Sydney – Australia – BlackBerry® (NASDAQ: BBRY; TSX: BB) today announced that Australia’s national transport safety investigator, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), has migrated to BlackBerry’s leading Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) solution, BlackBerry® Enterprise Service 10. Responsible for improving safety in aviation, marine and rail transport, the ATSB is equipping employees with BlackBerry® 10 smartphones to securely capture, share, report and manage mission critical data at transport incidents from any location, including very remote areas on land or at sea.
Management, field investigators and IT support staff at the ATSB will use BlackBerry® Z10 smartphones, with plans to deploy BlackBerry® Z30 smartphones to teams in November.
As an independent government agency, the ATSB conducts investigations of transport incidents and accidents. Investigation teams use email and BBM™ to communicate and collaborate, and record safety data by filling in forms and taking photos that are sent to the ATSB’s database. IT and support teams conduct critical analysis and research to help identify causes of occurrences – used by the ATSB to improve safety and ultimately save lives.
“Being able to securely share real-time data from accident sites is crucial to our investigative role,” said Martin Dolan, Chief Commissioner at the Australian Transport and Safety Bureau. “With BlackBerry 10, our investigation teams are able to navigate to locations, take and share high-quality photos, and collaborate on data from any site they’re sent to, all within a network that conforms to the high security standards that we need.
“We chose BlackBerry 10 for its trusted security, ease of migration and cost-effectiveness, which has overall helped the ATSB realise significant savings. BlackBerry’s devices and management platform are helping to make investigative processes timelier and more comprehensive, while finding cost efficiencies through seamless migration and deployment.”
The migration to BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 is the latest development in a relationship between BlackBerry and the Australian Transport Safety Bureau that spans five years. The combination of BlackBerry 10 smartphones and BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 provides high security standards against data leakage and unauthorized device access to corporate assets. Security of corporate applications and data stored on personal devices (for BYOD deployments) is also embedded seamlessly within the user interface through BlackBerry® Balance™ technology. BlackBerry Balance separates corporate data from personal content, while preserving the end user’s privacy and consumer experience.
“We see this latest iteration of Blackberry’s mobility platform as an enabler of our own technology future, including plans to stream live video from investigations and if we choose to, support a broader range of device types within the organization,” Martin added. “We need to be as agile as possible if we’re to improve the safety of Australian transport. We look forward to working with Blackberry on solutions that will continue to enable our work and deliver a platform for future innovation.”
BlackBerry’s Managing Director for Australia and New Zealand, Matthew Ball said, “BlackBerry 10 is designed to support the needs of government customers, and we’re proud that the Australian Transport Safety Bureau has selected BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10, which helps their employees be adaptable and reliable in the field, and offers strong back-end security and management.
“To date, over 65% of our enterprise customer base in Australia and New Zealand have either deployed or are currently trialing BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10. In addition, we’re looking forward to helping more business and government customers, large and small, take advantage of BlackBerry’s secure network and services with the launch of BlackBerry’s new cloud-based enterprise mobility management solution coming later this year.”
For more information about BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10, please visit www.bes10.com. Now available from carriers and authorised resellers in Australia, the BlackBerry Z30 smartphone is the biggest, fastest and most advanced BlackBerry smartphone, with a 5” display and the largest battery ever on a BlackBerry smartphone. For information about theBlackBerry Z30 smartphone in Australia, please visit http://au.blackberry.com/
WhatsApp messenger just got updated on BlackBerry World. Are you a big WhatsApp user? How is your conversion to BBM going?Are friends and family switching to BBM? Let us know in the comments? How many of you will be using the new “delete my account” feature added to this update?
Copyright 2013 (logo/sm, since 1993), all rights reserved, all content on this site! Photos may not be used without explicit permission, in writing, from PFC Systems, Inc.
MIAMI, Oct. 29, 2013 – Ingram Micro Inc., the world’s largest wholesale technology distributor and a global leader in supply-chain and mobile device lifecycle services and logistics solutions, and BlackBerry, today jointly announced a new agreement whereby Ingram Micro Mobility will become a leading provider of the BlackBerry® portfolio of smartphones throughout Latin America. The agreement equips BlackBerry with broader distribution of its products and services throughout the Latin American region by leveraging Ingram Micro’s supply chain expertise, extensive infrastructure and unique channel reach to value-added resellers (VARs), system integrators, wireless carriers, retailers and other services providers.
