Mobilityfeeds

RIM BlackBerry 10 is too little too late to save Research In Motion

Research In Motion (RIM) new BlackBerry Operating System (OS) looks cool, but we don't have high hopes for it.

BlackBerry 10, which is slated to start showing up on RIM smartphones later this year, has some innovative new features that will set it apart from Apple's iOS, Microsoft's Windows Phone and Google's Android.

But the update is years late, and the new platform is not far-and-away superior to iOS or Android.
Perhaps worst of all, RIM is ignoring the needs of current BlackBerry customers by failing to provide them with an easy transition.

We've seen this play before, and we know how it ends:
In disaster.

US military thinks of moving away from BlackBerry

The United States military on Friday released a new strategy aimed at tapping the full potential of smartphones and other mobile devices while maintaining adequate security and reliability.

Details must still be worked out, but the policy lays the groundwork for big battles between Research in Motion (RIM), which makes the Pentagon's most commonly used BlackBerry device, and competitors like Apple and Google.

The strategy aims to better coordinate an array of pilot programs and other initiatives already under way across the Department of Defense and the various military services.

Teri Takai, the Pentagon's Chief Information Officer, said the Pentagon hoped to leverage the technology of smartphones and other mobile device technologies to improve information sharing, collaboration and efficiencies across the military services and other Pentagon agencies.

Following RIM market share loss, the Financial Times loses interest in developing BlackBerry's app

The Financial Times (FT), which gets nearly a third of its revenue from digital subscriptions, expects Research In Motion (RIM) BlackBerry smartphones to become less important for corporate executives as BlackBerry loses market share to devices like Apple's iPhone and Google's Android-based system.

FT.com Managing Director Rob Grimshaw said BlackBerry is now fourth in terms of priority for developing the FT's applications, even behind Microsoft's Windows 8.

"It's something we keep pushing back," Grimshaw said at the Reuters Global Media and Technology Summit in New York. "We'll be doing something, but it's becoming less and less important in our world. They still have a presence in the corporate marketplace but they have lost their dominance."

There is more in the mobile world than the 'great four' operating systems

Presenting our new infographic – the Clash of Ecosystems.

Google's Android, Apple's iOS, Microsoft Windows Phone, Research In Motion (RIM) BlackBerry, Samsung bada, Nokia Symbian and others are locked in a winner-takes-all battle – and everything revolves around an ecosystem.

This infographic presents key figures for each of our competing platforms, smartphone penetration per region – but it also shows what happened to platforms that didn’t make it.

Which platform has the largest sales base?
Which has the largest app store, with the most downloads?

Check out the answers in the Clash of Ecosystems infographic after the break.
As well as the mural of dead (or dying) platforms, our Dead Platform Graveyard.

Tablet prospective buyers outside USA favor Android over iPad

IDG Connect's study of 3,124 worldwide IT and business professionals demonstrates a startling move away from Apple iPads, especially in developing regions.

Results show that 71% of respondents own a tablet, 51% of these have an iPad, but more first time buyers will opt for Google Android over the next 12 months:

- 44% will buy an Android tablet

- 27% will buy an iPad

- 3% will opt for Windows 8

- 21% aren't sure

For most users, all smartphones are iPhones and tablets are iPads, regardless of manufacturer and OS

More than eight in ten mobile phone users are confused about the meaning of the word ‘Android’ even though many use Google's mobile Operating System (OS) on a daily basis – according to a new poll.

The survey, by mobile casino Roxy Palace, found than 83% of those quizzed were unable to define what Android meant even though many were using the Operating System on their smartphones and tablet devices.

Some thought Android was a mobile phone manufacturer with others believing it was the model name of their device.

Android is the global mobile OS leader, but app developers are more loyal to iOS

Smartphones running the Google's Android Operating System (OS) outsell Apple's iPhones more than two to one.

And yet, even as Google's system has gobbled up market share, Apple has held onto one critical advantage - the loyalty of mobile app developers. 

Many developers have continued to make applications first, and sometimes only, for iPhones.
They find it easier to create software for Apple devices than for ones running Android, or it may be more lucrative.

Their allegiance to Apple has helped make its devices the powerhouse they are for the company. 

BlackBerry' decline is worrying for many

US President Barack Obama couldn't bear to part with his Research In Motion (RIM) BlackBerry.

Oprah Winfrey declared it one of her "favorite things."
It could be so addictive that it was nicknamed "the CrackBerry."

