by Robb Dunewood on November 12, 2009 · 8 comments
As many of you may already know, memory has been a point of contention for BlackBerry users for quite some time. To get straight to the point, there simply isn’t enough of it. Sure, the newest devices have 16 gig media cards and 2 gigs of internal memory, but, you really only have 256 MB of application space. Once you factor in the OS you are probably only talking about a 100 MB or so from which to install and run applications and if you don’t have a BlackBerry Storm2 or better, the problem is dramatically worse.
The big hit at the BlackBerry Developer’s Conference this week was OpenGL ES which brings 3D graphics support to BlackBerry applications. Starting with the BlackBerry Storm2 and the BlackBerry Curve 8530, developers are going to deliver applications and games that rival what you see on the the iPhone. The problem for RIM, however, is that 3D graphics take up space. They take up a lot of space and the BlackBerrys antiquated way of handling memory is going to be a huge bottleneck.
BlackBerry App World’s ability to archive rarely used applications and store them on your media card allowing you to reclaim that precious application memory is great feature, but, it gets really old really quick when you have do it with apps you use regularly simply because you are out of memory.
According to an IDG report, year over year shipment growth for the BlackBerry grew by 35.7%. In Q3 ‘08, 14.6% of smartphones sold worldwide were BlackBerrys. In Q3 ‘09, 19% of smartphones sold were BlackBerrys.
In contrast, iPhone shipments grew by only 7.1%. Now, don’t get me wrong… 7.1% growth in this economy is pretty darn good. It’s 400%, or, 5 times less than what the BlackBerry did, but, still pretty good none the less.
by Robb Dunewood on November 4, 2009 · 10 comments
An interesting report from ComScore on Touchscreen Mobile Phone Adoption came out yesterday and a few things in the report kind of surprised me.
Touchscreen mobile phone adoption grew at a blistering rate up 159%. Nothing really shocking about that.
The iPhone dominates the market with 32.9% market share. Yeah, yeah… Sounds about right.
The BlackBerry sits in 4th place with 7% of the market, only 1.7% behind the number 2 LG Dare and 0.8% behind the 3rd place LG Voyager. Completely wasn’t expecting that.
Of the 10 devices listed, the BlackBerry Storm received the most bad press, deservedly so, by a long shot. For the Storm to come in 4th when it was such a bad device at launch and having been on the market for a lot less time than the three devices in front of it was more than just surprising. It was actually a bit shocking.
This is probably due to the strength of the BlackBerry brand because no one else could have had a device suck that much, yet sell so well. Hopefully the BlackBerry Storm2 will do better by the brand than did it’s predecessor. Every report that I’ve heard about the BlackBerry Storm2 goes something like, “You know, it’s really not that bad“. If that sentiment remains I think RIM will view the BlackBerry Storm2 as a success.
I heard yesterday afternoon that NBA League Pass Mobile will be available today for the iPhone and Android devices. BlackBerry users, unfortunately, will have to wait a bit longer. The League says that the BlackBerry version will be out by the end of the year, which, I guess is OK so long as you aren’t interested in watching games, you know… like now.
This having to wait for cool applications to come out for the BlackBerry BS is getting really old.
It was a pretty good indication that Research in Motion has big plans for it’s BlackBerry Browser when it acquired Torch Mobile, makers of the WebKit based IRIS browser. It looks like the company is chugging away on their promise to have a BlackBerry Browser “on par with the iPhone“, by next summer and they are looking for a little help.
We are currently looking for a talented and passionate individual to join a growing team within the BlackBerry Platform organization. Utilizing their expert knowledge in C++ programming, the successful candidate will be working in a fast-paced, dynamic development environment to develop a WebKit-based browser for the BlackBerry Platform.
Verizon commercial taking it to AT&T when it comes to nationwide 3G coverage. The Map illustrates the differences in the two biggest wireless carriers perfectly.
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Vonage Holdings Corp plans to offer discounted international phone calls to iPhone and BlackBerry users, as the Internet telephony company aims to expand beyond the residential market.
Consumers could save more than 50 percent for calls to dozens of countries if they download a free Vonage application to Apple Inc iPhone and Research In Motion BlackBerry devices starting on Monday afternoon, Vonage Chief Executive Marc Lefar said.
“It’s an important first step for us. It moves us from the home platform,” Lefar told Reuters. “Over the long term mobile is absolutely a critical place for Vonage to be competing.”
by Robb Dunewood on September 29, 2009 · 7 comments
Last week Research in Motion reported a less than stellar Q2 Fiscal 2010 and their stock price took pretty big stumble. Just last Wednesday RIM’s stock price (ticker RIMM) was up over $85. This morning it sits at $67.10.
I am not an investment professional nor do I offer any financial advise. I do wonder, however, with all the new BlackBerry devices about to hit the market, with OS 5 seemingly right around the corner, with the reduced prices on the high end prosumer devices and especially the lower end consumer devices, is Research in Motion ready for a run?
It seems like it is kind of of a slow day as far as BlackBerry related news goes, so, I figured that I would throw a question out there for discussion that colleague asked me this morning.
Why are so many more celebrities seen with BlackBerry devices as compared to iPhones?
As many of you long time RIMarkable readers know, we spun off a category, Celebrity BlackBerry Sightings, into it’s own site a few years back. For a site that does little more than display mostly paparazzi style photos of famous people with BlackBerrys, Celebrity BlackBerry Sightings gets a ridiculous amount of traffic.
Now, I am not saying that there aren’t a lot of celebs who use iPhones. There most certainly are. But, when compared to the number of BlackBerry toting famous folk out there, their numbers seem almost insignificant.
The comments are open to all who want to weigh in on why this is the case, or, why I am completely off base.