“BlackBerry is a major player in the Latin American wireless industry and we’re pleased to help grow their reach with retailers and wireless carriers,” said Anthony Mackle, acting president of Ingram Micro Mobility Latin America. “We are confident that the combination of our extensive infrastructure, unmatched logistics capabilities and the strength of our sales force will enable us to extend the current distribution network of BlackBerry’s smartphone portfolio, while also opening previously untapped channels for them.”
Ingram Micro is the largest wholesale exporter in Miami and has a customer base of more than 20,000 VARs and retailers throughout Latin America, covering both business-to-business and business-to-consumer operations.
“Ingram Micro is a valued partner for BlackBerry throughout the world,” said Wes Nicol, regional managing director for Latin America at BlackBerry. “We are excited that Ingram Micro Mobility has recently entered the Latin American market and we look forward to extending our relationship between the companies. The agreement with Ingram Micro in Latin America will create a new set of opportunities to better serve our customers, while providing easier access to our award-winning lineup of software, services and smartphones in more than 40 countries in the region.”
In the USA, Verizon will offer, in November, just in time for the holidays, BlackBerry’s latest cell phone offering, the all new 5″ super AMOLED,for $199 with a two year contract. We previously provided details on the new hardware, and 10.2 software:
New Z30 (right) shown next to the Samsung Galaxy S4 (left)
One cool feature of OS 10.2 is the “Adaptive Share” where the software on being requested to “share” something, learns your favorite “share” sites like BBM friends, BBM Channels, FaceBook and presents the top share selections as top suggestions with larger icons and top line placement of a users favorite sharing habits. For a recent media interview see the story below.
BlackBerry introduced the BlackBerry 10 platform in January, and in September showed off the Z30, its final smartphone for the year and one that completes the BB10 portfolio with now two touchscreen-focused options and two QWERTY hybrids, Vivek Bhardwaj, BlackBerry’s head of software, told journalists during a briefing Oct. 28. BlackBerry is hoping to stir up a bit more user interest in several ways. There’s that large, vibrant display; a battery that, in mixed-use scenarios, can last more than 24 hours, according to Bhardwaj; and new antenna technology from BlackBerry-acquired Paratak. “They have a very unique solution we’re using for the first time,” Bhardwaj explained. “Most antennas in phones are fixed, or calibrated for a few conditions. But what the Paratek solution does is re-tune on the fly, depending on the conditions. If you’re in a low-coverage area … it recalibrates the antenna so it’s optimized for that lower-coverage area.”
BlackBerry also gave the Z30 six microphones, which circle its exterior. On a conference call, “you can actually tell where people are sitting, it gives you such a strong spatial awareness,” said Bhardwaj. Called BlackBerry Natural Sound, it can better capture audio in a video at a concert, say, but also drown out ambient noise during a call to someone in a busy place.
On the software side, BlackBerry upgraded the Z30 to BB 10.2. One major change in the OS addresses a challenge so many apps are lately out to solve: sorting through too much email. In the Hub, 10.2 features a Priority Hub. The OS learns, as you use it, what’s a priority to you, though it’s easy to also designate contacts or conversations as Priority.
Also new are notifications that run at the top of the device, enabling a user to see a communication that comes in—a text, or an email, for example—while doing something like taking photos or reading in the browser. Without ever leaving the app, one can also respond.
Another little time-saver is on the locked screen. Where before a user could see, without unlocking the screen, that she had new emails and Tweets, now she can even read them, or parts of them.
They’re nice improvements, but are they enough? And why another touchscreen-focused device, when BlackBerry’s last earnings report made clear the Z10 isn’t selling? (The company sold 3.7 million smartphones during the quarter, the majority of which were running Blackberry 7, and posted a quarterly loss of $965 million.)
“It’s about the complete portfolio, and being able to offer it as a choice,” Bhardwaj said again. Maybe a customer goes into a store for the Z10 but decides he likes the Z30 better, or vice versa. “We’d rather we cannibalized by our own products.”
While he wouldn’t talk about the company’s pending sale, Bhardwaj suggested it was nothing that should keep buyers away.The average buyer, he said, just wants a great phone, he or she isn’t asking about the company’s financial standing. The idea that people are looking beyond product shelves into the details of companies is wrong, he said. “We have to break some of that distortion.”
