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RIM Unveils BlackBerry 10, Its Big Turnaround Hope
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."
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've never been a BB fan (never owned one) but I was given an iPhone and a BB10 beta to play with. The BB10 feels way better, and I mean waaaay better. With the iPhone it feels like you spend most of the time clicking on the menu button moving to another app. On the BB10 you swipe left or up and as if by magic all your other app(s) are there, still running.
technically HP, Dell and others sell a lot more computers than Apple. but the Mac business makes more PROFITS than everyone's PC business combined
market share is useless if you lose money on it
same with Android. only samsung is making any money. Moto, HTC and others are losing money or barely breaking even.
They showed a keyboard version. They just haven't announced launch dates for it yet.
This is like debating McDonalds vs Burger King in a story about a taco stand on main street that served 5 customers yesterday at lunch time. I think the three blackberry users still left are going to get annoyed at you guys for going off topic.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
market share is useless if you lose money on it
You forgot to add "... in the long run". Market share without profits can be very useful if the purpose is to drive other companies out of the market over a relatively short time period. Ask Amazon. However if a company is competing solely on price but cannot drive others out of the industry (think airline industry) then competition will drive most/all of the profits out of the industry. Apple doesn't compete primarily on price whereas Windows PC makers primarily do. If Apple were to dump OS X and sell Windows on their computers instead, their profit margins would evaporate faster than you could say "shareholder lawsuit". Same if they dumped iOS for Android.
RIM knows this and that is why they aren't going to Android. If they do there is nothing to make them stand out from Samsung, HTC and the rest and their profit margins are very likely to disappear.
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.
I haven't played with a BB10, but this is exactly how Palm WebOS behaves and it is, indeed, fantastic. Fat lot of good it did them when few developers would write apps for the platform.
"Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
The camera on a smartphone has evolved to having near quality of a professional camera. That said it is NOT a professional camera. When I take a picture with my phone I want it to capture the moment decently and for the size of a dime they go far beyond what anyone realistically needs. If I wanted amazing quality photos I would use a camera with proper optical zoom, etc. Basing a smart phone on 1 feature of which should not be primary is hardly advisable. That would be like not buying the perfect car because the horn sound isn't a perfect pitch. Sure you use it and some days more than others, but it is not core functionality and should be weighted as such.
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.
"The BlackBerry Runtime for Android Apps supports Android 2.3.3 applications" and this should speed-up the number of available apps for BB. Android 2.3.3 features that aren't supported are listed here.
The world doesn't wait for or revolve around the USA. If the UK carriers can launch tomorrow and Canadian carriers can launch in just a few days then there is no one to blame but the US carriers themselves.
Resolution doesn't make up for the small lenses in any small camera. Ask any photographer. More Glass = Better Picture. It gives you better aperture and more light. No chips can make up for the lack of light in uber small lenses, point&shoots included. Therefore no smartphone will ever have the quality of a pro camera. Resolution sure, but those pixels will be garbage.
same with Android. only samsung is making any money.
Will this fucking lie ever die, or does it have to be KILLED WITH FIRE?
Source: LG Electronics 4th Quarter 2012 report
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
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 once took an excursion to Reddit, and later HN. Unlimited up/down voting sucks when dealing with a hive-mind.
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.
"more glass" means a wider front lens with the ability to capture more light.
I have an 85mm F1.4 lens originally designed for 35mm. The front element is 72mm across. No matter how good the lens is on a phone (and some are *very* good) it won't be able to gather as much light as this lens.
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.
LG credited demand for smartphones that run on faster "LTE" networks, which are taking off in South Korea, Japan and the United States. It sold 14.4 million mobile phones during the three months, with smartphone sales accounting for half of the volume. More than 70 percent of its mobile revenue came from smartphone sales.
There you go fanboi. If you were to google you could find all of the information you needed, instead of brow beating someone. http://news.yahoo.com/lg-electronics-post-profit-smartphone-sales-043621356.html
Look at that the darn URL even tells you you're wrong.