As we speak, BlackBerry is wrapping up day one of a 3 day event for developers in Orlando, FL. Many missteps and poor decisions have been made in previous years, but it seems Thorsten Heins is determined to turn the ship around. I know that this revamp can't be made in one event, and BlackBerry still has a tough road ahead, but I do feel they made a good effort to regain some market share at todays keynote.
BlackBerry 10.1 Update
Since the emergence of details surrounding the first BB10 QWERTY, one of the things that most Z10 owners have wondered was when they would receive the bump in operating system versions to the, Q10 exclusive, 10.1 edition. Well, today saw the release of that update to the Z10 in normal rolling fashion. As usual, the arrival of the update will depend on your carrier, and region, of choice, but it is currently available for some European and Canadian models.
BlackBerry Handset Family Has a New Addition
Two hardware related items were revealed in Orlando. First, a new member of the BlackBerry 10 family was brought to life. The BlackBerry Q5 was shown off in public for the first time in five different colors of black, white, red, and pink. This new smaller QWERTY smartphone will essentially replace the Curve line, and will be intended for emerging markets worldwide. The Q5 is slated to be available in select regions of Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa starting in July.
BlackBerry Messenger Goes Cross Platform
One of the cornerstones of the BlackBerry ecosystem has been BlackBerry Messenger. As a pioneer of non-text based messaging in mobile, it helped BlackBerry hold on to many customers in the past, and many felt once the tide started turning against RIM, that the logical move was to open the service to competing operating systems. Well, that idea is soon to be a reality.
The roll-out to Android and iOS is tentatively scheduled to happen this summer, and brings with it many of the BBM essentials. You will have the ability to multi-person, group chat, and share pictures with all your contacts via the service. This is a huge move by Thorsten Heins to bet on BBM being able to compete directly on competitor's handsets, while still presenting itself as a selling point of BlackBerry 10. BBM will also face some stiff competition in market shares with the likes of iMessage, Whatsapp, Skype, and Google Talk.
BBM Goes Social
BBM is not just taking on mobile instant messaging. It will also be taking a swing at social networking. BBM Channels will allow you to create a channel on BBM that you can update your status and other users can then "follow" your online happenings. This new feature is more focused towards brands and celebrities, but it is an interesting take on what BBM is capable of, and may be a Google+ style move from Waterloo.
Conclusion
As I said in the intro, BlackBerry is not going be the top dog in mobile any time soon. However, I think they did prove that they are not going to allow themselves to fall back into the same stale patterns of the past 3-4 years. They are actively trying to pursue the 3rd roster spot behind Android and iOS. Given their current status I would say that the first day of BlackBerry Live 2013 was a success for BlackBerry, and CEO Thorsten Heins. They have definitely peaked my interest on the direction of BB10. Unfortunately, Google begins their own developer conference tomorrow. So we will quickly know just how well BlackBerry closed the gap today in Orlando.
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