More than 60 million monthly active users on BlackBerry devices with more than 20 million new iOS and Android users in the last week
More than 51 million daily active users who are connecting with friends or colleagues an average of one and a half hours every day.
BBM users send and receive more than 10 billion messages each day, nearly twice as many messages per user per day as compared to other mobile messaging apps
Almost half of BBM messages are read within 20 seconds of being received; indicating how truly engaged BBM customers are.
More than 60 million monthly active users
A positive article (not even considering the Channels Playcard!) on Forbes states:
“BBM Could Be Worth Billions if BlackBerry Can Copy The Line PlayBook” –Tero Kuittinen, October 25, 2013, Forbes.
It is difficult to get a handle on what the early success of BlackBerry’s messaging service on Apple’sAAPL +0.47% iOS and Google’sGOOG +0.49% Android platforms might mean. By Friday 3 PM, BBM has become the #1 app in 80 countries. It hit the 10 M user mark on iOS and Android platforms in 24 hours, yet continues performing remarkably well on its fourth day. It seems that the early wave of super loyal BlackBerry users and curious rubberneckers is segueing into sustained interest in the app. But how to value a free download app that currently offers no paid add-on features or advertising that would create cash flow? The best comparison here is probably LINE, the wildly popular text-messaging service that is now closing on the 300 M download mark.
CEO Thorsten Heins introduces the BlackBerry Z10 (Image credit: AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Nathan Denette)
Here is the tricky part: LINE, one of the most successful monetization cases in the messaging business, only launched its game service in July 2012. At that point, it had hit 45 M users. It seems possible that BBM could build a similar pool of fresh iOS/Android users in a matter of months. After launching the game service, it took just 9 months for LINE to hit 100 M game downloads. By spring of 2013, LINE’s game and sticker revenue was topping $100 M a quarter. LINE’s strategy of leveraging a free messaging app to build a wildly profitable game marketing platform took just 12 months to execute. The approach is still so novel that it’s hard to evaluate whether it can be copied by other vendors and how the revenue growth patterns might look after two or three years. But it is clear that at least in Asia, possessing a popular free messaging app is the most effective way to promote games. Right now, 19 out of Top 20 highest grossing apps in Korea belong to the KakaoTalk messaging app platform.
By Friday afternoon, BBM still clung to #2 position in the US iPhone download chart – and remained the #1 app in major markets like Turkey, Mexico, Netherlands, Spain, UK, Switzerland, Malaysia, Philippines and Indonesia. It is particularly interesting that BBM is performing so well in markets where BlackBerry never broke through as a smartphone. It is a Top 10 app in countries like Hungary and Italy. It has hit Top 30 even in Sweden and Finland, the European markets that used to be the most hostile towards BlackBerry devices, never even yielding 2% market penetration for BB.
It took LINE 400 days to reach 100 M registered users. BBM currently has around 60 M users on BlackBerry devices and perhaps 15 M on iOS/Android. The BlackBerry user base is likely set to erode relatively rapidly – but the strong early iOS and Android momentum seems to indicate that hitting 100 M users across all platforms could well happen by next summer. Of course, it is far too early to make solid projections for BBM growth. But its success in several key markets in its first week has already eclipsed anything LINE has managed. For example, this past summer LINE could only crack the US iPhone download chart for a single day, peaking at #18. App download market is utterly dominated by games – messaging apps very rarely crack the Top 10 chart of any market and often tend to achieve this in a very narrow spectrum of countries.
In contrast to LINE, WeChat and Kakaotalk, the early traction of BBM is surprisingly even across Latin America, North America, Caribbean, Africa, Middle East and South East Asia. The only major markets where it is really striking out are Japan, Korea, Taiwan and China. This is to be expected – LINE dominates Japan absolutely, Kakao rules Korea and WeChat has a lock on China. But in markets like USA, UK, Brazil, South Africa and Indonesia, BBM has been able to rack up massive early download volumes even against rival services with very high established market penetration. It looks like BBM has a decent chance of vaulting clearly ahead of rivals such as Tango, Kik and Nimbuzz in coming months.
If BBM hits the middle tier between behemoths like LINE and WhatsApp who are closing in on 100-300 M active monthly users and smaller rivals like Tango and Nimbuzz, how would the service be valued? That depends entirely on whether BlackBerry can build an effective content distribution/marketing system on top of BBM. If it can copy the LINE playbook and start offering social games once it has 45 M iOS/Android users, BlackBerry could be hitting the game platform stage already next spring. BBM currently has strong traction in some of the most lucrative mobile game markets in the world, including USA , UK and Germany.
