2010 is a year when the competition in the smartphone market becomes extremely intense and even fierce. Google’s Android replaced BlackBerry and iPhone and became the #1 smartphone platform in terms of device shipments. Apple announced the iPhone 3 and iPhone 4 and entered the tablet market with the launch of the revolutionary iPad product. As the former No. 1 in the smartphone market, while still dominating the business market, RIM needs to respond and must quickly respond to the challenge from Google and Apple in the consumer market. Looking back, I have to say that RIM responded quite well in my personal opinion.
As a formal response to longstanding criticism of BlackBerry’s clumsy browser performance, RIM announced the 6.0 operating system with an integrated Webkit-based web browser. It is quite stable and renders content very fast. Some of its ACID tests even outperform the Android and iPhone browser. OS 6.0 ships with BlackBerry Torch, which is the first BlackBerry to have a full QWERTY keyboard and touch screen. It provides the hybrid user experience of both worlds and significantly bridges the user experience gap between BlackBerry and iPhone.
RIM also realized that to set BlackBerry apart from other smartphones, there had to be something unique and different. So unlike Andriod and iPhone which are more focused on multimedia, RIM decided to make BlackBerry focused on communication. RIM wants to give customers the impression that BlackBerry is the best smartphone for communicating with people through email, instant messaging and social networking. BlackBerry already has the most secure end-to-end push email facility. BB Messenger is becoming the preferred way for BB customers to communicate with each other. A social feed application is added to OS 6.0, which integrates RSS feed reader, Twitter, Facebook, My Space, Google talk, Yahoo Messenger, Windows Live Message, AIM in one application and BlackBerry user will never feel easier to manage and track. multiple social resources.
RIM decides not to limit itself to the smartphone market, but to enter the newly emerging tablet market by announcing the BlackBerry Playbook. This product is aimed squarely at the iPad, hoping to remedy all the shortcomings of the iPad and provide the same or even better user experience. It will have built-in support for Adobe Flash with USB and HDMI interface, which the iPad lacks. Its 7-inch size is much slower than the 10-inch iPad and is small enough to fit in your pocket. It was bundled with the existing BlackBerry smartphone with BlueTooth as a BlackBerry extension and the customer does not need to pay an additional service fee to the carrier if they already have a BlackBerry data plan. It also has WIFI capability so the customer can use it like a tablet even if they don’t have a BlackBerry. It really looks like a promising product and should be well received by the market when it is released in early 2011.
However, RIM continues to strengthen the enterprise market in 2010. BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5.0 was released in early 2010, taking device manageability and enterprise data mobility to the next level. BlackBerry Moblie Voice Service (MVS) integrated the desk phone extension to BlackBerry so that the customer can receive and make phone calls through their desk phone extension from their BlackBerry on the go. BlackBerry clients for enterprise applications like SAP CRM, IBM Lotus Connection, Microsoft SharePoint, were released to give BlackBerry customers a native BlackBerry experience instead of accessing those sites, databases through the browser. Although Andriod and iPhone continue to try to penetrate the enterprise market as well, they still have a long way to go to provide the same capability that RIM offers to enterprise customers today.
Overall, 2010 is a transit year for RIM. Up front, we see RIM launch the best BlackBerry of all time, Torch. Under the hood, RIM is struggling to set itself up for greater success. In the future, I think RIM will continue to bring more exciting products to the smartphone and tablet market. Hello Google and Apple! The game starts! For more information and to find these products, visit: www.blackberrycomplete.com