Then came a new generation of competing smartphones, and suddenly the BlackBerry, that game-changing breakthrough in personal connectedness, looks ancient.

There is even talk that the fate of Research In Motion, the company that fathered the BlackBerry in 1999, is no longer certain as its flagship property rapidly loses market share to flashier phones like Apple's iPhone and models driven by Google Android.

With more than US$2 billion in cash, bankruptcy for RIM seems highly unlikely in the near term, but these are troubling times for Waterloo, Ontario, the town of 100,000 that was transformed by the BlackBerry into Canada's Silicon Valley.
RIM is Canada's most valuable technology company, an international icon so prestigious that founder Mike Lazaridis and its other driving force, Jim Balsillie, are on an official government list of national heroes, alongside the likes of Alexander Graham Bell.

Foursquare for iOS and Android went through a total redesign

Location-based social network Foursquare has redesigned its popular Apple's iPhone and Google's Android applications with new focus on simplicity and encouraging more interactions between users with likes and mentions, the company announced today.

Foursquare has attracted 20 million users to its service to date, but that certainly pales next to Facebook’s 900 million or even Instagram’s 50 million.
It’s not playing in the same spaces as those, but it certainly loves to bring that user count up.

So with a new redesign, it is simplifying its interface and pushing for more social interactions between users.
Both of those factors could make the service more addictive and not just something people casually use.

Windows Phone Marketplace passed the 100,000 apps milestone

More than 100,000 apps have now been published in the Microsoft's Windows Phone Marketplace and new content is currently being added at the rate of 313 apps per day.

At the time of writing, 100,145 apps have been published.
Of these, 26,493 were added in the last three months and 9,391 were added in the last month.

These apps come from just over 23,825 different publishers.

Key points

As of 3^rd June 2012:

• 100,145 apps published to the Windows Phone Marketplace over the last 20 months
• 88,371 apps live (available for download, total across 60 countries)
• Windows Phone reached the 100,000 milestone faster than Google's Android (24 months), but slower than Apple's iOS (16 months)
• 23,825 publishers (developers)
• Proportion of quality apps (rated five or more times) stable at 8% (UK ratings) 12% (US ratings)

Android to stop growing, iOS to decline, Windows Phone to grow - Report

Google's Android will reach 61% of the worldwide market for smartphones this year and then will stop growing, according to market research firm IDC.

Its numbers predict that by 2016, Android's share of the smartphone market will dip down to 52.9%.

Where will Android's market share go?
To Microsoft's Windows Phone platform, naturally.

IDC said it believes that Windows Phone can go nowhere but up.
Its current share of the worldwide smartphone market is about 5.2%, but that is set to swell to 19.2% by 2016 thanks to Nokia's strength in certain emerging markets.
The arrival of Windows Phone 8 Apollo later this year along with Microsoft's big push with Windows 8 will help spur adoption of Microsoft's mobile platform.

RIM needs more than launching new Blackberry phones to stay afloat; it need also to resolve its identity crisis

A brand strategy adviser hired by Research In Motion (RIM) at the peak of the company's success says the BlackBerry maker was locked in an identity crisis that left it struggling to map out its future.

Matthew Kelly, Managing Director at Toronto-based firm Level5, said in a recent interview that RIM was preparing to wage a battle against Apple's iPhone device, an effort that seemed to be distracting the company from other market challenges.

"I didn't get the sense they were taking [Google] Android as (seriously) as they needed to," he said, who was previously Chief Marketing officer at Yum Brands, owner of the Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and KFC chains.

RIM hires banks to offer 'strategic options'; BlackBerry may be reaching its end

A year from now, Research in Motion (RIM) may not exist.

A little while ago, that might have been a controversial call.

Sure, RIM (the BlackBerry maker) had its share of problems, but many were willing to give it some space to possibly turn itself around.
But after yesterday's first-quarter warning and disclosure that it hired bankers to advise it on strategic reviews, it's perfectly reasonable to assume that RIM's days as a standalone company are numbered.

All you have to do is look at the bankers. RIM said yesterday that it hired J.P. Morgan and RBC Capital for strategic advice.

An other key-executive is leaving already weakened RIM

Struggling BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion (RIM) said Monday that it is losing another senior executive as its Chief Legal Officer is retiring from the company after 12 years.

RIM said that Karima Bawa had been in discussions about her retirement for some time and plans to stay on to help with the transition once a replacement has been hired.