Expecting BBM to match LINE’s $100M a quarter game/sticker revenue by end of 2014 is a stretch, because BlackBerry has no prior experience in managing this type of business and Japanese consumers are more willing to pay for extras than their Western peers. But a successful BBM network across the globe is a potential marketing platform that could reach revenue of tens of millions a quarter in short order. What BlackBerry needs right now is a clear, effective strategy of rolling out LINE-like content offerings and tailoring them to each major market. If the company can manage this, BBM alone could have a substantial valuation by next summer. LINE is planning a Tokyo IPO right now and its market cap is being tentatively estimated to be in the $8-10 B bracket.
Creating a service that could reach just one quarter of LINE’s success should be in BBM’s grasp – and could be a major reversal of fortune for BlackBerry. Much is now riding on how the company handles its BBM content delivery strategy.
My intention was to express my concern over the sale, to explain why I believe it’s not a just reaction to the current circumstances at BlackBerry.I also wanted to provide clear solutions instead of simply addressing the obvious problems. Perhaps understandably the process of writing the letter and the reaction to it from readers, has lead me to believe more needs to be said.
My biggest concern has always been the muted reaction from Canadians to the potential loss of BlackBerry to a foreign bidder and the reputational loss to the Canadian Stock markets & Canada as a competitor on the 1st world stage. It’s a given, if BlackBerry was to be taken over by a foreign company or even taken private, it will not look good upon the Canadian Stock Market, and on their ability to support their listings. Canada will lose a foothold in high tech/high talent jobs and intellectual IP built by Canadians, as happened with Nortel and the Avrow Arrow:
The question becomes why? Or a deeper look asks, what’s really going on?
Previously I gave examples of how Americans support their publicly traded tech companies. How they support their technology companies through their financial markets.
I provided data on how Facebook, Twitter, Netflix and Tesla among others, trade at hundreds of times their earnings. These massive multiples are amassed in part because of how the American financial system is set up to support their technology industry & other listed stocks.
Hedge funds backed up by massive media outlets provide a megaphone to the American population, extolling the virtues of said companies while simply ignoring the potentially dangerous multiples those companies trade at. The hedge funds provide the analysis and the media provide the megaphone.
American TV networks and news media protect and build value for their companies. It is often the same ownership at the helm of the media and companies being built up, with the same vested interests; the same power makers and lobbyists that offer the venture capital.
Once you take a closer look. You see the connected nature of the system. You see how everyone stands to benefit from the consistent positive spin. It’s true that the media players bring out market bears, that give the opposite view of the market and the companies we’ve been discussing. But by carefully controlling the content and ratio of positives vs negatives, the resulting perceptions are built casting a reality; all this gets to carry on as those companies with the massive valuations, far outside their ability to earn money proceed to use those funds to buy actual value.
Canada lacks the global reach of the American Media, and often the Canadian media just tows the line on what is fed via the American news outlets.With all levels of media being controlled by a select group of lobbyists/venture capitalists/owners at the top, almost as a single entity, it can turn that perception machine into a force against a company. This negative analyst/media frenzy can destroy or devalue a company like BlackBerry to the point where it can be sold at “auction” with the same nay sayers being able to buy up the pieces at half of book value.
All we have to do is look at the American system and how it creates value in very junior companies, even if not public yet. As an example, PATH, a newly formed instant messaging service, started by an early Facebook employee, someone who knows the system, knows the venture capitalists and how the media outlets can be manipulated.
PATH recently reached 10 million users of their service, some say with illegal means:
The financial system in the USA values PATH at $1Billion; they recently received additional venture capital funding. Yet the book value of the company is nowhere near $1 billion dollars, most of the valuation is based on future earnings potential.
By contrast, BlackBerry has an instant messaging system, BlackBerry Messenger. Many would argue BBM is far more feature rich than PATH. Plus, they had 60 million users previous to BBM launching on Android and Apple over the last week, when BBM was downloaded 10 million times in the first 24 hours! It was downloaded over 20 million times before the first 3 days. As I write this, millions more people are about to get started using BBM, now that there is no “line”. Yet with the current Fairfax offer that’s on the table for BlackBerry, at one half of BlackBerry’s book value, BBM is receiving a value of $0. That’s to say that BBM has zero current value or future potential value given to it by the market and analysts.
