Friday, November 16, 2012

NewsCard Week 3: Blackberry boss - don't underestimate us


NewsCard Week 3 - 13 Nov 2012
 
Blackberry boss - don't underestimate us


Everyone knows Blackberry. First released as an e-mail pager by Research In Motion (RIM) in 1999, the 200 millionth Blackberry smartphone was shipped in 2012.

Thorsten Heins, recently-installed CEO of RIM, tells us about the manufacturing changes and restructuring initiatives at Blackberry.

 Last week, the New York Times suggested Blackberry owners were ashamed of their devices. In the city where the Blackberry was once such a status symbol, this was quite an aspersion. Mr Heins, however, dismissed the article citing 80 million satisfied Blackberry users worldwide. Furthermore, he sees huge growth and commitment outside the United States. The problem is, though, seemingly no growth or commitment within the US with figures in the smartphone market falling this year.

 The Blackberry brand is still respected across the developing world but not so much now in Europe and the US. The Blackberry 10, however, may be about to change this.
 As Mr Heins demonstrates, Blackberry 10’s Flow allows the user to move between apps such as e-mail or social network sites without returning to a home screen. The major selling point, though, is the Blackberry 10’s touchscreen. The down point, though, must be the availability of the touchscreen Blackberry 10 – not until early next year! Meanwhile, everyone else is choosing Android or Apple phones.

Mr Heins remains unconcerned, pointing out Blackberry 10 is not just another update but a whole new mobile computing platform to regain RIM’s US market share.

Summarised by Patcharaporn Boonkerd ID 5519505

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