Blackberry Back in the ring
In what many are calling a last-ditch attempt to compete with the growing iPhone and Android markets, Research In Motion (RIM) unveiled five new BlackBerry smartphones based on the BlackBerry 7 operating system (OS) yesterday.
Embattled RIM rolled out two new BlackBerry Bold models (which were announced in May, together with the BlackBerry 7 OS), as well as three new BlackBerry Torch models, in the company’s first overhaul of its handsets since August last year.
“This is the largest global launch of BlackBerry smartphones in our history,” says RIM president and co-CEO Mike Lazaridis, promising faster performance, enhanced browsing and richer multimedia on the new devices.
The BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930 are RIM’s thinnest smartphones to date at 10.5mm, and offer the signature qwerty keyboard, as well as touch-screen display.
The new BlackBerry Torch 9810 builds on the original Torch 9800, combining touch display with a slide-out keyboard. The BlackBerry Torch 9850 and 9860, however, introduce an all-touch design and 3.7-inch display, the largest ever on a BlackBerry smartphone.
Each smartphone also features a 1.2GHz processor, HD video recording, 24-bit high-resolution graphics, and advanced sensors enabling new augmented reality applications such as Wikitude.
This year has been difficult for RIM, as its tablet offering, the PlayBook, struggled to win over consumers, and the company reported bleak financial results for the first quarter. At the time, co-CEO Jim Balsillie said: “The slowdown we saw in the first quarter is continuing into Q2, and delays in new product introductions into the very late part of August is leading to a lower than expected outlook in the second quarter.”
According to reports, following the press conference at which the new devices were unveiled, RIM’s stock rose 5% in Nasdaq stock market trading yesterday.
The company has, however, lost 58% of its stock value this year, and last week announced it was cutting 10% of its global workforce to trim costs, while also reorganising its upper management.
Despite market gains in African and Middle Eastern regions, RIM has been rapidly losing customers in the mature markets to Apple’s iPhone and handsets running Google’s Android software.
In the face of such losses, RIM’s new devices have to make up for a lot of lost ground.
Analyst and MD of World Wide Worx Arthur Goldstuck says RIM needs to understand that its loss of market share in Western markets is directly related to the extent to which its platform is app-friendly.
“They understand the technology of the phones, they understand the business needs, but they don’t seem to have grasped where the hearts and minds of the users have moved,” notes Goldstuck.
“However, there is huge misinformation being put out by the analyst community in the US, which confuses market share with sales. Because the smartphone market is exploding, and BlackBerry sales have not exploded in tandem with it, their overall market share has plummeted, although their sales as such have not.
“The result is that their market value has been punished, and that has placed a pall on the brand that a phone refresh won’t address in its own right.”
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