The once-iconic BlackBerry company is facing its most difficult period in its history.
RIM is working on launching a new software Operating System (OS) just as North Americans are abandoning their BlackBerry's for Apple's iPhone and smartphones that run Google's Android platform.

The latest departure also comes as RIM is reportedly about to announce a restructuring that could result in thousands of job cuts.

RIM third writedown is nearing due to slumping sales and growing inventory

Research In Motion (RIM)’s stockpiles of BlackBerry smartphones and PlayBook tablets have swollen by two-thirds in the past year because of slumping sales, raising the chances of the company’s third writedown since December 2011.

The value of RIM’s in-house supplies grew 18% last quarter alone, a faster rate than at any other company in the industry, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

And that doesn’t include the BlackBerrys gathering dust at RIM’s carriers and retail partners.

Apple, meanwhile, saw its inventory decline 11% in the period from the previous three months.
RIM faces an exodus of customers switching to Apple’s iPhone and devices running Google’s Android Operating System (OS).

RIM expected to cut at least 2,000 jobs worldwide in the coming days

Research In Motion (RIM, BlackBerry maker) is preparing for a major restructuring beginning in the next couple of weeks that will see it eliminate at least 2,000 jobs worldwide, according to unnamed sources.

According to reports from several people close to the company, the next round of layoffs is said to be planned for around 1^st June 2012 - a day before the BlackBerry smartphone maker's first quarter ends - but some expect the announcement even earlier.

One source close to the company told Reuters the impending layoffs could hit as many as 6,000 people and affect RIM's legal, marketing, sales, operations, and human resources divisions.

BlackBerry Messenger will not be licensed to Google and Apple after all

It looks like the Research In Motion (RIM) Blackberry Messenger (BBM) will not be landing on your favorite Google's Android or Apple's iOS handsets any time soon.

According to reports, Thorsten Heins, RIM CEO, pulled the plug on licensing BBM to its rivals after realising that users may let go of their Blackberry handsets altogether since the IM can be used on rival handsets.

Due to the popularity of the Blackberry Messenger, RIM has managed to stay afloat.
It is highly popular among the youth, and RIM claims there are 55 million BBM users out there.

Android, followed by Apple, rules the global smartphone market, while RIM witnesses its sharper fall ever

Research In Motion (RIM) BlackBerry platform dropped from 13.6% of the world's smartphones in the first quarter of 2011 to just 6.4% of the world's smartphone in the first quarter of 2012, according to numbers released by IDC.

The new stats show RIM's share dropping precipitously, while its competitors grow stronger and stronger.

Google's Android Operating System (OS) is the top platform worldwide, with 59.0% of market thanks to 89.9 million units shipped during the first quarter.
Android grew an astonishing 145% year-over-year.
Much of that growth can be attributed to the never-ending onslaught of new devices that range from entry-level handsets to flagship hero devices.

RIM's stock falls by 34% following Head of Global Sales resignation

Shares of Research In Motion (RIM, BlackBerry maker) were down more than 3% in early trading after its Head of Global Sales, Patrick Spence, resigned.

Spence worked at the company for 14 years and helped make BlackBerry one of the world’s best-selling smartphones.

Ben Wood, Head of Research at CCS Insight, told the Toronto Sun, “Losing Patrick is undoubtedly a blow to RIM and he is a significant loss to the European operation.”

Following his move, RIM’s stock slipped by 34% this morning on the TSX, down to CND$11.03.

On the NASDAQ, it was also fell 3% to US$10.75.
Overall, RIM’s lost three-quarters of its value over the past year.

Global mobile phone sales drop for the first time - Report

Retail sales of mobile phones have dropped for the first time in almost two years, according to Gartner.

The analyst house said on Wednesday that sales for the first quarter of 2012 totalled 419.1 million units, down two percent year-on-year.
It said it was likely to have to adjust its forecasts for the whole of 2012 down by around 20 million units.

"Global sales of mobile devices declined more than expected due to a slowdown in demand from the Asia/Pacific region," principal research analyst Anshul Gupta said in a statement. "The first quarter, traditionally the strongest quarter for Asia — which is driven by Chinese New Year, saw a lack of new product launches from leading manufacturers, and users delayed upgrades in the hope of better smartphone deals arriving later in the year."

Gartner's figures confirmed recent suggestions that Samsung is now the top handset vendor in the world.