43 percent of smartphone sales are Android based, according to Nielsen. Android devices currently hold a 27% market share, putting Android in a close race with Apple and RIM. As you can see from the graph below, Android is climbing sharply, while Apple is staying roughly even, and RIM is declining.
This is particularly interesting when you consider that this huge climb in marketshare has happened in just one year. This is likely helped by the fact that the Android platform is available on a large range of devices, while the iPhone OS and the RIM BlackBerry OS are only available on their branded devices. Likely, this growth will continue over 2011, with the Android OS quickly becoming dominant.
Research In Motion has just released a 3G BlackBerry Curve in pink, officially called Fuchsia Pink. This phone has the same features as the original black version, with a 2MP camera, 2.5″ (dia.) color display, and 320×240 TFT LCD.
This may well be the perfect Valentines gift. I know I would prefer it to chocolates. Other features: WiFi technology, BlackBerry push technology, VZ Navigator™, Visual Voice Mail, V CAST Music w/Rhapsody and V CAST Video on Demand, Mobile Broadband Connect.
I only found it available through Verizon in pink, but I’m sure other carriers will be following shortly.
It’s no secret that RIM’s PlayBook is going to need a connection to a nearby BlackBerry phone to do much of its corporate heavy lifting, and a new video posted by the company today shows a little more detail on exactly how that’ll look. The one-minute, 54-second spot spends much of its time in the tablet’s email app, demonstrating how the Playbook and the Torch beside it are perfectly in sync — read an email on one, it immediately shows read on the other, and so on. We also learn that any secured corporate data that you’re using on the PlayBook while tethered is essentially on loan — it’ll disappear as soon as you disconnect, which is one of the reasons RIM’s touting this as a bolt-on for any corporate BES environment that won’t require any additional configuration or lines of data service. The video certainly doesn’t do much to appeal to the casual BlackBerry user — you know, the Curve and Pearl types of folks — but it’s an interesting watch nonetheless. Check it after the break.
Those of you fiending for a hit of PlayBook are in luck today. RIM has just posted an official video that shows the new BlackBerry tablet in action. This demo is geared towards enterprise customers/users. It highlights the way the PlayBook syncs up with and pulls data from a BlackBerry.
We are shown the PlayBook connected to a BlackBerry smartphone via a secured and encrypted Bluetooth connection. In the event that the phone and slate are disconnected, all secure data is immediately removed from the PlayBook. IT will have the same level of control with the PlayBook as they do with their existing BlackBerry phones.
RIM is relying on the fact that the PlayBook requires no new data plan or account to push enterprise adoption over the better-known iPad. Businesses won’t need to deal with any extra reoccurring costs, and the IT department won’t have the headache of integrating a bunch of new devices into their security framework.
Looks like RIM is playing it cautious with the PlayBook as the company needs the tablet to succeed to stay relevant. Production of the PlayBook tablet is between 150,000-200,000 a month from Quanta’s plant in Taiwan, with shipments ready as early as February. Sources say that RIM is building the PlayBook exclusively in Taiwan so white-box makers in China won’t be able to copy the tablet, while also protecting its security specifications.
As Apple continues to advance into the corporate field where RIM once ruled, the PlayBook could be RIM’s rebuttal to the popular iPad. The PlayBook is set for a staggered launch, with the US getting the first shipments followed by an international expansion.
Corporate executives have been longing for a BlackBerry like computer and RIM is hoping the PlayBook is what they’ve been waiting for. Quanta stated that it maintains sufficient capacity in Taiwan to meet client needs right now without the majority of its production lines in China. The low production numbers look to be part of RIM’s strategy to see how popular the device is first in the US before full blown production takes place. The PlayBook currently has a March release date.
You like numbers? Good, because it’s the season and amid all these lovely financial reports we’ve been hitting there are some broader trends to look at. IDC has released its mobile phone report for 2010 and has concluded that, worldwide, the industry grew 18.5 percent over 2009, shipping a massive 1.39 billion units. That’s nice and all, but check out this bit about ZTE. The manufacturer boosted its annual shipments by 94 percent, stealing Apple’s recently-won fourth place position globally and, in doing so, knocking RIM straight into the dreaded “others” category. Can RIM make it back? Will Apple recover? Will Siobhan and Lucky ever reconcile their differences? Tune in next quarter to find out.
RIM’s 2011 CDMA device roadmap has leaked, bringing with it details of a renewed push for the Canadian company into touchscreen handsets. According to what looks like a RIM presentation passed to CrackBerry, the BlackBerry PlayBook release in Q2 2011 will be shortly followed by the all-touch BlackBerry Monaco, a 1.2GHz CDMA/UMTS World Phone hybrid with a 3.7-inch WVGA touchscreen and 5-megapixel camera with flash.
