BlackBerry said this week that launch sales of its new BlackBerry 10-based handsets in Canada and the U.K. have beaten previous company records.

However, the company formerly known as Research In Motion has declined to release actual sales figures.

“In Canada, yesterday was the best day ever for the first day of a launch of a new BlackBerry smartphone. In fact, it was more than 50 percent better than any other launch day in our history in Canada,” the company said on Wednesday in a brief statement attributed to CEO Thorsten Heins.

“In the U.K., we have seen close to three times our best performance ever for the first week of sales for a BlackBerry smartphone.”

In not announcing precise sales figures, the company is taking a cue from competitors in the mobile electronics space.

Amazon has long resisted specifying Kindle sales on a unit basis, instead choosing murkier measurements like a percentage of the tablet market or “more than double” the previous year.

And when Microsoft recently launched its Windows Phone 8-series smartphones, the company proclaimed strong shipments of “over four times higher than they were last year,” but didn’t back up the claim with numbers.

BlackBerry’s Z10 smartphone went on sale in the U.K. on January 31, a day after the company unveiled the device. Sales in Canada began on February 5 and the phone is now beginning a roll-out to other countries as it passes network carrier testing.

A second phone, the Q10, features a keyboard and is due on sale in April.

The company is due to announce quarterly earnings on March 28, when it is expected to specify launch sales and quantify the consumer reaction to the BlackBerry 10 launch.

BlackBerry (BBRY) failed to give specific details at its press event last week regarding the future availability of its new smartphones in the United States. The flagship BlackBerry Z10 smartphone launched in the United Kingdom last Friday, and is scheduled to be released in the coming weeks in Canada and the United Arab Emirates.

The company vaguely announced that the device will be available in the U.S. sometime in March. According to a leaked roadmap obtained by TmoNews, the BlackBerry Z10 may launch on T-Mobile on March 27th. As for pricing, Verizon (VZ) previously announced that the smartphone will be offered for $199 with a new two-year agreement. Interestingly enough, the document also suggests that T-Mobile will launch a Galaxy S III smartphone with LTE capabilities on March 27th or April 3rd. The purported roadmap follows below.

Via tmonews

BlackBerry, as RIM is now known, has announced two phones packing its new BlackBerry 10 operating system. The Q10 and Z10 are both high-end smartphones with a raft of new features.

The difference between the two is mainly that the Z10 is an iPhone-like touchscreen phone, whereas the Q10 is a more traditional BlackBerry with physical keyboard.

Let’s take a look at how the Z10 compares to the iPhone 5.

BlackBerry Z10 Specs

Screen: 1280 x 768 resolution, 356ppi, 4.2-inch
Processor: 1.5 Ghz dual core processor
RAM: 2GB
Storage: 16GB (internal storage) and microSD slot for expandable memory up to 32GB
OS: BlackBerry 10
Camera: 8MP rear-facing, 2MP front-facing
Colours: Available in Black and White
Connectivity: 4G LTE or HSPA+ networks, NFC, micro HDMI
Battery: Up to 10 hours talk time (3G) and Up to 13 days standby time

iPhone 5 Tech Specs

Screen: 1136×640, 326ppi, 4-inch
Processor: A6 1.2 GHz dual core CPU, triple core GPU
RAM: 1GB
Storage: 16, 32, or 64GB
OS: Apple iOS 6.1
Camera: 8MP rear-facing, 1.2MP front-facing
Colours: Black or White
Connectivity: 4G LTE or HSPA+
Battery: Up to 8 hours talk time (3G) and up to 225 hours (9 days) standby time

The specifications for the BlackBerry Z10 are similar to the Q10, and both are a notch above the iPhone 5. However, we’ve seen with several devices that simply packing hardware into a box means nothing without the software to make use of it. Even then, most users don’t really care too much about benchmark tests, or processor speeds, as long as the device functions perfectly adequately and offers a good feature set.

BlackBerry devices are underwent extensive testing and benchmarking at Macworld last week, and we’ll be able to report in more depth shortly. Even so, there are certainly plenty of new features that will give Apple something to worry about.

BlackBerry Hub

Stay close to what’s important — keep everything that matters to you in one place. Simply peek into the BlackBerry Hub from any app with just a swipe and flow effortlessly in and out of your messages and conversations.

BlackBerry Keyboard

The new touchscreen BlackBerry Keyboard provides an effortless typing experience. It learns your writing style and suggests words to help you type faster, more accurately and with the least amount of effort. And if you tend to mistype certain letters, the keyboard will remember and subtly adjust to make sure you hit the right key.

