Is Blackberry Back?

For most of the last decade the telecommunications company Research in Motion (RIM) led a worldwide smartphone charge with it's series of Blackberry devices. In the past two years, however, RIM's revenue stream has been cut in half and their staggering profits have turned into substantial losses. Can anything save this struggling company?

The Canadian-based RIM has rebranded and is now known by the more recognizable handle, Blackberry. The Blackberry z10 comes equipped with Blackberry 10, the manufacturer's newest and most dynamic operating system to date. While Blackberry dreams of competing with Apple, Samsung, Nokia, and other top of the line cell phone manufacturers, they must first prove that their questionable business and marketing decisions over the past few years are behind them.

As mentioned above, the all-new Blackberry z10 comes equipped with the equally-new Blackberry 10 OS. BB10 is the first operating system created by Blackberry that supports a touch screen display. In fact, there are no buttons anywhere to be found on the face of the device. The only tactile buttons are the power toggle at the top of the device and the volume rocker with integrated voice command button on the right side.

The phone is unlocked with a swipe from bottom. Like many of the smartphones available today, most of the commands are run by a series of swipes and gestures. Some of the new options that BB10 features include: an on-screen keyboard that makes typing easier by suggesting what the next word in the sentence sequence will be and allowing the user to swipe the word up to the message. Another new feature BB10 has is when a user takes a picture, it doesn't just take a stand alone photo. Instead, it takes a burst of pictures and lets the user to pick from a short timeline the ideal moment.

The z10's case is made of hardened plastic with a detachable dimpled-rubber backing that allows users to access the 1,800 mAmp battery and the removable micro SD card for additional memory. The handset weighs 4.83 oz and features a 768 x 1280 resolution with a 4.2-inch, multitouch-capable display. The internal hardware includes a 1.5 gigahertz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon s4 CPU and 2GB of onboard ram. All-in-all these are impressive specs for a first generation smartphone offering. The problem is that the Blackberry z10 is not competing against first generation smartphones. Blackberry says that the Blackberry World App store will have 70,000 apps by the time it launches in the U.S. This figure is higher than any of the other apps stores had when their supported devices launched. Then again, BB10 is significantly late to the party.

Blackberry (then RIM) was able to get to the top of the smartphone market by it's predominant utilization by corporate and public sector employees. In fact, the sitting President of the United States, Barrack Obama, is well known to be, "addicted to his Blackberry". The Blackberry z10 allows for mode changes between business and personal, but doesn't go as far as some of the other phones on the market with the personalization of the device. The Blackberry z10 and Blackberry 10 OS are great for professional users. It is extremely conceivable that companies looking to add a dynamic mobile element to their business would chose the z10.

Overall, the z10 is a nice phone with some cool features that you can't find anywhere else. But are these features enough to scrap your current handset? It's not likely.

If your business wants more information about how to incorporate mobile devices, such as the Blackberry z10, or how to manage your the data your employees can access call SMART Services at 586 258-0650 . The integration of Mobile Devices in some fashion can effectively add to your employees' efficiency and productivity, while increasing employee morale. The IT professionals at SMART Services can assist you in making an informed choice on how best to manage your company's technology.