back to article RIM ends Reg headline pun filth (and launches two new phones)

As expected, RIM today unveiled its much-delayed QNX-powered smartphone operating system, BlackBerry OS 10, along with two new handsets. The Canadian company also changed its name from Research In Motion to BlackBerry along the way. (It's quite a drastic way of evading our double entendres, but needs must.) The first device …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Nick Ryan Silver badge

    Looking just at the supplied picture, subjectively it's definitely not a particularly attractive phone by a long way. However Blackberries have always tended to be a bit more function than form focused anyway so this isn't really surprising and in real life the thing could easily look quite good, marketing shots aren't always that great.

    10h talk time? In a modern smart phone? :) What are they thinking?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "What are they thinking?"

      Starting at 100% battery, Wifi/BT/GPS turned off, screen turned off, perfect signal, no apps running. Most companies claim a lot of talk time, Samsung reckon the S3 is capable of 21 hours* on 2G and apparently the Nexus 4 can do 15 hours.

      *Samsung/N4 battery stats from gsmarena. Samsung's site has 2 battery time figures: "up to 10.8hours(3G) / up to 21.7hours(2G)" and "upto 900hours(2G) / upto 750hours(3G)" but doesn't specifically say "talk time".

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        You're using 3G phones as an example. This has LTE.

        Real world figures depend on reception quality.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Tastes vary, I would say the design is quite nice actually. Sharp design anyway.

      I find Samsung and Nexus phones pretty ugly. Curves may be nice in use but they look shit much of the time, an old Hyundia accent or Micra is proof of that.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      It's quite small for a tomb stone.....

  2. Levente Szileszky
    Go

    Seems promising...

    ...and even if 2/3rd of the promised 70k apps turn out to be non-native/ebook/whatever it's still more than enough to cover ~99% of the immediate needs of their users.

    Important thing is to get it into as many hands as possible, to gain traction and follow-up with an updated handset by Christmas so it won't be left behind again.

  3. W.O.Frobozz
    Thumb Down

    "Promised to show up"

    ....right, just like RI-*cough*-Blackberry was in "negotiations with Netflix"....TWO WHOLE YEARS ago? And still no Netflix. And their Android layer is incapable of running Android's Netflix (along with a host of other useful Android apps).

    They really haven't learned anything from Apple on how to do a launch properly. The first device is out in Canada next week but the US doesn't get it until...late March? And the Playbook doesn't get the update until...maybe late February at the earliest? Not an Apple fanboy by any measure but on launch day ALL of the above happens at the same time, across all their supported platforms.

    Once again it sounds like they are seriously rushing to get something out to market.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "Promised to show up"

      I suspect the launch timing is dictated more by carriers than by RIM. If all the US carriers haven't completed acceptance testing and finished all the junk apps they will preload on the device then they have to wait. They won't want to annoy some carriers by allowing one or two to have earlier release dates.

    2. ItsNotMe

      Re: "Promised to show up"

      "Once again it sounds like they are seriously rushing to get something out to market."

      Hardly rushing...BB10 was supposed to be out 1 year ago. Just more crappy marketing by BB.

      Never really pushed the PlayBook when it first came out. No real mention of it today either...just more of the same from them.

      And STILL no decent PB applications in their store...yet.

  4. southpacificpom
    WTF?

    This is a sad day indeed. Another company showing it's politically correct nature, not wanting to offend it's userbase. Why can't their users stand proud and pronouce that they are happy to be RIMmed on a daily basis.

    What is the world coming too...

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So... When is Apple suing for round corners on a rectangle? When it becomes competition?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Yup, they'll wait until a few million are sold so that they can ask for a few billion in irreparable damages.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    lol

    Quick change the deck chairs on the titanic approach is not going to fool anybody and if anything distracts from there product launch. Still have same shite middle managment fuggerling things up

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: lol

      The company is profitable and still popular in business where BB excel.

      They have suffered the same problem as Microsoft did, took a bit too long to launch a new OS but what they have launched is good.

      1. jonathanb Silver badge

        Re: lol

        That sounds a bit like OS/2 to me. Yes it probably was the best operating system available at the time, but where is it now?

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    In summary

    It has LTE (which few people have) but us twice the price of a nexus4, much worse specs and a dire app store

    I can't see this setting the alight.