BBM Video with Screen Share

Switch your BBM chat to a BBM Video1 conversation and talk face-to-face with those that matter to you most. Use the new Screen Share feature to show photos, your browser, or review a business document together. You can even share the view from your camera. It’s an amazing new BBM experience for BlackBerry 10 smartphones.

Camera with Time Shift mode

Pinpoint and adjust elements of your picture to get the photo you want. Time Shift mode captures milliseconds before and after your photo – so you can scroll back on the dial to open one friend’s eyes and then forward to catch your other friend smiling, before combining it all to create the perfect picture.

Members of the media wait for Research in Motion (RIM) CEO Thorsten Heins to officially unveil the BlackBerry 10 mobile platform as well as two new devices January 30, 2013 at the New York City Launch at Pier 36. Blckberry is hoping to make a comeback with the release of its lonng overdue BlackBerry 10, a new operating system that many analysts believe is RIM's last chance to become relevant again.











bY JuLee (Technewswebsite)

BlackBerry last night launched BlackBerry 10 across the world – dubbed ‘the re-designed, re-engineered, and re-invented BlackBerry’ platform that creates a new and unique mobile computing experience.

Available on two new smartphones, the BlackBerry Z10 (all-touch) and BlackBerry Q10 (touch with physical keyboard) smartphones powered by BlackBerry 10 offer a faster, smarter and smoother experience than any other BlackBerry.

BlackBerry unveiled the new BlackBerry Z10 and BlackBerry Q10 smartphones at events held simultaneously in New York, Toronto, London, Paris, Dubai, and Johannesburg.

“Today sees a re-invented BlackBerry launching an entirely new mobile experience,” said Thorsten Heins, President and CEO of BlackBerry.

“We are thrilled to be introducing BlackBerry 10 on the new BlackBerry Z10 and BlackBerry Q10 smartphones, to deliver a faster, smarter experience that continuously adapts to your needs.  Every feature, every gesture, and every detail in BlackBerry 10 is designed to keep you moving.”

Highlights of BlackBerry 10

BlackBerry 10 is a robust and reliable platform that is smooth and responsive. It has a modern design and a gesture-based interface that is highly discoverable. It is designed to support, learn, and adapt to the way you work and share with features like:

• The ever present BlackBerry Hub, which is a single place to manage all your conversations whether personal or work email, BBM messages, social media updates or notifications, and the ability to “peek” into the BlackBerry Hub from anywhere, so you’re always only one swipe away from what matters to you.

• BlackBerry Flow, where the BlackBerry 10 experience excels by enabling features and apps to flow seamlessly together, helping you complete the task at hand effortlessly and efficiently. For example, you can tap on an attendee listed for a meeting to see their latest tweet or LinkedIn profile. Or tap the thumbnail of a picture you just took to launch the Picture editor and quickly apply a transformation or filter, then instantly share it with your contacts.

• A keyboard that understands and adapts to you, that learns what words you use and how you use them, then offers them up to you so you can type faster and more accurately.

• BBM (BlackBerry Messenger), which allows you to share things with the people that matter to you in an instant. BBM in BlackBerry 10 introduces the ability to share your screen with another BlackBerry 10 contact.

• BlackBerry Balance technology, which elegantly separates and secures work applications and data from personal content on BlackBerry devices.

• Time Shift, an astonishing camera feature that lets you capture a group shot where everyone is smiling with their eyes wide open. Story Maker, which lets you bring a collection of photos and videos together, along with music and effects, to produce an HD movie that you can instantly share.

• The new BlackBerry 10 browser, which sets the industry benchmark for HTML5 support on smartphones, is incredibly fast. Scrolling or zooming is fluid and responsive. The browser includes many advanced features, supports multiple tabs, lets you browse sites privately, includes a reader mode, and integrates with the platform for easily sharing content.

• BlackBerry Remember, which combines memos, tasks and much more into a single experience. It helps you organise and manage information you have on your smartphone around projects or ideas, letting you collect content such as websites, emails, photos, documents, and other files, and then like a To-Do list, lets you create tasks, assign due dates, and track your progress. If your BlackBerry 10 smartphone is set up with a work account, your Microsoft Outlook Tasks will automatically be wirelessly synced with BlackBerry Remember.  If you have configured an Evernote account with your smartphone, BlackBerry Remember will sync Evernote workbooks as well.

• BlackBerry Safeguard technology that helps protect what is important to you, and the business you work for.

