Posts tagged BlackBerry
Polls show Canadians optmistic about RIM’s future
Jan 31st
by Nestor E. Arellano
I was taking drive to Leamington, Ont. this weekend in my lawyer friend’s car when our conversation took a turn towards the one topic that people ask you about lately when they know you’re a tech journalist – what do you think about RIM?
Nestor Arellano
They want to know what new bit of info I have on the company, and I – lacking anything new to add to what they have already read online – attempt to turn the tables on them and try to get them to voice out their own thoughts. Read the rest of this entry »
What to expect when moving from BlackBerry to iPhone
Jan 24th
by Kye Husbands
So you’re contemplating the jump from BlackBerry to iPhone and wondering what you should expect. Having done the same thing a few months ago, I wanted to share my experience and help you save some time getting your iPhone set up to suit your needs.
You’ve already heard how great the iPhone is, so instead of preaching more of the same, I thought this blog would be more helpful if I highlighted a few of the challenges with making the switch or, a few things you may want to consider before making the switch. Read the rest of this entry »
6 things RIM needs to do to turn its fortune around
Jan 5th
by Kye Husbands
Seems like every blog we do of late is about RIM, because it’s difficult to watch a giant go down without a real fight. We have long communicated that BlackBerry desirability – ideal phone choices by customers at myCELLmyTERMS when creating a proposal – has been steadily declining to under 10 per cent at the end of the last quarter.
The Financial Post is reporting that RIM lost more marketshare in the US, going from 7.1 per cent to 6.5 per cent. Why this really sucks, is that the smartphone market is still growing by leaps and bounds, so losing market share in a growing market is a real sign of trouble, but trouble has been brewing for over a year, as we watched the desirability fall to all time lows of under 10 per cent on our network.
The solution seems so simple however, rally all of your staff to get get some new phones out to market and as soon as possible. For RIM getting ahead of the curve in the smartphone space would be ideal, but the challenge with waiting for the right pitch to hit a home run is that you miss out on all the RBI opportunities. It’s a gamble and a big one to wait for perfection in an ever changing space and some things are a must have, but let’s hypothesize for a sec.
What does RIM have to do with the BlackBerry to get ahead of the curve:
- Quad-core phones would be nice
- 18MP Camera or something crazy like that (front and rear facing)
- HDMI output or something of the sort
- New Operating System (BlackBerry 10K) with improved usability all the way around and snappy. (i.e. Not like OS 6.0 which freezes all the time)
- Improved virtual keyboard – (BTW – Please move the world icon from where it is, somehow I always found a way of switching to chinese when sending an email)
- Some real wow factor (ex. like a Virtual Assistant, A few killer apps, bigger screen phones)
I don’t have all the answers and neither does RIM, so let’s hope that they do the right thing and get a few phones out to market that are good enough to lay a solid foundation and build on that. Clearly we can’t expect everything at once like a vibrant developer community and thousands of apps, but we need to see some evidence of work being done to spark confidence.
BlackBerry gets it right with Curve 9360
Dec 7th
by Yale Holder
For fans of the BlackBerry Curve series, the 9360 model gets a decent grade for its purpose - a value based messaging cell phone. Its affordable at $50 on a 3 year contract or $350 without any contract or tab discount. Let’s review some of the key features of this phone as compared to its predecessor.
What I like?
The curve always seems to be short changed compared with the BlackBerry Bold models and always seems to have something missing – a camera with no flash – 3G with no Wi-Fi or vice versa, and the design wasn’t too slim or sleek looking. Well RIM fixes most of these issues with the Curve 9360, here are the key features that I do like: Read the rest of this entry »
Is RIM taking too long to release BlackBerry outage peace offering?
Nov 3rd
by Nestor E. Arellano
In cartoons, sitcoms and some real life situations, when a man makes a mistake in a relationship, he usually tries to patch things up with a bunch of flowers.
Nestor Arellano
A bouquet of free apps was Research In Motion’s peace offering to over 70 million BlackBerry users who were inconvenienced by an outage that prevented them from using the popular BlackBerry Messenger service. From Oct. 19 to Dec. 31, BlackBerry users can download $100 worth of pre-selected premium apps from RIM’s App World store, free of charge. The selection, which ranges in price from $5 to $15 each, includes apps such as Sims 3, Bejeweled, Texas Hold’em Poker 2, and Shazam Encore. Enterprise customers also get a month of free tech support.
“This is something we would like to offer as a form of thanks,” said Jim Balsillie, the company’s co-CEO.
3 things you should know before jailbreaking your iPhone
Oct 18th
by Yale Holder
I’ve had a scary experience unlocking iPhones that I hope no one else has to go through.
Having unlocked phones already, mainly BlackBerry phones, I thought that unlocking iPhones would be just as easy and not as complicated – boy was I wrong. Here is what I learnt… Read the rest of this entry »
Six iPhone 5 features we expect to see
Oct 4th
by Kye Husbands
After months of speculation, and I mean major speculation, Apple sent out invitations today for its October 4 “Let’s talk iPhone” event, so Kudos to my partner, who hit the nail on the head with the October prediction.
The iPhone5 is probably the most anticipated cell phone ever to launch, given Apple’s resounding success in the mobile space and the rapid adoption of smart phones. Read the rest of this entry »
Six-year-old kid sells $10K worth of Apple products
Aug 16th
By Kye Husbands
With all the attention recently about RIM’s struggles (i.e. the BlackBerry maker) the question many have asked, is whether or not RIM will be able to compete with the likes of Apple or Google going forward? I don’t have a crystal ball, however, I do have an interesting story.
I had the fortune of observing what I would call a sociological experiment, so let’s answer that question, by telling the story of a six year old boy that my family just wanted to keep a little more occupied during the summer, in a household of diehard BlackBerry users, supposedly addicted to BBM.
Couple quick notes. My aunty has eight kids all between the ages of 21-36, many of whom now have their own kids. With boyfriends, spouses, kids and friends the numbers get huge, so my observation is based on 25 family members linked to this household.
If you have a six-year-old boy, or you’ve ever taken care of a six-year-old boy, then you know how difficult it is to keep them quiet, especially during the summer months. Enter Sebastian, your “average” high energy six-year-old boy who pretty much hates reading, loves video games and is somewhat addicted to gadgets and technology.
So how do you entertain a six year old boy?
Read the rest of this entry »
My fantasy BlackBerry
Jul 18th
By Yale Holder
With all the recent talk about the premature death of the BlackBerry and in the wake of their recent AGM, what would your ideal blackberry cell phone look, and feel like.
I’ll be interested in your thoughts, but let me start things off, as a BlackBerry fan myself and what I would like to see in the next BlackBerry is… Read the rest of this entry »
RIM needs to fix its tech roadmap
Jun 21st
By Kye Husbands
I just returned from a trip to California, home to some of the biggest companies in the world – Google, Apple, Facebook, eBay, NetFlix, Zynga to name a few – and it was an enlightening trip to say the least.
While en-route, I observed what appeared to be an abnormally high number of people that were all part of the white head phone wearing, or white AC cord charging tribe. It seemed like everyone was part of the – you guessed it – Apple tribe.
Like any good business person, we want numbers; after all, numbers don’t lie. So while waiting for my connecting flight in the Dallas airport (Major international hub by the way) I decided to move my analysis from anecdotal to empirical. In other words, I was determined to get some metrics to share with my team and prove my observation right or wrong. So I literally used the time (4 hour stop over) to count the type of smartphone devices people were using. Read the rest of this entry »