BBM Quick Facts:
More than 60 million monthly active users.
More than 51 million daily active users who are connecting with friends or colleagues an average of one and a half hours every day.
BBM users send and receive more than 10 billion messages each day, nearly twice as many messages per user per day as compared to other mobile messaging apps.
Almost half of BBM messages are read within 20 seconds of being received; indicating how truly engaged BBM customers are with the platform.
Let’s have a look at another social media company that has yet to go public, Pinterest. Again this company is strictly funded by venture capital. They call it “venture capital” at the early stages but all venture capital is hedge funds & large bank investment arms, often the same funders that have analysts on pay rolls to “review” the market. They’re able, through their market position and ability to promote start ups, to gain early access to the companies in the US. Pinterest is valued at $3.8 billion by the US venture capital system. They have recently reached somewhere between 25 to 50 million users, depending on who you listen to, but they have yet to ever earn a dollar. They admit to not having an actual plan to make money and aren’t even worried about that, at this time.
If you take these two examples alone & compare, not BlackBerry as a whole, but only BlackBerry’s social arm, BBM, and the forthcoming Channels network, I ask how is it possible that the market gives BlackBerry’s efforts zero dollar value? BlackBerry’s BBM alone, as we speak has better than 85 million users. It’s currently growing by millions a day, with users being spread over 180 countries.
BBM Channels will be an independent arm of BlackBerry’s Social Networks, although every BBM user will have access to channels through its chat feature. Channels is still in late stage beta. As a beta tester and channel owner, I can tell you that BlackBerry is on to something big here. Channels will provide businesses, consumer brands, celebrities and everyday individuals a fantastically colorful and secure and private (if chosen to go private) way to interact. The future potential is clear & valuable. Yet, the market gives Channels + BBM zero worth in the current sale of the company at half of book value. Prem Watsa and Fairfax will get a company at “auction” with much more future earning potential than the share holders will be paid.
A positive article (not even considering the Channels Playcard!) on Forbes states:
“BBM Could Be Worth Billions if BlackBerry Can Copy The Line PlayBook” –Tero Kuittinen, October 25, 2013, Forbes.
A world where smart phones will become the entry point of the connected devices. It’s early but this new world is coming up around us, more and more so, every day. First on the agenda would be automotive infotainment and drive train diagnostics. The hands down leader in this brave new world is QNX. The software code, Real Time OS (RTOS), behind the new BackBerry 10 OS cell phones is present in over 300 million current automobiles and their future products. QNX Car2 is already gaining mainstream acknowledgment as the industry standard. QNX is not just in automotive either. Many fail safe industrial systems rely on the QNX RTOS as the only system reliable enough to stand up to their difficult tasks. Military, nuclear and aerospace are counted among them. The F35 Lightning the Abrahams tanks the International Space Station and many of the world’s nuclear power plants rely on QNX. These vastly important BlackBerry customers are not the point though. They are an example of the power and reliability of the BlackBerry, QNX RTOS. Again, very little press or value is given to this ownership by BlackBerry.
“We Aim To Be The Leading Provider of Machine to Machine Embedded Systems” -Frank Boulben- March 16, 2013
Take QNX and couple it with BlackBerry’s Network Operations Centre (NOC) and we understand that this is one of the world’s largest networks which is connected to over 650 mobile carriers worldwide. The bigger picture starts to emerge. BlackBerry holds the key to the largest private “secure” network there is and which is relied on by the likes of NATO the DOD the DND and many national governments around the world for its unmatched level of security. BlackBerry10 operating system & BES10, BlackBerry’s latest MDM or “Mobile Device Management” solution has recently been employed by all of them. Recently, BlackBerry launched their cloud based #MDM solution. That adds unmatched cloud integration. BlackBerry has also secured Android & IOS with BES10.
Everything ties together, BlackBerry is a vertically integrated secure mobile platform & business solution. From the hardware to the software, through the services, that include transfer of data via the NOC & BlackBerry’s network. They have spent the last 2 + years rebuilding the suite of offerings, rewriting the entire architecture of how everything communicates through the network. The foundation is now in place, and it is built for security first. The future is at hand. The QNX RTOS has the ability to communicate with its own kind or other systems that run QNX RTOS through their “transparently distributed processing”:
The connected world is coming and BlackBerry’s technology, whether Canadian or not will be at the forefront of this massive new market including military, industrial, medical and other segments.
