RIM showcases BlackBerry 10 as sales plateau
Research In Motion held a press event this morning to trot out BlackBerry 10, the QNX-based operating system it plans to launch early next year. While I wasn’t at the event, it appears there’s a lot to like about the new platform: Apps at launch will include Facebook, Foursquare, LinkedIn and Twitter, it looks to have a smooth user interface and RIM is aggressively courting the developers that will be crucial for any comeback. And RIM will finally join its fellow OS providers by adding music and movies to its App World.
This is all long overdue, of course, and RIM circles closer to the drain every day. Reuters reports that industry observers agree that the company’s latest quarterly results will be dismal at best upon their release this week, and The Globe and Mail reports that BlackBerry’s audience is flatlining even as the overall smartphone market continues to explode.
There are reasons for optimism beyond the new OS, however: Carriers have long wanted a viable third platform to emerge as competition for Apple and Google, and consumers surely would like a little more variety than the market currently offers. And while iOS is penetrating beyond corporate walls (thanks largely to the BYOD revolution), the mobile enterprise remains fertile soil — and that’s a market that RIM knows very well. To get back in the game, RIM will need a huge dose of luck and flawless execution — a quality it hasn’t known for years — as well as plenty of help from its carrier partners. But like like Larry Dignan over at ZDNet, I still believe RIM still has a real chance to come back.