RIM circles its calendar
BlackBerry 10 to be unveiled on Jan. 30, with large marketing push to follow
Research In Motion Ltd. will unveil the first two BlackBerry 10 smartphones on Jan. 30 and plans a marketing push to support a global launch that’s expected to include a commercial aired during the Super Bowl.
Amarketing campaign for the long-awaited devices will kick off in earnest at the NFL championship in New Orleans on Feb. 3, said a source who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The company declined to comment on the timing of the new phones arriving in stores, other than to indicate it is on track to deliver BlackBerry 10 in the first quarter of 2013 and is planning marketing and advertising campaigns to support the launch.
In a statement on Monday, Waterloo, Ont.-based RIM said that the BlackBerry10 will debut simultaneously in multiple countries on Jan. 30. The company said more details on features, prices and availability will be announced at the event, which will be staged at cities likely including Toronto and New York.
The lack of specifics has spurred online speculation that the new phone won’t be on available for purchase until March.
With the new BlackBerry 10 to be unveiled early next year, Waterloobased Research In Motion will introduce new features, including a revamped operating system, and a diverse app store as the company competes in the highly competitive smartphone market. Moving past its popularization of wireless email is crucial as RIM seeks to re-establish itself as a mobile computing powerhouse, said Kevin Restivo, a Toronto-based tech analyst with IDC. The company seems on the right path, he added. “The mobile device game, the market, has evolved into less about needs and speeds (and more) about the experiences you have with the phone,” he said. “The device they’re offering, it addresses many of the shortcomings of BlackBerrys of the past.” BlackBerry Flow will allow users to seamlessly navigate between open applications in BlackBerry Hub, a central location users can access with a screen swipe to peek into emails, notifications and event reminders without having close apps. The new devices will also have an adaptive keyboard that will learn how you write to improve typing speed and accuracy. Another new feature dubbed BlackBerry Balance will allow users to separate their business use from their personal use. Business apps and data will be kept in a separate profile from personal apps, and information and will be encrypted and secure. “On the average smartphone it can be a tedious process,” said Car- mi Levy, an independent tech analyst based in London, Ont. “What RIM has done with BlackBerry 10, they’ve gotten away from the appcentric way of working. The apps work relatively seamlessly.”
The number of apps available and the quality of those apps, said Restivo, still has to be proven by RIM. With Apple and Android phones dominating the market, many app developers have abandoned BlackBerry in favour of the bigger market shares. BlackBerry will never win the “app arms race,” Levy said, but the focus RIM has put on quality over quantity could work to its advantage.
“It’s realized how critical developer support is to the success,” Levy said. “RIM is putting its money where its mouth is in getting developers on board. It’s putting huge amounts of resources to the developing community and getting them excited, and committed, to the platform.”
RIM has launched Built for BlackBerry, an incentive-based certification program, to spur original apps for the new device under quality guidelines. This, said Levy, will give developers a push to create apps for the new device.