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Tag: Blackberry 10

  • BlackBerry Officially Unveils its Indonesian Smartphone

    After a horrific 2013, BlackBerry now has a new CEO, some extra cash, and a new direction. BlackBerry CEO John Chen announced shortly after his appointment that the company will be re-focusing on its mobile enterprise services and software.

    The company’s device segment wasn’t completely abandoned, however, and in December Chen announced that BlackBerry had partnered with Foxconn to develop and manufacture a new BlackBerry smartphone specifically geared toward Indonesia and “other fast-growing markets.” This week BlackBerry officially unveiled that project.

    At this week’s Mobile World Congress BlackBerry revealed the BlackBerry Z3, a 5-inch smartphone with mid-range specs and a low price. The Z3 does not feature a physical keypad and instead resembles the BlackBerry Z10.

    “We are excited to introduce the new BlackBerry Z3, the first smartphone to emerge from our strategic partnership with Foxconn, which was announced in mid-December, 2013,” said John Chen, CEO of BlackBerry. “The BlackBerry Z3 embodies all that BlackBerry 10 offers, with its exceptional productivity features and reliable communications, in a stylish, all-touch design made affordable for customers in Indonesia.”

    The Z3 has a dual-core processor, 1.5GB of memory, a 5MP rear camera (and a 1.1MP front-facing camera), and 8GB of storage. The device is 3G only at this time, though 4G LTE may come to other versions of the phone at some point in the future.

    With the relatively low hardware specs of the Z3 it’s clear that BlackBerry has been steered away from its ambitions in the premium smartphone segment. The Z3 is expected to sell for a price under or around $200, making it a viable choice in emerging markets where the BlackBerry brand can still compete.

  • BlackBerry Announces the Z30 Smartphone, BlackBerry 10.2 OS

    Back in January of this year, RIM rebranded itself as BlackBerry and announced the first two phones for its BlackBerry 10 platform, the Z10 and the Q10. Unfortunately for the Canadian company, its new smartphones were too late to catch on with consumers who had moved on to iPhone and Android devices. BlackBerry is now suffering from poor sales and announced last month that it is exploring “strategic alternatives,” which could include the sale of the company.

    In the midst of this uncertainty, BlackBerry today announced its newest smartphone, the Z30. The device is larger than both the Z10 and the Q10, sporting a 5-inch display. BlackBerry is also highlighting the device’s 2880mAh battery, which is the largest the company has ever put into one of its smartphones. The Z30 also includes stereo speakers that BlackBerry claims will help out with video chat audio quality.

    BlackBerry is still touting its BlackBerry 10 smartphones as more productive alternatives to other smartphone brands. The Z30 will come running the 10.2 version of the BlackBerry 10 OS. The company’s “Priority Hub” message stream is still present in the updated OS, as is its message preview features.

    The Z30 will be available in the UK and the Middle East starting next week. It will roll out to other markets around the world throughout the holiday season, and the BlackBerry 10.2 OS update will be pushed to Z10 and Q10 devices sometime in mid-October.

  • BlackBerry Will Release A New BlackBerry 7 Phone This Year

    By most accounts, BlackBerry 10 seems to be a pretty solid mobile operating system. It’s a definite step up from BlackBerry 7, but that doesn’t mean BlackBerry is done with its older mobile OS just yet.

    CrackBerry reports that BlackBerry is working on a new BlackBerry 7 phone for release later this year. The device will be called the BlackBerry 9720 and it may fall within the company’s Curve branded QWERTY keyboard devices. The only other thing we know spec wise is that it will feature a 480×360 display.

    Of course, all of this brings up an interesting question – why is BlackBerry releasing a device with an older OS when it should be focusing on BlackBerry 10? The only logical explanation is that BlackBerry wants to offer a more cost effective option to its customers that want to upgrade, but not upgrade to a much more expensive BlackBerry 10 device. Of course, such speculation is just that at the moment.

    Besides, BlackBerry has a chance to capture a significant portion of the emerging smartphone market with low cost devices like its new BlackBerry 7 device. Firefox OS and cheap Android phones are already attempting to capture that market, but BlackBerry has been there longer and is a more recognized name in some countries. If it plays its cards right, it could end up with a hit.