    1. Lusty

      Re: In summary

      "It has LTE (which few people have)"

      I presume you mean few people other than all of the major players like Apple, Samsung, Nokia and HTC who all have LTE?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: In summary

        Or he means few people as in "why pay £30 to EE for a sim-only, low data limit LTE contract when the same £30 to 3 gets you a SGS3 with unlimited data on hspa+".

  8. Darryl

    I'm liking what I see so far, and, as a proud Canadian, I hope this thing kicks some ass and becomes a viable competitor.

    Small niggle #1 - if you want to view the launch video from blackberry.com, you get redirected to tremolo.edgesuite.com, where the 'desktop_dvr' page complains that 'your mobile device is not supported' (using Firefox in Win7, at least - haven't tried on an actual mobile device.)

    1. Lusty

      "I'm liking what I see so far, and, as a proud Canadian"

      Come on, even as a proud Canadian they'd have to add an internal maple syrup bottle to push you into buying into this surely? RIM were amazing back in the day with the jog wheel, push email and high res grey scale screens but now unfortunately they have nothing but the looming threat of obsolescence and bankruptcy.

      Having said that, if they made a new device with the jog wheel and wide screen even I may consider them for a work phone :)

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Proud Canadian?

      Sorry, I used to work for Nortel.

  9. Lunatik
    Go

    Don't worry, weary hacks, you can continue to use the RIM BlackBerry gimmick for as long as, well, All! Of! Your! Other! Gimmicks!, bitch.

    We wouldn't want it any other way.

  10. Robert Grant

    Wow

    Nice spec. Things like removable battery and MicroSD are awesome in a high-end phone. And is that now the highest pixel density in the world?

    1. Lusty

      Re: Wow

      " Things like removable battery and MicroSD are awesome in a high-end phone"

      yeah, up to 48GB storage FTW.

      1. Levente Szileszky
        WTF?

        Re: Wow

        You mean compared to the more expensive Nexus 4's 8GB, yes, it's FTW.

    2. Z80

      Re: Wow

      Some phones (will) have Full HD 1920x1080 on a 5" screen - 441ppi

  11. Erik N.

    In all, I rather expect it will bump Windows Phone to #4. I wouldn't actually take a money bet on that, but.... It has a much better interface due to its borrowing all of the good ideas from WebOS. It does have that Android compatibility layer and as a result will go to market with a much bigger app store. As stated in another comment Blackberry hardware is generally very good. There is still a fan base for Blackberry.

    I haven't bothered to look at the new API. Hopefully folks writing native apps will get to deal with a much better API than the Charlie Foxtrot the old API had become.

    I'll stop in a store to give one a try when they are released (just like I did with the Torch), but I'll stick with my Droid.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hopefully they sorted this! :-/

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqTFa6j9QNE

  13. Baudwalk
    Thumb Up

    I hope they make it

    I'm not likely to leave the Android camp any time soon, but I'd like for them to become a credible third player. Or fourth, if Nokia survive.

    Let's get some proper competition going again. And less of the ridiculous trench warfare between the two current combatants.

    Fingers crossed icon?

    1. Bob Vistakin
      Linux

      Re: I hope they make it

      It won't affect Androids' market share a jot, but I think it'll take a hearty helping of Apples lunch and certainly keep Win8's anonymous entry in the "1% others" section of all the market share charts for the coming year.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: I hope they make it

        WP8 already overtook RIm in sales and is #3 - with sales still climbing steeply.....

      2. Chris J
        Thumb Up

        Re: I hope they make it

        For sure. Blackberry is still fairly embedded in enterprise and I think this is now the natural upgrade path for those firms. Apple will have a tougher time getting traction there.

        To be honest, I like the look of this phone. I'd be delighted if my employer decided to upgrade me to it.

  14. frank ly

    It looks like some rimmer is downvoting people who don't like blackberries

    Just saying.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: It looks like some rimmer is downvoting people who don't like blackberries

      Probably used to work at Nortel or maybe Palm - maybe just a canadian thang :).

  15. GregC
    Meh

    All looks very nice to me

    I like the styling of it, as far as it goes. On the face of it the OS looks pretty good, they certainly seem to have made a real effort to make sure it can stand comparison with what else is out there, and there's a couple of really nice features - if Balance is implemented well I can see that helping them regain some ground in enterprise. The review at Crackberry is extremely positive (although you might expect a positive approach from them, and battery life looks like it may be questionable). Well done RIMBlackberry.

    But....

    There's nothing compelling there, at least for me. Like many others I'm already invested in a platform (literally - some of us Android users pay for stuff too, you know!) and I don't see anything in what they've announced that will make me inclined to switch when I next update my phone, and I can see that being a major problem for them.

