With an expanding app platform, the Canadian device maker now looks to regain the market share
The mood was somber about 12 months ago when erstwhile Research In Motion took the bull by the horns to announce a new platform based on QNX. Its epitaph was written all over the place with numerous analysts crowing about Z10 being dead on arrival. With a historic low of stock and goodwill in the mainstream press, BlackBerry, reinvented and clawed its way back. Z10 and then followed by it?s QWERTY cousin, Q10 have won over the naysayers; implicitly the same tech press that sings paeans about Android and iOS. With an expanding app platform, the just concluded BlackBerry Live in Orlando, reflected the company in a different light. BlackBerry was truly reinvigorated. It now seeks the crown that rightfully belongs to it.
It has been previously mentioned in these columns that embeddable OS, QNX, is the perfect strategy for regaining the market share. In the Orlando conference, it showed off concept Bentley, with its in car navigation system hooked to BlackBerry 10. It could connect to the BBM video and the user could talk and drive. Home automation systems and entertainment devices seem to be next since they have not see any innovation in a long time. Devices running BlackBerry 10 can become self-aware. Imagine walking into your room and your mobile device alone becomes the unique key, a remote for your television and perhaps a climate control system for your home. The possibilities are only limited by imagination where the device, based on QNX, itself becomes the network.
Another significant announcement was opening up of BlackBerry Messenger for Android and iOS, a superior interlaced communications network that cannot be surpassed by anything else yet on the mobile platform. This is their perfect Trojan horse strategy. It also launched BBM Channels, currently in beta, which is similar to Tumblr and Twitter rolled into one. Voice calls, video and screen sharing between BlackBerry 10 based devices remains superlative surpassing Skype.
As expected, true multitasking allows the author to send important emails, share the screen for any projects and speeds up the decision-making. This author strongly discourages to use WhatsApp. Although popular cross platform client, its availability on Z10 was an after thought; it is buggy, lacks a proper interface with the Hub and is annoying to the core. There is enough evidence that it is insecure. This author is forced to use it for his close associates those who are on competing platforms.
BBM Money, as a payment method, has been soft launched in Indonesia where BBM is wildly popular. BlackBerry has deep links with the carriers and once it figures out internet telephony with termination charges, it could piggy ride on the existing platform to spite Skype (and Microsoft) right in its face. It is speculative but a tantalising thought; Microsoft could bleed on its white elephant because contrary to its expectations, Skype has not been able to add any value to its portfolio. BlackBerry seeks to grab a mind share for a mobile market that has been underserved and challenge the incumbents in the process.
Enterprise has been the focus on BlackBerry, right from the start. The Enterprise Server was upgraded to 10.1. Special sessions to interact with the governments were held which emphasised the mobility options inclusive of centralised and remote management of the devices. As it is known, BlackBerry uses its proprietary BlackBerry Balance that allows its users to maintain work and personal profiles. Work files and data cannot be accessed from the personal profile making it easier for the user to avoid two devices. BlackBerry also emphasised about data security, specifically, in the age of bring your own device (BYOD). However, this author is cagey about using Android or iOS based devices because their security can easily be compromised. BlackBerry Z10 is the only device that exceeds FIPS based classification. Of course, it boils down to company?s access policies, how they allow critical data to reside on user?s devices that are vulnerable to attacks.
Among the other highlights was launch of Q5, a device meant for the emerging markets. There is no word on the final pricing but it is the first low cost access device for countries like India. BlackBerry is rumoured to launch six new devices this year. There has been no word on its tablet initiatives so far, however, reportedly a 10-inch PlayBook is in the works. BlackBerry visualises the mobile markets to grow instead of other computing devices. Interestingly, game controllers for Z10 were also on display.
We are likely to see and hear from them as it hits the ground running for new products. An update to the Z10 review, featured earlier in these columns, is also due as soon as the OS is updated to 10.1 on the author?s device.
The writer is a practicing doctor with keen interest in technology