    Of course, all of this means nothing in the large smartphone markets like the U.S. and China where BlackBerry is nothing but a blip in the smartphone market. BlackBerry 10 definitely has its fans, but it still suffers from an image problem. People still assume that BlackBerry devices are for business, and that they aren’t the hip, cool consumer devices that the iPhone and Galaxy S series strive to be.

    In short, releasing a new BlackBerry 7 device might be good for BlackBerry’s business in emerging markets, but it still needs to work on making a device that appeals to the enterprise and consumer markets alike at home.

  • BlackBerry: Q1 Loss, Falling Subscriber Numbers

    BlackBerry 10 was supposed to be the Canadian company’s big entrance into the touch smartphone market. The BlackBerry Z10 and BlackBerry Q10 smartphones were, essentially, a late play for the company to compete with Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 for third place in the growing smartphone market. This week, BlackBerry released its Q1 results and it’s clear that BlackBerry 10 hasn’t produced the huge turnaround the company was hoping for.

    BlackBerry reported an $84 million operating loss during its first quarter – the same quarter that saw the release of the Z10 and Q10. This loss came on revenues of $3.1 billion – an improvement from the previous quarter, but still short of analyst estimates. The company shipped 6.8 million smartphones during Q1 – a 13% rise from the previous quarter, but still a disappointment for investors. BlackBerry stock is currently trading down over 25%

    “During the first quarter, we continued to focus our efforts on the global roll out of the BlackBerry 10 platform,” said Thorsten Heins, President and CEO of BlackBerry. “We are still in the early stages of this launch, but already, the BlackBerry 10 platform and BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 are proving themselves to customers to be very secure, flexible and dynamic mobile computing solutions. Over the next three quarters, we will be increasing our investments to support the roll out of new products and services, and to demonstrate that BlackBerry has established itself as a leading and vibrant player in next generation mobile computing solutions for both consumer and enterprise customers.”

    During today’s earnings call, Heins also stated that subscriber numbers are falling. Blackberry’s subscriber number has now fallen to 72 million, down 4 million from the previous quarter.

  • BlackBerry PlayBook Will Not Get BlackBerry 10

    Are you one of the few million people around the world to buy the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet? Were you hoping that BlackBerry would bring its latest operating system to the tablet? You might want to just give up hope now.

    BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins has confirmed that BlackBerry 10 won’t be coming to the PlayBook. Now, you might not want to throw out your PlayBook in a fit of rage just yet though. Heins says that his company will continue to “support PlayBook on existing software platform and configurations.” In other words, you can look forward to a future of exciting security updates.

    So, why can’t BlackBerry brings its latest OS to the PlayBook? Heins says it’s all about system performance. He wasn’t satisfied “with [the] level of performance and user experience.” That almost sounds like the PlayBook is just too old to support all the brand spanking new features found in BlackBerry 10, like video chat and screen share.

    Of course, there could be another reason – sales figures. In yesterday’s quarterly report, BlackBerry only shipped 100,000 PlayBooks. In the same quarter, it shipped 2.72 million BlackBerry 10 smartphones. Why support an aging and apparently unpopular device when you can be supporting the few million smartphones that are your ticket out of irrelevancy? BlackBerry has limited resources and it must focus on what makes money. It may seem sad to you, but the PlayBook doesn’t make enough money to justify the R&D required to make BB10 work flawlessly on the device.

    After all this, there’s still hope that the BlackBerry faithful will get a BB10 powered tablet, right? I wouldn’t hold my breath. In a previous interview, Heins said that tablets were a dead end business model. He thinks that tablets will cease to be relevant in only five years. Instead, he feels that a “big screen in your workplace” will replace it. He never said what that “big screen” was, but I highly doubt BlackBerry will be getting into the quickly disintegrating desktop market.

    [h/t: TechCrunch]

  • BlackBerry Thinks Tablets Are A Dead End Business Model

    BlackBerry is still in the throes of reinventing itself, but it seems to have found some mild success with its new BlackBerry phones. The same couldn’t be said of its PlayBook tablets, but BlackBerry probably won’t try to take that market anytime soon.