The Monaco will also have an optical trackpad, 4GB of storage, 768MB of RAM and a memory card slot; connectivity will include WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, microUSB and NFC, along with GPS, a digital compass and accelerometer. The smartphone will run BlackBerry v6.1 and measure 120 x 62 x 11.5 mm.
It’ll launch in Q3 2011 alongside the BlackBerry Bold Touch (aka Montana), at 10.5mm the thinnest BlackBerry to date, and taking the top spot in RIM’s QWERTY range with its forged, machined steel chassis. The Bold Touch pairs a physical keyboard and a 2.8-inch VGA capacitive touchscreen, together with an optical trackpad, CDMA/UMTS and WiFi b/g/n. More specs in the gallery below.
Finally there’s the BlackBerry Sedona, set to bring its simple QWERTY phone ways to the market in Aug-Sept 2011, though still packing NFC, and the BlackBerry Curve Touch, a 3.25-inch HVGA all-touch smartphone with 5-megapixel camera and WiFi b/g/n. Full details in the gallery. RIM is pushing for NFC support across its range, which will be used for peer-to-peer networking and with special accessories.
CrackBerry looks to have just gotten the inside scoop on everything RIM has planned for the CDMA side of the wireless divide in 2011 — and as usual, it seems they’ll be supporting it just as well as they do the GSM guys. Going chronologically, first up will be a CDMA PlayBook in the second quarter of the year; so far, Sprint’s WiMAX version (sans CDMA support) is the only carrier-partnered version of the tablet announced. Next comes Montana — a CDMA version of the Dakota — which may come to market as the Bold Touch; as the name implies, you can expect the classic portrait QWERTY Bold form factor with the addition of a touchscreen. Look for that one in the third quarter alongside the Monaco (pictured above), which looks like a much sleeker Storm successor featuring a 1.2GHz Qualcomm core, a 3.7-inch WVGA display, and a 5 megapixel camera with HD video capture. Next, we’ll get a CDMA flavor of the Apollo dubbed Sedona, a next-gen Curve with NFC support; that’ll happen sometime around fall. Finally, looking into early 2012 we’ll get a device codenamed Malibu that looks to be a full-screen Curve Touch with slightly lower specs than the Monaco.
On the technology side, most of these new devices will be adopting a handful of technologies not seen on BlackBerrys before, including digital compasses, NFC, HD video recording and “management,” and better HTML5 media support; they’ll also be getting OpenGL support, mobile hotspot capability, 24-bit color, a better web browser, and an overhauled virtual keyboard by way of BlackBerry OS 6.1, which should be present in everything that gets launched here. Caught up? Given the lack of dual-core processors here — the kind of CPUs Lazaridis says he needs to drop QNX on phones — we’d say “no,” but they might be getting within earshot. Follow the break for a shot of the full roadmap.
RIM has told the Indian government that there is no way that it can supply covert access to encrypted emails sent using BlackBerry smartphones, in the process risking finding its service in the country cut off over security concerns. The denial is the latest in a back & forth battle between the Canadian company and the Indian security forces, over concerns that BlackBerry phones will be used by terrorists and dissidents to communicate, and RIM’s persistent claims that a monitoring system would be technologically infeasible.
“There is no possibility of us providing any kind of a solution,” RIM vice president Robert Crow insists, “there is no solution, there are no keys to be handed.” Instead, Crow suggests, individual Indian companies would have to hand over their own encryption keys to the government. Still, there are hopes that India’s security forces will be content with the BlackBerry messenger access RIM has already granted.
For years, suit-and-tie circles have bowed to BlackBerry as the king of corporate communication, but iOS has been creeping in on enterprise territory, calling into question RIM’s sovereignty in the boardroom. The folks at Deutsche Bank Equity Research struck the most recent blow to RIM’s enterprise dominance with the announcement that they’ll buck BlackBerry for iPhone, following a trial using Good Technology’s secure email app. The company tested the app in conjunction with Microsoft Exchange Server, delivering AES 192-encrypted email and calendar data to employees, and, according to the firm’s research analyst, the iPhone proved an easier and faster solution to BlackBerry. Last summer, AT&T announced that 40 percent of iPhone sales are enterprise, and we just reported on RIM’s possible move to devices beyond the BlackBerry. We’re not saying it’s off to the guillotine with the old standard bearer, but it definitely looks like there are new contenders for the enterprise crown.
