BlackBerry 10 – RIM’s Latest Attempt To Compete With IOS: Is It Tempting? [Teaser Video]
As iPhone fans, you can be forgiven for not knowing that today was the day RIM execs took center-stage at BlackBerry World 2012, in Orlando. The fresh(ish) team took time to present what it sees as the future of RIM, and mobile computing in general.
The big talking point was BlackBerry 10, the newly designed, fresh, QNX-based operating system that attempts to embrace both the corporate user and consumer market all in one.
After the recent revelation of Apple’s success in the enterprise market, Thorsten Heins (RIM CEO) was quick to point out that 90% of the Fortune 500 companies still use BlackBerry faithfully.
While that support still remains, RIM won’t be disappearing anytime soon. But, it won’t be focussing solely on that market anymore. The aim is to successfully balance between general public use and business.
The video above gives a really quick sneak peak at what the new OS will look like. The new focus on media, apps, and camera should be interesting, but perhaps even more so is the keyboard. Although it’s completely virtual, it still keeps that BlackBerry feel, and comes with some neat features, like having a new form of predictive text.
Having read a few live blogs, I understand that it also learns your thumb position and adjusts accordingly. It’s attention to detail like this that I really enjoy. I really like the impressions we get of the new UI too, it reminds me a lot of webOS in some ways, which I (along with many tech fans) still have a soft spot for.
One big issue currently, is Apps. There’s no way that I can replace my daily driver with a BlackBerry while the software market is so bare, and expensive. BlackBerry is aiming to solves this with a new, fast app-building program that will either turn out to be a stroke of genius, or fill the market with hundreds of same-looking programs.
What about you? Does this teaser make BlackBerry a realistic option for you again? I’m still not convinced that I would switch, but, it’s nice to see my former favorites trying to move in the right direction.