Now is not the time for Canadians to be selling BlackBerry for half the value of their hard assets. Now is the time that Canadians should be investing in BlackBerry and investing in Canada’s future, to be at the forefront of a super-connected world.
The American system is the land of what they call “Activist Investors”. These men and women can be worth billions; they are the venture capitalists that offer money, the key industry leaders that sit on several boards, from bank to media. They make it their business to invest in struggling companies and inact change long before the management of a company can fall so far behind in the perception game. They fully understand how a company’s perception becomes its reality.
Activist investors step in and fight to change those perceptions. At times, just the information that an activist investor has got involved in a company is enough to enact change. Sadly, Canada appears not to have any activist investors of the magnitude, technical knowledge and/ or will needed to complete the change started at BlackBerry.
In my letter to the Government of Canada, I recommended that the government request Jim Balsillie to return to BlackBerry as the CEO to fight for the company he once owned. The company he built into a worldwide $20 billion behemoth! Here’s hoping that Jim Balsillie or some other Canadian steps up and fights for BlackBerry to remain Canadian and public. The current CEO does not appear up to the task of completing the BlackBerry transition. Thorsten Heins, top management, and the Board of Directors appear to have lost their resolve to keep BlackBerry moving. That doesn’t mean that someone else can’t!
We live in a gloabal society and there can be alternative views fostered and developed by alternative thinkers/companies. BlackBerry has invented the global communicating hardware, championed and used by so many of industries’ titans in Canada, the USA, all over the world! There can be a real alternative to Apple, Android (Google) and Microsoft. There can be intellectual creativity from different nations shared globally! The market space is large enough to foster healthy competition! Innovation cannot happen by assimilation! To all my friends, all over the world, on #TeamBlackBerry, who fight the perception campaign daily, as best they can, I encourage you to support many of us in our bid to keep BlackBerry alive as a public, and preferably Canadian, company. Anything can happen in a sale. You can do your part to help BlackBerry #KeepMoving, by supporting this movement. Repost this and re-tweet it by clicking on the “Twitter” or “Facebook” “button” below! Or, copy and paste this 140 character tweet:
Here’s hoping that you will get on board with this movement and support a titan of innovation, BlackBerry, an alternative reality, an alternative future, before it’s too late. Going private will weaken the brand and the biased/unbiased media scrutiny would remain! BlackBerry needs a serious marketing strategy, and perhaps putting BBM on iOS and Android devices is the beginning of a game-plan?!
We can do this!
BlackBerry-An Alternative Reality, An Alternative Future
Darryl McKinnon.
getdjmac@hotmail.com
@getdjmac
C0007CCC8 Channels
Check out our most recent post on the prospective partners for BlackBerry here:
Copyright 2013 (logo/sm, since 1993), all rights reserved, all content on this site! Photos may not be used without explicit permission, in writing, from PFC Systems, Inc.
BBM tops both the iOS and Google Play charts–world-wide! The number of BBM users is near 100 million with the line to download the app for Android and iOS being eliminated. BBM is also the number one downloaded app on Google Play. This is a great way to market BlackBerry OS10, by loading BBM on the competition’s devices, with the OS 10 swipes, panels, and gestures! What do you think of this social marketing? Is it too late?
BBM messaging is totally free over wi-fi or data with no long distance texting charges and no accrued text count. It is secure and private, no need to give up you tel# or privacy. Give it a try and add your international friends as a contact on your iOS and Android devices! Let’s stay together! Keep moving! Share the love! Rome, I’m talking to you! Tell your friends and family that you would like to be able to keep in touch with no extra “roaming” or long distance text messaging charges and to do so in a secure way.
I’m happy to say that I can now watch one of my favorite shows, “Person of Interest”, on the go with the new CBS app for BlackBerry 10 now available on BlackBerry World.
BlackBerry is rolling out the latest OS 10 update 10.2, following its launch of BBM cross platform.
New Z30 (right) shown next to the Samsung Galaxy S4 (left)
Press Release:
WATERLOO, ONTARIO–(Marketwired – Oct. 23, 2013) –BlackBerry® (BBRY)(BB.TO) today announced that BlackBerry® 10 OS version 10.2 will begin rolling out to customers starting this week through their carriers in Europe, Canada, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific, with other countries to follow. The update will be available for the BlackBerry® Z10, BlackBerry® Q10 and BlackBerry® Q5 smartphones.