    Bloomberg reports that BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins called the future of tablets into question at the Milken Institute conference in Los Angeles. During an interview, he said that there will be no reason to have a tablet in five years. He topped that statement off by saying that “tablets themselves are not a good business model.”

    So, what does BlackBerry see as the future? Heins suggests that a “big screen in your workplace” will replace the tablet. That big screen may be part of the company’s future plans as he says BlackBerry is aiming to be “the absolute leader in mobile computing” in five years.

    It’s no coincidence that Heins wants the death of the tablet to coincide with his company’s resurgence as a leader in mobile computing. Of course, that resurgence will only come if BlackBerry can produce hardware that convinces people to drop their iPads, Nexus 7s and other tablets in favor of whatever “big screen” the company can come up with.

    That “big screen” may actually end up being a new PlayBook, but Heins says that any new tablet from BlackBerry must set itself apart. Maybe BlackBerry is looking at creating a desktop computer that can double as a large tablet. We’ve already seen this kind of stuff in the works at OEMs like Lenovo, but a BlackBerry-branded PC/tablet hybrid could prove interesting if the company could pull it off.

    Of course, people are right to be skeptical as BlackBerry hasn’t really innovated on the hardware side of things in recent years. The BlackBerry Z10’s only claim to fame is that its software is somewhat unique while the hardware itself is nothing new. BlackBerry could easily sell a “big screen” device with a great software backing, but Heins makes it sound like BlackBerry wants to start innovating in hardware again as well.

    At this point, we can only with the once mighty company all the luck in the world. Compelling hardware is hard to make and even harder to market after a strong incumbent has been on the scene for a few years. You only need to look to Microsoft for evidence of that.

  • BlackBerry Wants You To Make A Weapon For Robert Rodriguez’ New Film

    As part of BlackBerry’s Keep Moving Project, the company has partnered with filmmaker Robert Rodriguez to make a short film called Two Scoops. The film follows two monster hunters that take on the persona of ice cream vendors during the day.

    In the first episode, Rodriguez had called on amateur actors to submit audition tapes for the role of the hunters’ boss. The actor would be added in post production, and now Rodriguez is looking for submissions for a weapon that the monster hunters will use in the second act of the film.

    Unlike the first act, those interested in creating a weapon for the film will only have to tweet their weapon idea to Rodriguez with the #keepmoving hashtag. The winning idea will be designed by Rodriguez’ team of prop designers, and inserted into the final film.

    If you’re interested in the creative process behind the film, check out this short featuring Rodriguez talking about his approach to filmmaking.

  • Facebook And Twitter Get Updated On BlackBerry 10

    After posting decent Q4 results, BlackBerry seemingly celebrated by releasing updates for its Facebook and Twitter apps on BlackBerry 10.

    If you fancy yourself a Facebook user, the latest update for BlackBerry 10 is sure to delight with its latest features:

  • Friends Nearby – Now, Facebook for BlackBerry 10 allows you to discover if your Facebook friends are nearby. You’ll be able to see when they’ve checked in on Facebook to a location that’s close to where you are.
  • Photo Updates – There are new ways of interacting with your Facebook photos. Now you can now easily add photo tags to a photo you’re uploading within the Facebook application. Plus if you like that photo or funny picture your friend just shared on Facebook, you now have the ability save Facebook photos locally on your BlackBerry 10 smartphone.
  • Events – This improvement is designed to make it even easier to plan and keep track of your events. You can now view and respond to events, invite your friends to attend, create and view posts on the event wall, post photos, and even tag guests.
  • Sharing – Sharing information is at the core of BlackBerry 10 and now it easier than ever to share what matters to you with all of your contacts. Using the BlackBerry 10 share framework, you can now easily share links from your Facebook newsfeed to BBM, email, SMS, Facebook Twitter, and others.

    • Twitter users are getting a few less new features, but those that are being added still contribute to a better experience:

  • Your Connect Tab – View all interactions in one place, including new follows, favorites and mentions.
  • Enjoy More Content – Take a look at photos, article summaries and other updates within your Tweets.
  • Added Perspective – See the number of times a Tweet has been favorited.

    • You can download Facebook for BlackBerry 10 here, and Twitter for BlackBerry 10 here.

