Will BB10 save RIM?
After almost devoting their products to the corporate market, RIM have be considered the business to go this year. Massive fall in stock prices and limited a limited range of products sets the company out to be nothing more than a ticking time bomb. However, those folks over at RIM have release what is to be considered as a last attempt to put the company back on the map.
Known as the BB10, this product finally allows blackberry to catch up with it's competitors. The lack of touch screen and a cheap qwerty keyboard has been destroying the company over the years, and it looks like RIM have finally noticed.
Unlike previous devices, there is no doubt that the BB10 has the potential to appear to a mass market, after all, the sales of the iPhone and Samsung Galaxy series speak volumes when it comes to what consumers want.
The main problem with this product launch is that in order to save the company, nothing can do wrong. The slightest of bugs or design faults and RIM is finished, simple as that. It's here where I ask myself, how likely is that? Well considering it took them this long to realise a touch screen phone was a good idea, I doubt they are the sharpest tools in the box so to speak. I won't deny that they played a huge part in revolutionising the smartphone industry, and changing the way businesses communicate, but they did sort of stop there.
Already the new system suffered delays, so it really isn't looking great, but putting all that aside, lets look at the product.
The device will feature a duel core 1.5ghz processor, 16gb internal storage and an 8mp camera.
Sounds pretty decent, but it's nothing that it's competitors don't already have. The main USP of this product would have to be it's price, a pretty reasonable $199, but do you just get what you pay for?
Unfortunately it seems like RIM's fate is sealed, and here's the big reason why. 70,000 apps. Nowadays, that just doesn't cut it. Despite the fact on average people only have like 20-30 apps, people what hundreds of thousand to choose from, which Blackberry cannot supply. Of course I'm sure that RIM are planning expansion of the 'BlackBerry World' but consumers don't want to wait, and RIM can't afford to waste time.
Overall I'd expect to see a nice little sales spike after the release of the BB10, but nothing major, and I think sooner rather than later we'll be saying ByeBye to BlackBerry.