• Built-in support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync so your BlackBerry Z10 or BlackBerry Q10 smartphone can be simply connected and managed as other ActiveSync devices in a company, or enabled with BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 to gain secure access to work email, “behind the firewall” applications and data, and benefit from other security and enterprise mobility management features.

• The BlackBerry World storefront, which now includes 70,000 BlackBerry 10 apps. In addition, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Foursquare apps for BlackBerry 10 are pre-installed, and BlackBerry 10 customers will have access to leading applications from across the globe. Leading application providers including Disney, Cisco, Foursquare, Skype and Rovio have committed to the platform.

“At Foursquare, we are extremely excited to launch our new BlackBerry 10 application and to continue developing on the platform,” said Dennis Crowley, Co-Founder and CEO of Foursquare.

“Our team built the app just for BlackBerry 10, and the result is an amazing Foursquare Explore experience to help people around the world make the most of where they are.”

“We’re delighted to bring Angry Birds Star Wars to BlackBerry fans around the world,” said Petri Järvilehto, EVP of Games, at Rovio.

“It’s a great platform that gives a fantastic gaming experience, so fans can experience the struggle of Rebel Birds vs. Imperial Pigs to the fullest!”

“Bringing Where’s My Water? and Where’s My Perry? to BlackBerry 10 smartphones will introduce some of Disney’s most popular mobile games to new audiences,” said Tim O’Brien, VP of Business Development, Disney Games.

“The new BlackBerry 10 platform is an exciting opportunity to expand Disney’s network of mobile players.”

“We’re proud to extend Cisco’s WebEx technology to the BlackBerry 10 platform letting customers of any size join, start, view content, and stay connected to WebEx meetings right from their BlackBerry 10 smartphone,” said Raj Gossain, Vice President of Product Management, Cloud Collaboration Applications Technology Group at Cisco.

“Our customers access Cisco collaboration capabilities, such as instant messaging, IP voice calling and conferencing on BlackBerry smartphones to stay connected anywhere, any time, and with anyone. RIM and Cisco have worked together to develop an application that is user friendly and meets the needs of our global customers.”

“We are excited about our plans to bring Skype to smartphones running the brand new BlackBerry 10 platform,” said Bob Rosin, VP & GM of Business Development for Microsoft’s Skype division.

“We are working closely with BlackBerry to ensure Skype runs great on BlackBerry 10 devices. This will give BlackBerry 10 users a great Skype experience, including free voice and video calling, sending instant messages and text messages, sharing photos, videos and files, and calling to landlines and mobiles at Skype’s low rates.”

BlackBerry Z10 and BlackBerry Q10 Smartphones

The new BlackBerry 10 smartphones are elegant and distinctive, and the fastest, most advanced BlackBerry smartphones yet. They feature 1.5 Ghz dual core processors with 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage, and an expandable memory card slot. They include the latest enhancements in high density pixel and screen technology to display clear, sharp, and incredibly vivid images. Both feature a micro HDMI out port for presentations, and advanced sensors such NFC (near field communications) to support mobile payments and the exchange of information with a tap of the smartphone. They also have a removable battery.

The BlackBerry Z10 and BlackBerry Q10 smartphones will each come in White and Black.

A range of accessories for the new BlackBerry 10 smartphones, including the new BlackBerry Mini Stereo Speaker as well as a variety of carrying and charging solutions including a unique charger that provides on-the-go charging, will be available from select carriers and retailers.

Pricing and Availability

Worldwide, we have several key markets that are revealing pricing and availability today, including the UK, Canada and UAE.

• In the UK, the BlackBerry Z10 will be available beginning tomorrow on pay monthly contracts and pre-pay plans from EE, O2, Vodafone, Phones 4u, BT, 3UK and the Carphone Warehouse. BlackBerry Z10 smartphones will be available fully subsidised on competitive monthly pay contracts. Price points will vary according to carriers and retail partners.

• In Canada, the BlackBerry Z10 will be available on February 5th. Pricing will vary by carrier partner, but it will retail for around $149.99 on a 3 year contract.

• In the UAE, the BlackBerry Z10 will be available on February 10th. Pricing will vary by carrier partner, but unsubsidised it will retail for AED 2,599.

• In the U.S. market, we expect availability with most carriers for the BlackBerry Z10 to be in March. Today, U.S. carriers will start announcing pre-registration and price plans.

JuLee (Technewswebsite)

The company, which once ruled the mobile messaging market with handsets that encouraged such devoted use that they were compared to crack cocaine, has seen a rough few years. It’s market share, down by more than half in the last year alone, has collapsed as it failed to match increasingly attractive touchscreen smartphones and the changing demands of consumers.