  • BlackBerry Makes $2.7 Billion In Q4, Sells 1 Million BlackBerry Z10s

    BlackBerry 10 launched in late January as an attempt to keep BlackBerry relevant in a world dominated by Android and iOS. Did it succeed? It’s still a little too early to tell, but early results are promising.

    In its Q4 results, BlackBerry reports that it had shipped 6 million smartphones through March 2. Out of that lot, 1 million were the new BlackBerry Z10. To ship 1 million BlackBerry Z10s in a little less than month is no small feat, especially for a company that’s recently been down on its luck.

    Beyond smartphone sales, BlackBerry had a decent fourth quarter. Here’s the full breakdown:

  • Revenue of $2.7 billion
  • GAAP income from continuing operations of $94 million, or $0.18 per share diluted
  • Adjusted income from continuing operations of $114 million, or $0.22 per share diluted
  • Gross margin of 40 percent driven by higher average selling prices and hardware margins
  • Subscriber base of approximately 76 million
  • Cash flow from operations of $219 million, cash and investments balance of $2.9 billion

    • The company notes that revenue is still down, but it’s not bleeding cash like it once was. From Q3 to Q4, the company posted a $49 million loss, or a loss of two percent. Compare that to the $1.5 billion loss it suffered from the same quarter last year, and its current losses don’t seem as bad.

    It will be interesting to see what BlackBerry’s results for the current quarter look like as it has just launched the BlackBerry Z10 in the U.S. The company notes that 61 percent of its revenue comes from hardware sales, and the U.S. market might provide the kick its premium hardware needs.

  • Kindle Is Now Available On BlackBerry 10

    Amazon Kindle was one of the first high-profile apps to launch on Windows 8 late last year. Now the app has made its way to BlackBerry World a day before BlackBerry 10’s launch in the U.S.

    BlackBerry announced that Amazon Kindle is now available on BlackBerry 10. It’s part of a larger collection of apps that will be hitting BlackBerry World as it crosses 100,000 app threshold.

    Kindle for BlackBerry 10 won’t be adding any new features, like Pandora for Windows Phone 8, but it does have all of its usual features intact:

  • Personalize – Adjust the text size, change the screen’s brightness, choose your background color, and read in either portrait or landscape mode.
  • Look Up Words – Tap and hold any word in a book to view the word’s definition with the built-in dictionary or use the Google or Wikipedia links to get more information.
  • Sample Books Before Buying – Easily shop for ebooks and read the first chapter for free before you decide to buy.
  • Bi-Lingual – Kindle is available in English and French.

    • Getting Kindle on BlackBerry 10 is obviously a pretty big deal, especially for a platform that has thus far missed out on other high-profile apps. It’s just a little unfortunate that BlackBerry 10 is not yet available on the BlackBerry Playbook as eBooks are not very user friendly on smartphones.

    If you already have a BlackBerry 10 device, you can grab the Kindle app from BlackBerry World. While you’re at it, you can check out the other new apps hitting BlackBerry 10 today – OpenTable and The Wall Street Journal.

  • BlackBerry 10 Now Has Over 100,000 Apps

    When BlackBerry 10 was first unveiled, BlackBerry said that the devices would launch with over 70,000 apps. It’s been almost two months since then and the platform is starting to pick up the pace.

    BlackBerry announced today that the BlackBerry 10 platform now has over 100,000 apps. The company says that it added 30,000 apps over the span of seven weeks, which is pretty impressive no matter how you look at it. The platform isn’t slowing down either with BlackBerry 10 adding a number of new apps to BlackBerry World over the next few weeks:

  • Amazon Kindle
  • OpenTable
  • The Wall Street Journal
  • CNN
  • The Daily Show Headlines
  • eBay
  • eMusic
  • Maxim
  • MLB at Bat
  • MTV News
  • Pageonce
  • PGA
  • Rdio
  • Skype
  • Soundhound
  • Viber

    • “The response to the BlackBerry 10 platform and applications has been outstanding. Customers are thrilled with the applications already available, and the catalog just keeps growing, now with more than 100,000 apps,” said Martyn Mallick, Vice President, Global Alliances at BlackBerry. “Top brands and application providers are joining us every day and are seeing the benefits of being early supporters of the new platform. We constantly hear from developers that the BlackBerry 10 tools are easy to build with and that we provide opportunities for app differentiation that they do not see on other platforms.”