BlackBerry OS 10.2 introduces new features that will help you be more productive and stay better connected. It includes hundreds of new refinements that make the things you do every day faster and easier. Here are just some of the new features you’re going to love in BlackBerry OS 10.2:
Priority Hub
Keep your important conversations closer than ever with the new BlackBerry® Priority Hub. Always at your fingertips, Priority Hub learns what conversations are most important to you and automatically puts those messages at the top of your inbox, helping you to stay focused on the most important items. The new attachment view helps you find files and documents across your messaging accounts and within specific message threads.
BBM Video with Natural Sound
BBM™ Video has always allowed you to have a live face-to-face conversation. Now, with BlackBerry® Natural Sound, BBM Video and Voice conversations between BlackBerry 10 smartphones sound more natural and realistic. It’s the next best thing to being in the same room. BlackBerry Natural Sound captures a wider sound spectrum, so you can hear subtle nuances that are lost in most cellular calls.
Instant Previews of BBM, SMS and Email from any app
BBM, SMS and E-mail messages now find you no matter what you are doing on your BlackBerry 10 smartphone. Email, BBM and SMS message previews now appear in any app – you can even respond to your BBM or SMS messages in any app, or go to the BlackBerry Hub with a single swipe to respond to your email. Perfect for keeping the conversation going while you browse the web, watch a video, or use other apps. Of course, you can tailor notifications to the way you work to ensure you’re only notified as much as you want to be.
BlackBerry Keyboard
The smartphone keyboard that knows your next move just got even smarter. With personalized next word suggestion, auto-correction, and the distinctive BlackBerry keyboard layout, we’ve built this keyboard to help you have conversations with speed and accuracy. And on the BlackBerry Z10 and BlackBerry Z30, improved audio feedback with distinct tones for specific keys like backspace and shift help you type more confidently because you’ll have more reassurance you’ve hit the right key.
Copy and Paste Enhancements
Copy and paste just got easier. BlackBerry 10.2 gives you more precise cursor control and text selection is now easier. Once you select text, a pop-up menu gives you editing options and direct sharing with BBM, Facebook and Twitter – so you can quickly copy, paste and share.
Faster, Easier Sharing
BlackBerry 10.2 learns how you share and who you share with, helping you reduce the number of steps and amount of time it takes to get your files, photos, or documents to where they need to go. Touching “share” in any app provides suggestions on who and how to share your files based on who you’ve shared with in the past, and the feature only gets smarter the more you use it.
Lock Screen Notifications
When the red light on your BlackBerry 10 smartphone starts blinking, you don’t have to unlock the phone to see your message. Take a peek at the latest email, text, BBM, or notification right from the lock screen to see if that’s the message you’ve been waiting for or one that can wait a while. You can customize which accounts appear on the lock screen and scroll over the icons to display the sender and subject line.
Reply Now
Reply Now lets you respond to incoming phone calls, even when it’s not a good time to answer the phone. Easily send a response through BBM, SMS or email – choose from a list of standard automated responses or respond with a personalized note. Perfect for ensuring that important contacts are always given your attention.
Calendar Enhancements
BlackBerry Calendar now comes with an ‘I’m running late’ function so you can instantly let meeting participants know if you’ll be late. You can even specify a new time in your notification. A redesigned interface makes adding an event easier, so managing your time is simpler.
A global leader in wireless innovation, BlackBerry® revolutionized the mobile industry when it was introduced in 1999. Today, BlackBerry aims to inspire the success of our millions of customers around the world by continuously pushing the boundaries of mobile experiences. Founded in 1984 and based in Waterloo, Ontario, BlackBerry operates offices in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America. BlackBerry is listed on the NASDAQ Stock Market (BBRY) and the Toronto Stock Exchange (BB.TO). For more information, visit www.blackberry.com.
Forward-looking statements in this news release are made pursuant to the “safe harbor” provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and applicable Canadian securities laws. When used herein, words such as “expect”, “anticipate”, “estimate”, “may”, “will”, “should”, “intend”, “believe”, and similar expressions, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on estimates and assumptions made by BlackBerry Limited in light of its experience and its perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other factors that BlackBerry believes are appropriate in the circumstances. Many factors could cause BlackBerry’s actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including those described in the “Risk Factors” section of BlackBerry’s Annual Information Form, which is included in its Annual Report on Form 40-F (copies of which filings may be obtained atwww.sedar.com or www.sec.gov). These factors should be considered carefully, and readers should not place undue reliance on BlackBerry’s forward-looking statements. BlackBerry has no intention and undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.