BlackBerry 10 is meant to change all that.

“This is a huge launch for RIM,” said Ted Schadler, Principal Analyst, Forrester Research. “They held off shipping it until it was ready, they made sure there were no bugs. Clearly they wanted to make sure they had the best product in the hands of the right people and the most carriers. That tells you a lot about what’s riding on this for them.”

“This product has to work for them, it’s make or break time for RIM,” he said.

So far, the response from those who have used the new software and the first phones has been good.

“It’s a really positive step for the company,” said Ramon Llamas, an analyst with IDC. “It puts BlackBerry on the same level as Apple, Android and Windows Phone and brings them into 2013 rather than being stuck back in 2010.”

One of the areas that’s getting a lot of the early attention is the phone’s messaging hub, which brings together emails, Facebook messages, Twitter direct messages, SMS and all the other messaging options in the phone. All messages can be read and replied to from the hub, which is available from any screen on the phone.

“On another platform, you’d have to open those applications to respond,” said Schadler. “RIM has it so that with a swipe, you can peek into the hub.”

The phone’s divide between personal and work modes has also been praised. Security settings in work mode can be completely determined and customised by the employer, corporate email can be accessed and company intranet sites visited all without mixing any of that data with the personal mode. In the latter mode, the user is free to do whatever they want on the phone, and there shouldn’t be any impact on the potentially confidential data stored on the work side of the device.

“I liked the navigation,” said Chris Hazelton, an analyst with The 451 Group, who said he’d used one of the first handsets that RIM will unveil next week with partner Verizon Wireless. “It’s different. It’s a good way to manage multiple applications and I didn’t notice any lag. I was very impressed with the performance of the device.”

The messaging and work mode is playing to one of RIM’s strengths: it’s long relationship with corporate IT departments. Those IT departments have to deploy RIM’s BlackBerry Enterprise Server to run the corporate BlackBerry platform and, for the first time, the software also supports management of devices running Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android.

“I’m still not sold on this strategy,” said Hazleton. “It’s not like RIM had a choice in not supporting iOS and Android, but that opens the door to supporting other devices in BlackBerry shops.”

Enterprise IT departments are also fielding advances from Microsoft these days, which just launched its Windows Phone 8 OS. Microsoft, like RIM, has deep roots in enterprise IT work and with the BlackBerry 10 launch the two companies will battling for third place in the smartphone market.

“That’s a hard race to handicap,” said Schadler. “Unless you look at the size of the companies, the amount of money they can spend and the amount of money they can stand to lose. And that’s when it gets tough for RIM.”

Stockholders appear bullish on the chances of BlackBerry 10. The company’s share price has more than doubled since mid-September, when it reversed a slide that had been going on for months, but at around US$17, it still remains well below the high of June 2008 when it was trading above $140.

For the coming year, IDC predicts RIM’s market share will fall slightly to 4.4 percent of the smartphone market. Phone shipments will rise from just over 40 million in 2013 to just over 58 million in 2016, said IDC. But that’s slightly behind overall smartphone market growth, so RIM’s market share is forecast to slide further to 4.2 percent in 2016, the research company said.

Research In Motion has hinted that two new BlackBerry 10-based handsets will be released in February, following the January 30 launch of the much-hyped operating system.

RIM is expected to unveil the phones at an event in New York City on Wednesday and will begin promoting BlackBerry 10 to consumers the following Sunday, when it will air a TV commercial during the Super Bowl in the United States.

The sporting event attracts one of the largest TV audiences of the year in America, and companies pay millions of dollars for a 30-second advertising spot, underscoring how important it is for RIM that its new BlackBerry platform will be a hit. The same commercial will also air in Canada, RIM’s home country.

In announcing its publicity plans on Friday, RIM also hinted at when the phones will be available to consumers. It said the TV spot “kicks off a week of worldwide launch activity for RIM’s BlackBerry 10 platform, along with the first two devices to run on the new platform.”

If the commercial marks the start of a week-long buildup to the launch, that would put the North American release of the phones at roughly the start of the second week in February.

The reference to two devices jibes with what the rumour mill has predicted for next week’s event – the large-screen Z10 and a second device with a physical keyboard. Images supposedly of the Z10 have begun appearing on BlackBerry enthusiast sites.

Time sure as heck passes by quickly, and we are rather fired up for the BlackBerry event that is happening in New York City later at the end of this month, where the all-new BlackBerry 10 operating system will be unveiled, along with accompanying smartphones from RIM which will, hopefully, usher in a new golden age for the Canadian company after being on the decline for a few years already. It seems that someone managed to pick up an interesting photo on Instagram which has been named a cryptic “twinsyoulose”, but depicts dummy units for the BlackBerry Z10.

