BGR was the first big time blog to post on RBC Capital Markets Managing Director Mike Abramsky’s reiteration of an an OTR Global report stating that Research in Motion may be planning to discontinue the Wi-Fi only version of the BlackBerry PlayBook. From the official @BlackBerry Twitter account, RIM replied to BGR’s Tweet announcing said post.
@BGR -> RIM to discontinue BlackBerry PlayBook? http://goo.gl/fb/rO0Zn
18 hours ago
@BlackBerry -> @BGR Pure fiction. No plan to discontinue. In fact, WiFi PlayBook is launching in new countries practically every week.
I wonder what RIM tweet to the analysts?
According to the results from a recent ChangeWave survey on Mobile Operating System Preferences of mostly North American respondents, the BlackBerry has hit its lowest level ever with just 4%of consumers planing to get a new smartphone within the next 90 days preferring to get a BlackBerry. Comparatively speaking, 48% of respondents planning to get a new smartphone in the next 90 days said they prefer to get an iPhone.
[click to continue…]
During Research in Motion’s annual shareholder’s meeting yesterday, RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie said that 7 new BlackBerry devices running its next generation operating system would be out in the coming months. (For clarity, ‘next generation operating system’ actually means BlackBerry 7 which is still based on RIMs old BlackBerry OS. The real next generation QNX OS currently found running on the BlackBerry PlayBook won’t be out on the BlackBerry until early 2012.)
[click to continue…]
BlackBerry App World hit a new milestone recently crossing the 1 billion apps downloaded mark. Since launching just over two years ago in April of 2009, BlackBerry App World is now available in over 100 countries and sees 3 million downloads per day.
Not too shabby RIM…
[Via Inside BlackBerry]
In a note to investors today before Research in Motion’s annual shareholder’s meeting RBC Capital Markets Managing Director Mike Abramsky, is calling for RIM to break up it network and handset businesses in to separate companies.
RIM’s organization, like its handsets, needs modernization. By acting now, splitting RIM into network and handset businesses may target opportunities and unlock significant shareholder value. RIM’s end-to-end solution was conceived when data devices and networks were nascent — but times have changed…
[click to continue…]
One of the last hurdles new mobile devices have jump over before going on sale in the United States is getting FCC approval. The new touch BlackBerry Bold 9900 has just won FCC approval, so, it shouldn’t be too long before that device goes on sale. The touch Bold 9900 still needs to meet carrier acceptance, however, there is no regulatory reason why devices couldn’t be sold right now.
Research in Motion has already said that they are going to miss the back to school shopping season with the new touch BlackBerry Bold, so, I still don’t expect to see the device until the August/September time frame.
We first learned a couple of days ago that RIM has started the process of rolling out BlackBerry App World 3.0 with the updating of the Developer Portal. Continuing with the roll out RIM has updated the BlackBerry App World webstore with a completely overhauled design. We should also note that the BlackBerry App World webstore now fully supports Mac as well.
Check out the newly designed BlackBerry App World webstore…
Research in Motion has released OS breakdown information for BlackBerry users downloading applications from BlackBerry App World, and, nearly a year after the release of BlackBerry 6, almost 1 in 5 BlackBerry users, 18% to be exact, are using the latest and greatest RIM has to offer. The data also shows that 32% of BlackBerry users are still pre-BlackBerry OS 5. Usually when we think of mobile OS fragmentation, Android is the platform that jumps to mind, but, things are just as bad for the BlackBerry OS, and, they are soon going to get worse….
Uptake of BlackBerry 6 has jumped 8% in the three months since we last talked about it, but, 82% of BlackBerry users on an operating system at least one version back. This will jump to two versions back as soon as RIM releases BlackBerry 7, expected to ship sometime in the next 2 to 3 months. The real problem for RIM is that everyone who cares knows that RIM intends to replace BlackBerry 7 with QNX in ‘early 2012′.
If it took a year for RIM to get 18% adoption on BlackBerry 6, does it really make sense for developers to focus development efforts on BlackBerry 7 when they know that QNX is coming, and, coming hard?
Google recently announced via the Google Mobile Blog that they’ve updated the Google search experience for BlackBerry 6.0 WebKit enabled devices. To make a short story shorter, Google has added a number of enhanced search features that make searching Google via the WebKit browser in BlackBerry 6 much faster.
New features include:
- Enter searches faster: Save time by using autocomplete and search history queries that appear beneath the search box as you type.
- Web search: Find what you’re searching for fast. Comprehensive results pages let you see relevant websites, images, videos, news, real-time results and more. Simply click on the arrow button ‘>>’ to the left of the top search box for more refinement options.
- Image search: Swipe through image results quickly and easily on touch enabled devices. Start by selecting ‘Images’ at the top of www.google.com, then enter a search. From there, click on any image to view a larger size.
- Local search: Find restaurants, shops and other popular business categories with a single tap. Start by selecting ‘Places’ at the top of www.google.com, then click on an icon from the Places homepage.
To use the new enhanced Google search features, just visit http://www.google.com via the WebKit browser via your BlackBerry 6 enabled device.