BlackBerry goes with the flow

This morning, I awaited the Research in Motion (RIM) BlackBerry World Conference keynote webcast with much anticipation. As of late, the company has really struggled to compete against the breadth of the Android-based smartphones and depth of the Apple iOS and their loyal users. So I was eager to see if there would be any “come to Jesus” moments in which RIM would admit its shortcomings and promise to move forward with a clear strategy. Well, that really didn’t happen. In fact, RIM’s CEO Thorsten Heins began the conference talking about how BlackBerry users are “people who live for a purpose.” He said that RIM’s wireless technology has allowed BB users to be more agile and nimble and more productive. There were many superlatives thrown around and Heins even touted on BlackBerry users compared to other smartphone users:

I don't really know the details of data points he quoted but perhaps this is a global view or includes all mobile phones. To be sure, there was no mention of loss of marketshare, decline of shareholder confidence, people trading in BlackBerry’s for Android or iPhones, etc. I understand that the company needs to motivate the industry and be stoked about the future but a reality check can provide a clean slate (to some extent) in order to move forward.

Nonetheless, the audience received a quite impressive sampling of some new things coming this year via BlackBerry 10,  the new platform, that will enable the 77 million BlackBerry users to achieve even more success.

The head of software portfolio at RIM, Vivek Bharwaj, gave a sneak peak at some of the upcoming enhancements to the platform, saying that BB10 was all about flow and “floating through menus.” There were a few pretty cool new features. He showed what he called glancing gestures in which several applications are open at the same time and the end user can easily maneuver between the applications. 

The camera technology was incredible in that it allows a user to never “miss a magic moment.” You can essentially rewind to capture the photo prior to someone squinting or looking away. It was quite impressive.

RIM--once known exclusivley for the BlackBerry  external keyboard--highlighted a pretty slick touchscreen keyboard on the new BB10. It’s a personalized keyboard that captures your algorithms so it learns how you type. Also, for one figure typing, it has a function in which a user can simply swipe the words and move them into the text screen.

There were other interesting announcements that included:

• BlackBerry Mobile Fusion, the device management on premise solution will be offered as a hosted or managed solution as well as in the cloud later this year.
• A connected car powered by QNX.
• There was also a demo of Citrix Mobile Office solution which was a way to combine many office devices (tablet, PC, laptop, mobile phone) into one device via the Citrix receiver application.

Related Report:

• Mobile Devices and Applications: Integrating with the Enterprise

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Kate Pearce is a Research Strategist and Sr. Consultant at Compass Ingellience where she participates in custom consulting projects and develops content for the Device Reuse and Recycling subscription and other device-related research. You can contact Kate at kpearce@compassintelligence.com