BlackBerry in a hurry to re-establish itself

The BlackBerry's problems have been obscured by sales figures so far. But with the iOS and Android onslaught, it needs apps fast.

The shift towards the perception that BlackBerry makers Research In Motion are in trouble due to the onslaught of Android and iOS phones is natural, but premature. Only some time ago, BlackBerry made a serious effort to take younger users into its fold as well, and the campaign seems to have hit it off in the UK, in India, South Africa and in some other countries (that don't include the USA).

In these countries, the new trend started with younger people getting their BlackBerrys through their seniors or parents who were buying new devices and handed their old BlackBerrys to the kids. These youth found BlackBerry messenger to be very useful and the fact that it was free was an added bonus. Despite the new-found popularity among younger users and, of course, the enterprise segment, Research In Motion is definitely having some problems due to the increasing popularity of iPhone and Android phones.

However, the growth rate of handset sales has obscured some of the company's problems so far. The operating system is all important when it comes to smartphones, because where hardware is concerned there are only touchscreen devices and those that have Qwerty keyboards.

The BlackBerry operating system looks good but dated, and that's why the company has come out with BlackBerry OS 7. 

Research In Motion recently made a slew of announcements at the BlackBerry World event, and in addition to that, BlackBerry Messenger is its hidden social network, which has a community in everywhere, including in India, and the members of this community are not likely to trade their messengers for anything else.

RIM Launches Blackberry Bold Touch 9900

Canadian handset manufacturer Research In Motion has announced two new handsets, the Blackberry Bold Touch 9900 and the 9930, the only difference between the two is that the first is aimed at the GSM market while the other will be sold for CDMA networks.

As its name implies, the Bold Touch 9900 has a capacitive touchscreen, in this case, a 2.8-inch VGA one that RIM calls "Liquid Graphics", which has up to four times more pixels than the previous generation.

The handset is powered by a 1.2GHz single core System on Chip, with 768MB RAM, Wi-Fi, Near Field Communications, a five megapixel camera with AF, flash and HD video recording capabilities, 8GB onboard storage and a microSD slot.

A new Blackberry OS, version 7, will drive the handset, which not only supports NFC natively but also allows custom options for the homescreen, as well as voice activated searches and a new feature called Balance which allows users to manage personal and business data separately.

At 130g and 10.5mm thick, the new Bold Touch 9900 is both slimmer and lighter than the last Touch but still manages to keep its signature keyboard layout and the five proprietary front buttons.

No UK mobile phone operators have announced yet when or whether they will stock the new Bold Touch 9900 and at what price; however given that it will be the top of the range model from RIM, one can expect it to sell on £35 monthly contracts or higher.