Blackberry Starts off the New Year big!

Blackberry, formally Research in Motion (RIM), has started off the New Year with some major changes to the company itself along with their product line. Lately, Blackberry has been reaching a point of no-return and is close to full bankruptcy.

Figure 1 – CEO Thorstein Heins at Blackberry’s show.

Starting off the major changes, Blackberry has dropped their old uncommon name, RIM, and will now be known solely as Blackberry. “From today on, we are Blackberry everywhere in the world…One Brand, One Promise” said president and CEO Thorstein Heins. Many people already knew RIM as Blackberry, but this smart and successful changeover will allow the company to focus on their smartphones.

Blackberry holds something very special that many cell phone companies want. The fact that millions of American companies choose Blackberry as their main phone provider is outstanding. Realizing the fact that business personnel use their phones, Blackberry’s sole design has been for the everyday business man. By adding a QWERTY keyboard, small pocket sized, strong durable metal body, and a work related operating system it’s easy to see why companies pick Blackberry phones.

Figure 2 – The brand new Z10 and Q10.

Moving on to even more major changes, Blackberry is proud to announce two brand new phones, the Z10 and Q10. The phones were designed to make sure that all Blackberry users are happy. Both of the newly designed phones will run 4G LTE and be offered on AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon. An exclusive offer for Verizon customers will be the optional White colored phones.

Blackberry has always made a standard QWERTY keyboard based smartphone, but with the Z10 there isn’t even one button on the front. The Z10 offers a 4.2in 1,280-by-789 LCD display with 356ppi. Powering this crystal clear screen is a 1.5GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 CPU with 2GB of RAM and a total of 16GB of internal storage, plus the micro SD. Blackberry also gave the Z10 a 1080p 8MP rear facing camera and a 720p 2MP front facing camera for excellent picture/video recording. Other major hardware includes Bluetooth 4.0, Near Field Capability for easy file transfers, a 1800mAh battery and that all comes into a weight of 4.8oz.

Blackberry has not forgotten about those loving customers that enjoy those physical keyboards for fast and easy typing.

When it comes to the Q10’s hardware it is basically identical to the Z10’s. The screen is a 3.1in SuperAMOLED display with a 720-by-720 resolution at 330ppi, and yes, the screen is a capacitive touch screen. It is als0 powered by the same 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 as the Z10 along with 2GB of RAM and comes with 16GB of storage. The camera is identical as well as other major features, although the Q10 does come with a longer lasting battery with a 2100mAh removable battery.

Figure 3 – Blackberry 10

With the new roll out of the Z10 and Q10 Blackberry has been working on their brand new operating system for quite a while now. With major push backs and delays people were starting to wonder if this outstanding OS would ever be released. Blackberry 10 is an all new redesigned OS to bring Blackberry OS into today’s world, with major features that can be found in Android and iOS.

With Blackberry 10 you can have one phone but two different personalities. A new feature allows users to quickly switch between personal mode and business mode. With personal mode the phone will automatically change the wallpaper, allow social media apps, games, and switch over emails. When moving back over to the business side of the phone you can require a password to access the business section. You will then start to receive work emails and updates and be transformed into a work environment.

The User Interface has been totally redone and is filled with finger gestures for quick, easy and cool movements for apps. With a growing app store of more than 75,000 apps there is enough to keep you happy and entertained. The keyboard also has a nice feature that can predict your next word by writing out the word above the next letter, all you need to do is swipe up.

Figure 4 – Sad Blackberry

Even with all of these major changes some people still ask if this is enough to save Blackberry from the point of no-return. I guess we’ll need to wait and see in March when this is all released, although this clearly shows that when Blackberry tries to create an outstanding phone and OS they go all out on it.