    I hope this does ok, competition is great, but I'm not convinced.

  16. Graham Marsden
    Joke

    Angry Birds not available?

    Well that's a deal-breaker right there...

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Palm Treo Directors cut in 3D

    So many comparisions to Palm and there lovely treo phones, that ended well. But company on last legs - CHECK, Canadian - CHECK, new OS and phones - CHECK. WHo will play the part of HP for RIMberry is unsure at this stage. But calling it now.

    Still nice phones and OS, but the same was said of Palm and that ended up well.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    There's no competition

    At least not in the european manager's mind...

    http://www.theverge.com/2013/1/30/3931942/six-years-later-rim-still-wont-acknowledge-the-iphone

    :D

  19. Manu T

    Can it do full 2-way call recording?

  20. Waspy
    Happy

    Nice to see some objectivity

    ...from Andrew as always...the usual suspects like Engadget can't see past their iPhones and Nexus 4s. To be fair they didn't totally slate BB10 but they made the classic populist mistake of simply measuring up against the competition / their favourite handsets when this system (as far as I can see) offers a much more powerful way of working (actual useful multi-tasking anyone, unified inboxes?)., with all these features completely brushed over by the other tech press, which completely missed the point.

    Remains to new seen if the public think these features are worth having, but in my view they don't know what they are missing...I use webOS and Meego and really like actual multi tasking instead of psuedo multitasking tombstoning which feels a bit crap once you know what true MT feels like. Plus webOS and Windows Phone offer excellent integration with services, pulling in everything for you straight from the OS instead of half-baked apps. You just don't get this on Android or iOS (unless you purely use Google services on your Android...).

    BB10 seems to offer both these features so I wish them well, looks like a really nice system.

    1. the-it-slayer
      Go

      Re: Nice to see some objectivity

      The fact is, the media coverage will be like this:

      Tech Media: Bum iOS/Android until the cows come home and always compare negatively.

      General Press/TV: Give it a slight positive slant and compare the new platform to how it's previous handsets did.

      Joe Public: Word of mouth will be more important in encouraging more people to buy into Blackberry products.

      I personally think Blackberry have readjusted themselves well and actually now have a clear target audience to sell to. Managed to pull all the major app developers and beyond onboard. It's not going to be slow to take off and taking a brave step to invest in a rock solid architechure shows entrepreneurial skills required to fight in this business. Apple did the same when reviving the smartphone. I'm hoping Blackberry can continue WebOS' good work and have spun their development around that influence of fluid multitasking. It's certainly making me think about coming away from my beloved iPhone 4 (not because I dislike iOS - just need something to make my work/personal life management easier). iPhone 5 has a crappy cheap design, Android phones I'll never touch again after my horrid experiences and Windows can keep shooting themselves in the foot by not convincing me their phones are for my target group.

      1. Flywheel

        Re: Nice to see some objectivity

        I agree with your comments about the media - from what I heard yesterday (the video stream didn't show the audience once started) , they managed to get the cast of some zombie movie in a between-takes moment. I've heard more more emotion at a Lib-Dem party political broadcast. Mind you, the opening shot of the press in the front row with their Apple laptops should have forewarned me. Maybe the poor luvvies were uncomfortable to see that perhaps someone might start to challenge Apple.. but we'll see.

        As regards "strong carrier support for BlackBerry", I don't know if I'm looking at a different set of carriers, but I still see the Blackberry Curves etc being pushed on web sites. Considering it's allegedly launched today in the UK I'd say someone's missing a trick here..

        1. the-it-slayer

          Re: Nice to see some objectivity

          As regards "strong carrier support for BlackBerry", I don't know if I'm looking at a different set of carriers, but I still see the Blackberry Curves etc being pushed on web sites. Considering it's allegedly launched today in the UK I'd say someone's missing a trick here..

          I think you're right Flywheel. UK carriers are very slowly pushing the phone:

          - Vodafone has it on their frontpage to order

          - EE is still not showing it anywhere on the frontpage but are now selling it (weirdly, T-Mobile and Orange who aren't the 4G brand under the same umbrella are pushing it more)

          - Three are showing nothing

          - O2 are battling for business by plastering it on their front page

          Maybe Blackberry haven't been strict enough from removing their old stock and carriers still wish to sell them until all gone. As you say, that could be a big mistake.