One of the BlackBerry Z10 dummy units would come in black, while the other sports a white color, and over the weekend, we do expect to see more and more spy shots of the BlackBerry Z10 arrive, in addition to dummy units, of course. It is expected that the BlackBerry Z10 will not cost more than $200 with a contract, which means it has been priced to move. Exciting times are ahead for RIM and the smartphone industry on the whole, no doubt about that.

It’s been a long time coming, but the dawn of a new RIM age is finally upon us: the Canadian company is launching its next-generation BlackBerry 10 platform and accompanying handsets on 30 January. (Though, with all the delays we’ve endured, you couldn’t fault us for refusing to believe it until we see it.) As we hold our breath for the impending unveiling, we’re digging deep into just what the OS will mean for RIM in particular and for the mobile market in general.

Accordingly, this is Technewswesite’s ongoing home for all BlackBerry 10-related content, to be updated as more details inevitably surface over the coming days. We’ll be stocking the page with relevant news, commentary and reviews as they emerge, so stay tuned for the latest RIM and BB10 reports.

23 January 2013

Things are beginning to look up for RIM, with chief executive Thorsten Heins’ public comments about the company’s strategic options moving forward having seemingly boosted the market’s confidence in the Waterloo, Ontario-based firm. Speaking to German newspaper Die Welt, Heins said RIM is mulling over its options, which include possibly selling off its hardware division or, as has been alluded to in the past, licensing out its software to other manufacturers. While Heins insisted that the priority for now is ensuring the successful launch of BlackBerry 10 next week, that didn’t stop the market from registering its approval - in New York, shares of RIM shot up 17 per cent after Heins’ comments, while the stock jumped 11 per cent in Toronto.

22 January 2013

We’ve exhausted many brain cells wondering what changes RIM will introduce with its BlackBerry 10 software, but let’s not forget the launch of the next-gen platform will also mean next-gen smartphones. Previous speculation suggested that the company will launch a handset with a physical keyboard - one of BlackBerry’s biggest selling points to its remaining customer base - with a full-touchscreen device due to follow. But with just seven days to go before the official launch, new reports have revealed more about the rumoured BlackBerry Z10 handset. The rumour mill points to a low pricepoint - sub-$149 (£94) with a two-year contract - for what is expected to be the platform's flagship device.

21 January 2013



With less than a week to go before the launch of BlackBerry 10, RIM has announced a new change to its app store - the market place, formerly known as BlackBerry App World, will now be called BlackBerry World. The moniker shift purportedly represents BB10’s redesigned market place, which promises to offer media and entertainment content, like music and movies, in addition to apps. The change "reflects a shift in the type of things you can purchase from the store as we transition to Blackberry 10 and beyond," RIM said. The new BlackBerry World is now available for desktops and existing BlackBerry handsets and tablets, though we’re likely to hear more about it at next week’s launch.

15 January 2013

As the mobile operating system wars heat up, it’s become increasingly clear that apps hold much sway with the public. iOS and Android, both of which attract developers in droves, have an upper hand over Windows 8 and BlackBerry simply because of the sheer number, and quality, of apps available for their platforms. But as RIM prepares to introduce its next-generation BlackBerry 10 OS, few things will be as critical to its success as being able to brag about the number of apps it has on offer. And it looks like the Canadian firm just might be able to pull it off - RIM has revealed that it received 15,000 app submissions in less than two days following two Port-A-Thon events. We’ll have to wait and see how many of them make it into the store, but it’s certainly a promising start.

RIM (Research In Motion) recently announced that users will soon be able to download videos and music from the store in addition to applications, and the naming change reflects that shift as the company transitions to BlackBerry 10, the firm said.

The store was previously called BlackBerry App World.

The change will happen on the web storefront first and will then be rolled out to the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet and BlackBerry smartphones in the coming weeks, according to RIM.

On January 30, RIM will launch the first two smartphones based on BlackBerry 10, hoping to turn around its ailing fortunes.

Everyone is buzzing and the company is looking forward to showing the world how good BlackBerry 10 is, Rob Orr, Managing Director for the U.K. and Ireland, RIM, said last week.

What users of the new operating system will be able to download from BlackBerry World will be a key part of its future success or failure, but RIM has been working hard to get developers on-board and there is an interest.


At two developer events organised by the company earlier this month, over 1,000 people submitted over 15,000 apps for BlackBerry 10 in less than 48 hours.