peek').
In terms of the keyboard, apart from the heat sensors that learn the user's typing habits and adapts accordingly to ensure accuracy, O'Neill says: "When you pull the Z10 out of the box, the first thing it will do is scan your e-mails, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook for the words that you use and it will auto-populate the predictive text library with the words that you use, so everyone's keyboard will be different.
"BBM is obviously a tremendous proposition here in SA. We've added some tremendous features there with BBM Video and screen sharing."
The Time Shift feature for the camera takes multiple pictures at once and allows the user to choose the best shot immediately after shooting. The Story Maker app then allows users to build a movie out of a collection of photo and video content. "It's comparable to desktop services like iMovie and Movie Maker, but what sets it apart is that it is completely mobile.
"We want BlackBerry users to be able to edit and share in the moment while they're mobile - without needing to connect and download everything onto a PC first."
Out of the box, the Z10 can connect to ActiveSync and get corporate e-mail that way. "But for the majority of businesses that need more security, more control, we expect the Z10 to be run in conjunction with BES 10 which will provide the BlackBerry Balance capability, access to BlackBerry World for Work and greater security, management and control," notes O'Neill.
"BlackBerry Balance is really important for the corporates but also for personal use cases. The corporation can keep secure and confidential information private, while my photos, my videos and content remains private for me too."
Consumer focus
O'Neill is confident BlackBerry 10 can appeal to both existing and new users. "BlackBerry has 79 million customers worldwide. If we can get a certain percentage of those to upgrade to BlackBerry 10, then of course that will probably be one of the most successful phone launches of all time. Arguably what makes us different to some of our competitors is our large existing user base, and we obviously want to leverage that.
"There will be many smartphone users of other OSs that will love the keyboard and love that kind of feature. There will be people that will love the way BlackBerry Hub works, and others who will look at the camera and say 'Wow' that's what I want. There are plenty of uses and features that will attract existing BlackBerry users and new users to the platform," says O'Neill.
While the general sentiment around BlackBerry 10 and its future prospects for RIM has been cautiously optimistic, some analysts such as Ovum's Jan Dawson have been less than impressed. Dawson said: "There is little in the new platform that suggests it will have the compelling apps, content stores, or the broader ecosystem that consumers have come to expect in a competitive smartphone platform...Despite the brief bump RIM will see from the launch of BB10, we expect its decline to continue longer term."
Responding to such comments, O'Neill says: "Analysts, media and vendors do not get the right to make statements about the future of the smartphone industry above and beyond what customers choose. That's the most important thing.
"We are 100% focused on customers and the type of customers we've really built BlackBerry 10 for. In our research and our studies, we've seen a tremendous response to the features, tremendous reinvigoration of the brand and we feel really confident that we've built BlackBerry 10 for them - not for analysts or anyone else."
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