    So where does BlackBerry 10 stand in comparison to the competition? WIndows Phone 8 has only just recently passed the 130,000 app mark so BlackBerry 10 could very well eclipse Microsoft’s platform if the Redmond giant’s current plan to spark app development doesn’t work out.

    As for Android and iOS, it’s a little unfair to compare at this point. Both platforms have around a quarter of a million apps as they’re both well established. As Windows Phone 8 and BlackBerry 10 become more established themselves, expect their respective app stores to grow.

  • The BlackBerry Band Gets Back Together For One Final Performance

    Last year, the company formerly known as RIM put together a “band” of sorts to tell developers that it was going to keep on loving them. It was probably the most cringeworthy corporate promo released in 2012, and the company is apparently competing for the same honor in 2013.

    BlackBerry got its band back together for a final performance in honor of BlackBerry 10’s launch. We won’t be seeing BlackBerry 10 until March 22, but at least you have a song to listen to until Friday’s launch.

    Let’s hope that BlackBerry doesn’t use this as its TV ad in the U.S. unless it intends to market to the hipsters whom ironically like bad things.

    [h/t: AllThingsD]

  • Robert Rodriguez Teams Up With BlackBerry On New Short Film

    Robert Rodriguez is an interesting filmmaker. He’s directing “Desperado” one year and then doing “Spy Kids” the next. His lastest film is another strange one as he’s making it in collaboration with BlackBerry.

    BlackBerry revealed Rodriguez’ newest film “Two Scoops” today. The film will follow twin sister vigilantes that pose as ice cream vendors by day, and monster slayers by night. Part of what makes this unique is that the film needs fan input to be finished. Fans can star as an extra, design monsters and weapons, or even star in the film itself. Here’s the breakdown from Rodriguez himself:

    If you need inspiration for the film, here’s the first act. Prospective actors will be playing the role of the agent’s leader that will appear on the green screen:

  • BlackBerry Z10 Hits AT&T March 22, Costs $199

    BlackBerry Z10 Hits AT&T March 22, Costs $199

    After rumors pointing to a March 22 release date, AT&T has finally come forward to confirm the U.S. launch of the BlackBerry Z10.

    AT&T announced today that the BlackBerry Z10 will indeed be available on March 22. The device will cost $199 under a two-year contract. There’s no mention of how much the device would cost off contract, but another U.S. seller was selling the Z10 for $999.

    “AT&T customers were the first to experience BlackBerry smartphones and services in the U.S. and we are thrilled to bring the next evolution, the BlackBerry Z10, to the nation’s fastest 4G LTE network,” said Jeff Bradley, senior vice president, Devices and Developer Services, AT&T Mobility. “Customers who have grown to love the tried and true BlackBerry experience will continue to enjoy the easy typing and the secure platform they expect with a fresh platform that lets them get more out of their smartphone with easy access to all their messages in BlackBerry Hub.”

    Enterprise customers will be happy to know that AT&T will also be offering BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 alongside the Z10’s launch. It will be added as one of the many Enterprise Management options offered by AT&T.

    There’s still no word on when the Z10 will be available on other carriers. The official story for all carriers is that a March release is still in the cards so we’ll probably see some announcements from Verizon and T-Mobile later this week.

    If you find yourself craving a BlackBerry Z10, AT&T says that preorders for the device will open tomorrow.

  • BlackBerry Z10 To Launch On AT&T March 22 [Report]

    BlackBerry Z10 To Launch On AT&T March 22 [Report]

    The BlackBerry Z10, BlackBerry’s latest push to become relavent, has proven to be a minor hit in some markets. It’s true test, however, will come when it launches in the U.S. this month. Those hoping for an early March release won’t be too pleased though as the Z10 will reportedly hit later in the month.

    Bloomberg reports that the BlackBerry Z10 will go on sale in the U.S. on March 22 at AT&T. The carrier won’t comment on the rumored launch date, and BlackBerry is remaining silent on its U.S. launch plans. All the other carriers planning to carry the Z10 aren’t saying anything either.