          1. chr0m4t1c

            Re: Nice to see some objectivity

            I think the limited availability of LTE and the expense of EE's service in the UK is probably keeping away the two biggest sectors of the BB market (Suits and Da Youf), which is probably why they're not pushing it very hard.

            It might get onto the front page in six months when the coverage is better and businesses think about using the network, but that will very much depend on whether or not it shows signs of taking off.

            To keep in with El Reg's tradition of providing anecdotal evidence in the comments, I'd just like to say that so far no one I know is planning on getting one. Those with Blackberrys at the moment have decided they're not impressed and are off to Android or Apple, those who had Blackberrys are not coming back because they can't see any advantage over their current smartphone.

            And the appointment of Alicia Keys as Creative Director just makes them look like one of those stuffy politicians trying desperately to look cool by saying they're into whatever the current hot singer/group is.

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    After ditching RIM they were going to call themselves SpitRoast...

    ...but the domain name had already gone. So I am told.

    1. TeeCee Gold badge
      Coat

      Re: After ditching RIM they were going to call themselves SpitRoast...

      I hear they're collaborating with LG and E-ten on their next device.

      The Blackberry Chocolate Starfiish.

  22. Mr Young
    Coffee/keyboard

    I seem to remember?

    A reasonable selling point of RIM was the security and privacy - how's that going? And judging by the article I also don't see any end to the "headline pun filth" either:-

    Blackberry?

    Front buttons?

    Trouser pocket?

    Stupidity aside - good luck to them! I might even read a review...

  23. Esskay
    Thumb Up

    Was a rebrand necessesary?

    I was hoping theyd just do a Dick Smith-style piss-taking advertisment, playing on the smuttier aspects of the acronym "RIM":

    - I've been waiting years to get RIMmed again!

    -My girlfriend is RIMming me for my birthday!

    or even just job advertising application - RIMjobs, perhaps?

    Back to the phone though, I'd like to see it take a piece of the market, competition is always a good thing, and whilst they're not for everyone (including myself), Blackberry, whilst not good at everything, seem to be focusing on doing a few things well.

  24. Jim Wilkinson

    So it's a mobile phone...

    But what makes the fruit machine and the robot toys interesting are the 3rd party apps. It'll be interesting to see how many developers jump on board and whether the best apps get ported. Or maybe RIMs target will be the corporates who typically hate 3rd party apps 'cos of "security issues".

  25. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Skype

    Mmmm yeah Skype doesn't seem to be coming to Blackberry. They've been promising it's "just around the corner" for about 3 years now.

  26. Hi Wreck

    I'm lost

    What about maps? Google saved iOS's sorry arse.

  27. Lunatik
    FAIL

    Meh.

    The problem is that the BlackBerry market is, of right now, a dwindling user base of corporates who only want security and to maximise any value from their previous BBE investments, and a primarily teen audience who want free/cheap handsets for BBM.

    These new handsets satisfy neither group from what I can see. Not cheap enough for the teens and there's nothing that will stop the drift to other platforms by the Enterprise crowd who've now had a taste of sweeter treats elsewhere.

    Final nail in coffin? I'm betting BlackBerry will attempt to position these as premium devices and charge accordingly. That, coupled with the limited availability (March/April for US and Q10?) will erode any slim chance they have of pulling this off.

  28. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    Skype?

    Unless it will run Skype (without being tied to one particular US ISP), it's not coming anywhere near my shortlist. Lack of Skype was what made me jump ship from BB to HTC.

    1. Levente Szileszky
      Stop

      Re: Skype?

      " Lack of Skype was what made me jump ship from BB to HTC."

      I'm the exact opposite: not having Skype preinstalled on something is a positive sign especially since this already-bugfest PoC became the property of the biggest bugfest-developer of the world, led by the stupidest sitting CEOs of all tech companies.

      It's enough having to use Skype when I want to talk to non-tech people, no need to push this pile of junk onto my phone.

  29. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Too late.

    Finally got rid of the work BB with a Galaxy S3 and pretty much everyone I know is doing the same.

  30. Simbu
    Facepalm

    Consolation prize...

    el Reg, you may have lost the RIMming puns, but think of the possibilities ahead... Blackberry World? Someone really wasn't thinking when they approved that name.

    1. Levente Szileszky
      WTF?

      Re: Consolation prize...

      Umm... what?

      1. Lunatik
        Paris Hilton

        Re: Consolation prize...

        My guess is Simbu is slightly more au fait with websites devoted to specialist imagery of, erm...'larger' ladies.

This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like