A Great Post that Highlights Blackberry 10 Features and Hardware
Thorstein Hein Introducing the New Hardware
The Potential of Blackberry 10
The smartphone market is growing exponentially year over year, which creates an opportunity for Blackberry to obtain crucial market share. Currently, the consumer market is dominated by iOS and Android, but Blackberry has established strong developers relations and has created a solid foundation with their Blackberry 10 operating system. Anecdotally, Blackberry has an opportunity to capture the third market position worldwide, which could lead to significant increases in revenue for the Waterloo based company.
Name Change from Research in Motion to Blackberry
The New Blackberry 10 Keyboard
Personally, I have used the new Blackberry 10 Keyboard and it works very well. The time I spent using the keyboard functions, the user experience was slick and enjoyable. It actually feels like a physical keyboard and is probably the most responsive keyboard I have ever used. Once Senior IT decision makers and management have the opportunity to access the keyboard, I can see them arming their enterprise team with BB10 devices. Take a look at the video below!
Blackberry Global Reach
There is no denying that people in developing nations love their Blackberry’s. As they mature and move towards powerful smartphone devices, Blackberry brand loyalty could propel worldwide market share by capturing majority in countries like Indonesia, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and other growth markets.
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Blackberry is Back, with a New Name, Revamped Brand, and Different Stock Symbol
Isriya Paireepairit via Compfight
Research in Motion has been quite a hot topic in the press. They have lost significant market share within the smartphone sector, but they have managed to make a comeback with Blackberry 10. At an event in New York today, Thorstein Heins announced the launch of the new operating, which marks the comeback of Blackberry against competitors like Android, iOS and Windows 8.
Heins announced that Research in Motion will be changing their name to Blackberry and be traded as BB on the TSX and BBRY on the NASDAQ. This is a big move for Blackberry, who announced Alicia Keys as the Global Creative Director for the Blackberry brand. Alicia Keys said “As global creative director, my goal is to inspire creativity with this platform, and I’m so excited to jump right in.”(source: CBC).
Blackberry has done an excellent job marketing their new operating system. Alicia Keys is set to sing the national anthem at the Superbowl this weekend, which will create strong brand recognition alongside the Superbowl ads for BB10. Anecdotal observations, have been that Blackberry is looking to increase adoption within the next quarter and hopefully obtain a strong third market position amongst smartphone manufacturers.
Read MoreThe Benefits of a BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES)
A diagram explaining BES data flow
Research in Motion has specifically designed their Blackberry Enterprise Server to meet the needs and objectives of enterprise and government organizations, which house an email server and require a high level of information technology control.
Currently RIM is offering two unique security and device management technologies for robust businesses:
- Blackberry Enterprise Server Express offers a solution for businesses that have specific users who require advanced management. (FREE)
View Demo Here via Blackberry.net
Notable Features Include:
- Wireless Synced Calendars
- View, edit, save calendar attachment
- Remote file access, stored remotely on network drives
- Contacts Sync, stays up to date with info on desktop or laptop ect.
- Blackberry Balance is design to differentiate between work and personal information while using Blackberry devices. Blackberry Balance can be applied an employee own device or one that has been provided to them. Personal browsing, social networking and media consumption is kept separate from sensitive work information.
Notable Features Include:
- Personal apps and browsing are kept separate from work files, therefore decreasing the risk of security breaches
- Enables employers to remotely wipe all information or just work information on Blackberry devices. Therefore if an employee is using a personally owned device, data can still be wiped exclusively for work purposes.
- If a user tries to download an application or access a file that may be harmful, the action is not permitted. These settings can be set by the Blackberry Balance system
Infographic: How Much Mobile Data do you Use
Going over your data limit is generally pretty expensive and it can add up in a year. Take a look at this infographic to get an idea how much data you use while consuming media via your mobile device.
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Areas to Address when Determining a Mobile Application Strategy
Sippanont Samchai via Compfight
Before we go into detail I am going to define the difference between a web based application and a native based application.
Web Based Apps
A web based app is browser based and generally run off a URL, but can be added to a home screen of a tablet or smartphone. Written in text rather than binary code. Therefore a little less secure than a native apps. Web based apps are progressing rapidly but have yet to achieve the processing power of native based apps.
Native Based Apps
Native apps are your typical App Store and Google Market apps that can be downloaded, unlike web based apps that run in the browser. Native apps are great for enterprise because they can be loaded on devices and are very user friendly. Also they have offline capabilities. Think of a native app as software rather than a webpage.
Do you need Offline Capabilities?
Generally, if your organization needs offline capabilities and your team if constantly working in the field, than a native based app will best suit your organization needs. Native apps are especially beneficial to industrial, oil and gas, manufacturing organizations that may not have connectivity 100% of the time. Native apps are able to store information gathered during “offline mode” and upload the data to a server once connectivity is restored.
Generally, web apps need connectivity, there are methods that allow browser based apps to store information but they have yet to prove useful for enterprise organizations. Basically, if you need offline capabilities native based is your best bet.
Have you thought about Mobile Commerce?
So…this is a tricky one, because web-apps can be responsive (responsive = automatically adapts to the type of device the web-app is being viewed on i.e. a desktop web-app may look different than the mobile and tablet web app). The intelligence of a web app is able to recognize the device and display a mobile, tablet or desktop optimized web based application. Generally, the user experience is pretty good with web based apps. Cost is generally lower and many major brands are using web based mobile commerce platforms
A native based app offers an immersive experience that is catered to each operating system and downloaded to the device. Therefore the user experience is smoother, much faster and offers the opportunity to reach customers through push notifications. Since the user downloads a native app to their device, mobile commerce providers can market flash sales, new products, and other marketing initiatives through a push notification that offers an immediate call to action.
Are you Considering Leveraging the Capability of the Device…Camera, Calendar, Near Field Communications, GPS, Location Aware Offerings?
If an app is meant to leverage the potential of the device, than a native based mobile strategy would best suit your needs and objectives. Although certain web based techniques are being used to integrate the camera features, GPS and Location aware offerings they are unproven and lack user experience.
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