    We can assume that the BlackBerry Z10 is still on track to launch in the U.S. in March, but the company’s silence doesn’t inspire confidence. We’re already almost a quarter through the month and we don’t have any new details on the BlackBerry Z10’s U.S. launch. You would think that BlackBerry would want to announce a release date as soon as possible and begin advertising the launch, but that hasn’t happened yet.

    As Bloomberg points out, the U.S. market has to wait longer for phones as testing periods at carriers take longer than in other countries. It could be that the Z10 hit a snag in testing at one of the carriers and it pushed the launch back for everyone. The March 22 launch date could be when everybody is launching, or it could be saying that AT&T will have completed its testing before everybody else.

    Even if the Z10 launches on March 22, it may be too late. Samsung will be showing off the Galaxy S IV next week, and that alone may be enough to kill any chance BlackBerry had of catching a significant part of the U.S. market again.

  • You Won’t Be Seeing Netflix On BlackBerry 10 Any Time Soon

    Netflix is available on iOS, Android and Windows Phone, but not BlackBerry 10. That’s not going to change anytime soon.

    All Things D reports that Netflix is not building an app for BlackBerry 10. The service wouldn’t say why it’s forgoing the platform for now, but a spokesperson did say that there are “no current plans” for an app. So, there’s some hope for Netflix on BlackBerry 10 in the future, but it’s a no go at the present.

    It can’t look good for BlackBerry after it announced that its latest smartphones would have all the latest apps that its competitors have. Netflix is a name brand app that would have strengthened the BlackBerry 10 brand. It wouldn’t have a “major” loss, however, as most users still don’t watch Netflix on smartphones or tablets. The bigger concern for BlackBerry should be the news that Instagram is not developing a native app for the platform.

    Like Netflix and Instagram, most developers are probably taking a wait-and-see approach for now. BlackBerry 10 will be launching in the U.S. this month and it should give developers more realistic expectations as to the success of the product. Of course, people might not go with BlackBerry 10 over its lack of software support from app developers. If that happens, BlackBerry will be stuck in a cruel cycle of decreased software support leading to decreased hardware sales.

    Still, there are plenty of developers taking a chance on BlackBerry 10 with some big names in the mobile scene gambling on its success. If their bet pay outs, you can be rest assured that those sitting on the fence will come running.

  • BlackBerry 10 Gets Better Battery Life With New Update

    BlackBerry 10 smartphones will start launching in the U.S. in March, but folks in other countries have been playing around with the device for about a month now. For those consumers, RIM BlackBerry is releasing an update today that you won’t want to miss.

    BlackBerry upgraded the BlackBerry 10 software to 10.0.10.85 today, and the update contains a number of enhancements that the company thinks you’re going to love. Here’s the top five enhancements coming your way:

    3rd Party App Performance
    We’ve improved performance for 3rd party applications, so developers can build apps that run fast and smooth for you. With this update, you might want to keep an eye out for some fresh new app launches in March, like WhatsApp.

    Phone, Calendar, and Contacts
    Among the top improvements and features are fixes for Gmail calendars on BlackBerry 10. You’ll also find improvements in the BlackBerry Hub for logging calls log and how conversations are handled. We’ve also made general improvements to importing contacts from online sources.

    Camera
    We’ve optimized the camera for better photos in low-light situations. You’ll love the difference this makes for photos where you don’t use a flash – like the Time Shift Camera feature.

    Browser and Media
    With more and more of you using the gorgeous screen on the BlackBerry Z10 to consume online videos and media, we’ve made a number of improvements to the software in the way the browser handles video playback to provide a fantastic experience.

    Battery Life
    The software team has included a number of battery life optimizations with over 60 battery saving improvements since launch to keep you moving. These combined improvements are designed so that you see improvements in battery life and heavy users especially should see a longer average usage per charge cycle.

    BlackBerry says that the update should be delivered over-the-air automatically, but says you can manually check for an update as well. The schedule for update delivery is decided by the carrier with some already offering the update. Other carriers will be pushing it out as soon as possible.

  • Can The BlackBerry Z10 Help You Cheat At Scrabble?

    Reviews of the latest BlackBerry phone – the BlackBerry Z10 – have been generally positive, but are not asking the tough questions. Can the BlackBerry Z10 make phone calls? Can it help you cheat at Scrabble? Can it play obnoxious memes during lunch? These are the questions that one brave reviewer has agreed to tackle.

