901am

New Media News Every Morning

Blackberry Torch: What’s Black And White And Red All Over?

By

After launching the Blackberry Torch to the masses, RIM is now allowing new users to purchase their premier smartphone in two additional colors.

However the best news may not be the ability to purchase the device in a different skin, but also at a different price as well.

Best of all, the price has dropped from the original $200 down to just $99 for both the black and the coloured versions. Of course, you’ve been able to pick it up from places other than AT&T for that price for quite some time now, but an AT&T price drop may just mean you can find it for even less elsewhere. (MobileCrunch) [Read more…]

Originally posted on November 8, 2010 @ 2:01 pm

RIM Offering Free Blackberry Playbook’s To Developers?

By

After rebutting Steve Jobs for dismissing Blackberry as a serious mobile contender, Mike Lazaridis (co-CEO of RIM) made a surprising announcement after publicly demoing the Blackberry Playbook abilities (which appears at the end of this video).

RIM President and Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis showcased some amazing BlackBerry PlayBook apps yesterday at the Adobe MAX conference with Kevin Lynch, CTO of Adobe. The above video highlights some of what Mike and Kevin demoed during the keynote, such as the BlackBerry PlayBook’s multimedia capabilities (including web based videos using Adobe Flash), multitasking and the eUnity healthcare application. All apps demoed during the keynote were built by developers working with the BlackBerry Tablet OS SDK for Adobe AIR as part of an early access program. (Blackberry Developer Blog)

Although this move may help the company acquire some developer mind share, its still unclear whether consumers themselves will leap at the chance of owning a Blackberry Tablet, despite the fact that it supports flash (unlike the iPad).

While allowing developers to keep a Blackberry Playbook is a smart move for RIM (as it will help grow RIM’s anemic app store), the company may want to consider allowing developers to “borrow” a Playbook in order to test out their apps (as simulations can only take you so far).

Either way it’s great to see RIM actually demo the device in public, although only time will tell whether the Playbook will help revive RIM’s app store (which currently pales in comparison to Apple’s iPad app store).

Originally posted on October 26, 2010 @ 1:59 pm

Can BBM Aid RIM’s War Against The iPhone?

By

With the Blackberry Torch behind them and the Playbook tablet ahead of them, RIM’s attempts at thwarting Apple’s rise looked pathetic at best (especially when one considers the size of their app store).

However, RIM might be able to slow the bleeding by including one of their greatest assets within the Blackberry OS.

With the BBM Social Platform, developers will be able to tap into their social interactions in BBM to enable real-time, peer-to-peer interactions across their applications. Specifically, developers can leverage the BBM platform to access BBM contacts, user profiles, and groups to build more engaging applications. Furthermore, the BBM APIs will also enable developers to support embedded chats, content sharing, and real-time data sharing between two users of an application. (Blackberry Developers Blog)

Although this is more of a “me too” feature (as it looks very similar to Apple’s Game Center), it should convince a few Blackberry fans to avoid jumping ship upon the iPhone or (worse) an Android device.

Despite the potential of BBM, RIM needs to do a better job of attracting more developers on their platform, and (more importantly) a higher quality of apps available across various Blackberry devices.

Originally posted on September 29, 2010 @ 5:09 pm

RIM To Steve Jobs: Our Playbook Is Better Than Your iPad

By

After Cupertino’s CEO publicly dissed Blackberry’s during his anti-Android speech (the latter which he focused mostly upon), RIM’s co-CEO Jim Balsillie decided to post a response rebutting Steve Jobs claims regarding the folly of 7 inch tablets.

For those of us who live outside of Apple’s distortion field, we know that 7” tablets will actually be a big portion of the market and we know that Adobe Flash support actually matters to customers who want a real web experience. We also know that while Apple’s attempt to control the ecosystem and maintain a closed platform may be good for Apple, developers want more options and customers want to fully access the overwhelming majority of web sites that use Flash. We think many customers are getting tired of being told what to think by Apple. (Inside Blackberry)

Jim Balsille also refuted Apple’s claims of RIM’s declining sales regarding Blackberry devices by pointing out that Apple was comparing its summer quarter to Apple’s fall quarter (as more gadgets sell during the fall than the summer).

As far as the tablet is concerned, whether RIM’s Playbook will be able to challenge the iPad in the future has yet to be seen, although RIM may have difficulty dethroning Apple as other rivals (like the PalmPad and the Chrome Tablet) appearing on the scene in the not so distant future.

Originally posted on October 20, 2010 @ 2:11 pm

6 Ways Blackberry Can Get Its Groove Back

By

With RIM about to unveil their latest Blackberry tomorrow (sporting OS 6), all eyes will be on the smartphone king to see if it can produce a worthy adversary to iPhone 4 and a slew of Android devices.

Although the upcoming Blackberry lacks the ability to make video phone calls (something even Microsoft is adding to its Windows 7 Phone), there is still hope for the Canadian phone company in its quest to retain its dominance (at least in the corporate sector).

While RIM would be smart to continue to innovate in the hardware arena in order to make its phone more attractive (i.e. screen resolution), there are actually 6 ways Blackberry could easily improve its BB device in order to prevent the company from being eclipsed by Apple or Android. [Read more…]

Originally posted on August 2, 2010 @ 1:49 pm