RIM Officially Launches BlackBerry 10; Too Little Too Late or Good Competition?

[dgstorm]

One of the big tech announcements for today is not Android related, but could potentially still affect the mobile industry. Research in Motion officially launched the BlackBerry 10 OS along with the BlackBerry Z10 all-touchscreen phone and the BlackBerry Q10 with QWERTY keyboard phone. For the most part, it looks like RIM has been working hard to iron out the kinks in their mobile OS, although most of the preliminary reviews across the web all say it is much better than the past BB OS, but it still lacks polish and useful apps.

The other problem industry pundits are finding with the new product, isn't the software or the hardware, it's the fact that RIM brought out a high-end product with a high-end carrier contract price. There seems to be an indirect consensus amongst journalists that RIM should have followed Microsoft's lead by offering a cheaper option at first with a much lower subsidized price of below $100, or perhaps even Free. That way, RIM could potentially draw in new customers just on the value savings alone. By jumping into the market in the high-end it forces consumers to make a choice between BB10 and the Android or iPhone they have already grown accustomed to. At a cheaper price point, it might be easier to justify taking that risk, but at $150-200 dollars, most folks will think twice.

At this point, it is beginning to look like the best the BB10 OS can hope for is fighting Microsoft for "table scraps left on the floor" from Android and iOS. Of course, just because some journalist shared his/her opinion doesn't necessarily mean the market will translate that perspective into reality directly. One could argue that the beginning of the Android OS lacked polish and useful apps too, but we can see how that turned out. If RIM can truly reinvent itself, this new transformation might just put them back in the race.

What do you think? Is it too late for RIM, or could we finally be seeing a worthy third competitor in the mobile OS landscape?

 

[gflam]

I actually wrote 5 BlackBerry apps for this release for a company out in Washington. They did do something pretty interesting for this release where you can port Android APKs to BlackBerry BARs which will run flawlessly on the BlackBerry devices. You can convert an apk at apk2bar.unker.net and then they went a step further and I think it was $150 they offered to Android developers if you ported your app over for this release. They saw a huge influx of Android ports due to the program and because the ability to do this is there.

So in the end their app market is now top notch since they saw so many ports they actually had to go and hire a lot more people to man the approval process since they underestimated it.

 

[johnomaz]

If it is a good OS and with what gflam said, I have to wonder if businesses will migrate back to it. BB has a long standing relationship with businesses.

 

[xeene]

rim stock has tanked today, obviously for a reason. as far as i know, most government and non profit organizations have or are switching to ios.

i work for a non profit health system(a few dozen hospitals and clinics) and we have switched from bb to ios years ago.

i'll give rim two years before they're either bought out or bankrupt.

 

[Captmilk]

Looks good, not android good, but a good a tempt. The thing Rim has going for them is all the corporate businesses that already currently use BB phones and BB servers.

 

[Captmilk]

Also more competition is better for everyone.

 

[androidlearner]

I think even if this is a decent release it may be too little to late...

Sent from RAZR Maxx on JB

 

[gflam]

rim stock has tanked today, obviously for a reason. as far as i know, most government and non profit organizations have or are switching to ios.

i work for a non profit health system(a few dozen hospitals and clinics) and we have switched from bb to ios years ago.

i'll give rim two years before they're either bought out or bankrupt.

I don't personally follow stocks a little young still ha but according to my dad at least they have been rising a lot up until this point. I'm pretty curious though nonetheless to see how they do with the new release. I honestly think they might be coming back maybe not to Android level but I could see them still surpassing the falling iPhone

 

[akhenax]

you can port Android APKs to BlackBerry BARs which will run flawlessly on the BlackBerry devices. You can convert an apk at apk2bar.unker.net and then they went a step further and I think it was $150 they offered to Android developers if you ported your app over for this release.

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. :blackberry: :heart: :greendroid:

 

[jayman350]

I don't personally follow stocks a little young still ha but according to my dad at least they have been rising a lot up until this point. I'm pretty curious though nonetheless to see how they do with the new release. I honestly think they might be coming back maybe not to Android level but I could see them still surpassing the falling iPhone

haven't followed it myself either. However, if stocks were rising in days leading up to the announcement, and then tanked after the announcement...I'm guessing people weren't exactly thrilled with what they saw.

Competition is good for the consumer, better pricing, better devices, more innovation(as long as apple isn't involved).

 

[Juicemane]

I don't personally follow stocks a little young still ha but according to my dad at least they have been rising a lot up until this point. I'm pretty curious though nonetheless to see how they do with the new release. I honestly think they might be coming back maybe not to Android level but I could see them still surpassing the falling iPhone

the iPhone is failing? Tell me more... Didn't think so.

As for BB10, we still use a BES and have numerous 9900/9930 devices that I am in charge of. We do have a BYOD policy and have several iPhone/Android devices on the company email (Lotus). I look forward to testing the new BB10 devices and will hold my opinion for when the device is in hand (hopefully soon).

Once I get a chance to toy around with them I will let you guys know how I feel in a non-biased way.

 

[liftedplane]

I actually wrote 5 BlackBerry apps for this release for a company out in Washington. They did do something pretty interesting for this release where you can port Android APKs to BlackBerry BARs which will run flawlessly on the BlackBerry devices. You can convert an apk at apk2bar.unker.net and then they went a step further and I think it was $150 they offered to Android developers if you ported your app over for this release. They saw a huge influx of Android ports due to the program and because the ability to do this is there.

So in the end their app market is now top notch since they saw so many ports they actually had to go and hire a lot more people to man the approval process since they underestimated it.

that actually makes me want to try one of these phones out, I loved blackberry for it's email, for how well it worked... I could definitely see them competing again finally... it would be nice to bring more competition to android.

 

[riko540]

Hopefully it will help break up this duopoly that the market seems to be stuck in. I personally never cared for BB devices because everyone I knew that had one always had problems with them. I would like to see them make a comeback though and shake up the market a bit.

 

[lloydstrans]

Really loved BBM even though with every new phone you had to "reconnect" with everybody. Half my time was changing peoples PINs. Circle of friends somebody was always trading in the phones for one that worked. I'll have to check one out, buy one? Never. RIM should hurry up and license BBM out.

aliens don't use razr's, they use obsidian.

 

[MissionImprobable]

The business scene will definitely still be giving this the strong eye. It will be nice if it works out for them, but I haven't seen anything that looks like it will really garner the attention of the majority of Android or iOS users. Sounds like their apps will be getting off to a much stronger start that WP8 though.