    Sortable has reviewed the BlackBerry Z10 by not comparing it to other phones, but rather testing it out in a variety of situations. The review should help you come away with a better understanding of what the BlackBerry Z10 is truly capable of.

    The BlackBerry Z10 has proven itself as a decently popular smartphone (in Canada), but it still has to prove that it’s the savior RIM BlackBerry is punching it up to be. We might be able to get a better grasp on its potential fortunes once the phone launches across all major carriers in the U.S. next month.

  • Home Depot Drops BlackBerry In Favor Of Apple’s iPhone

    When it was unveiled, BlackBerry 10 was seen as the shining light for RIM BlackBerry as it heads back to the path of profitability. The platform’s fans think this is the one that will succeed, but the company still has a major problem ahead of it. It’s traditionally strong enterprise customer base is shrinking.

    Tom’s Hardware reports that Home Depot is taking its employees off BlackBerry in favor of Apple’s iPhone. It’s a pretty hard hit for the company as Home Depot had 10,000 employees on the BlackBerry platform. It’s unknown if the transition to the iPhone occurred before or after the BlackBerry 10 announcement.

    This isn’t the first major loss for BlackBerry as other major businesses and government agencies have been moving their employees off BlackBerry in favor of iOS or Android devices. Late last year, Yahoo kickstarted the migration away from BlackBerry when the company offered to buy every employee a smartphone, but only offered iPhones or Android devices. Soon after, government consulting firm Booz Allen and the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board also moved their employees off of BlackBerry.

    Despite all of this bad news, BlackBerry 10 may be doing decently well. BlackBerry announced last week that first day sales of the Z10 was the best the company had ever seen. In a statement to Tom’s Hardware, the company also said that “over 2,7000 unique businesses in North America already registered for our BlackBerry 10 Ready Program.”

    In short, BlackBerry is losing business, and that’s a bad thing. To counter this, it’s Z10 handsets seem to be doing decently well, and it still has quite a few Enterprise customers. That’s a good thing. We’ll have to wait a bit longer to see if the good outweighs the bad when BlackBerry 10 launches across all major carriers in the U.S. next month.

  • BlackBerry Z10 Sales Break Company Records

    BlackBerry, the company formerly known as RIM, today announced that the BlackBerry Z10, the company’s first BlackBerry 10 device, is already breaking records. The device was only just released yesterday in Canada, and the hometown crowd seems to have backed the Ontario-based smartphone manufacturer considerably.

    BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins today announced that first-day sales of the Z10 in Canada were 50% better than for the launch of any other BlackBerry device. BlackBerry fans in the U.K., where the Z10 shipped on January 31, have stepped up as well, buying nearly three times as many Z10s during its first week on the market than they have any previous BlackBerry smartphone.

    “In Canada, yesterday was the best day ever for the first day of a launch of a new BlackBerry smartphone,” said Heins. “In fact, it was more than 50% better than any other launch day in our history in Canada. In the UK, we have seen close to three times our best performance ever for the first week of sales for a BlackBerry smartphone.”

    Of course, there is only one BlackBerry 10 smartphone model currently available, with the upcoming Q10 bringing a second physical keyboard option sometime this spring. RIM customers used to have the option of a wide range of BlackBerry choices. The reduction in options shows that handset manufacturers are truly beginning to embrace Apple’s “one phone fits all” philosophy.

  • Relive The Heavily Scripted Magic Of The BlackBerry 10 Launch Event

    RIM BlackBerry revealed its new BlackBerry Z10 and Q10 handsets at a packed press conference Wednesday morning. The event was live streamed, but it also took place at 10 a.m. EST/7 a.m. PST so some of you on the West Coast may have still been in bed for it. Fear not, lovers of sleep, you can now watch the keynote in its entirety.

    Sit down, grap some popcorn, and watch the obviously scripted keynote that caused BlackBerry’s stock to fall by 11 percent. Those without nefarious intentions might want to check out the keynote to see all the new features coming to BlackBerry 10, like Hub or BBM Video Chat.

    If the keynote has ignited your interest in BlackBerry 10, be sure to check out our extensive coverage of the new mobile platform from BlackBerry.