BlackBerry and related trademarks, names and logos are the property of BlackBerry Limited and are registered and/or used in the U.S. and countries around the world. All other marks are the property of their respective owners. BlackBerry is not responsible for any third-party products or services.
Contact:
Media
BlackBerry Media Relations
519-888-7465 x77273
mediarelations@blackberry.com
John Sculley, the former Apple Inc. CEO who famously clashed with Steve Jobs, is exploring a bid for beleaguered BlackBerry Ltd. with Canadian partners, sources have told The Globe and Mail.
Mr. Sculley said he could not comment on the matter, but noted “I’ve been a long-time BlackBerry fan and user.”
Various suitors have emerged for the company. Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. chief Prem Watsa launched a preliminary offer to buy the BlackBerry maker for $4.7-billion (U.S.). BlackBerry co-founders Mike Lazaridis and Doug Fregin revealed in a regulatory filing that they are also considering a run for the company. Other companies, from technology companies to private equity firms, have also looked into the possibility of buying BlackBerry, which still has a valuable cache of intellectual property, according to various reports.
The Waterloo, Ont.-based tech company has withered as sales plummeted in recent years. Apple’s iPhone and devices running Google Inc.’s Android software have stolen vast amounts of market share away from BlackBerry, which was once the dominant smartphone player. The Canadian company’s newest BlackBerry 10 devices have failed to sell in great enough numbers to fuel a comeback, leading the firm’s executives to explore various strategies, including a sale.
But the appearance of Mr. Sculley, who also ran PepsiCo Inc. and was behind the “Pepsi Challenge” campaign that challenged drinkers of Coca-Cola, brings another high-profile executive into the mix. A BlackBerry spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday evening.
In an interview on Wednesday, Mr. Sculley said whoever takes over BlackBerry maker needs to have the management experience if they are to have any sort of success turning the company around.
“The only thing I would say is, I think there’s a lot of future value in Blackberry,” Mr. Sculley said, “but without experienced people who have run this type of business, and without a strategic plan, it would be really challenging … Whoever buys it would have to have a strategic plan that was credible and could succeed, and they would want to have an experienced team that would be able to implement that plan.”
At Apple in the 1980s, Mr. Sculley presided over huge growth after being hired away from PepsiCo. That period in Apple’s history, however, is more well known for Mr. Sculley’s clashes with Mr. Jobs. The board fired Mr. Jobs after severe disagreements on the company’s strategy. The famed executive later returned to the company, launched the iPod, various successful Mac computers, and the iPhone – which revolutionized the smartphone industry and made Apple one of the most valuable companies in the world.
“He was not a great executive back in those early days,” Mr. Sculley said at a recent conference in Bali, Indonesia. “The great Steve Jobs that we know today, as maybe the world’s greatest CEO, certainly of our era, he learned a lot in those years in the wilderness.”
In a press release, BlackBerry indicates that more than 10 million downloads of BBM for Android and iPhone in 24 hours. The press release:
October 22, 2013 15:30 ET
Over 10 Million Downloads of BBM for Android and iPhone in the First Day
BBM achieves top ranking in the App Store in over 75 countries within the first 24 hours
WATERLOO, ONTARIO–(Marketwired – Oct. 22, 2013) – In just 24 hours BBM™ has been downloaded over 10 million times by Android™ and iPhone® users, one of the best single-day openings for a mobile app to date. BBM, the premier private social network from BlackBerry® (NASDAQ:BBRY)(TSX:BB), is available for free in the App Store(SM) and Google Play™ for immediate download.
BBM also quickly rose through the rankings on the App Store to be the number one free app in more than 75 countries in the first 24 hours, including the US, Canada, the UK, Indonesia and most of the Middle East. User ratings in both the App Store and Google Play are overwhelmingly positive, earning BBM 60,000 five-star reviews on Google Play from about 87,000 reviews.
“This has been an incredible launch for BBM across Android and iPhone devices. The mobile messaging market is full of opportunity for BBM. We intend to be the leading private social network for everyone who needs the immediate communication and collaboration of instant messaging combined with the privacy, control and reliability delivered through BBM,” said Andrew Bocking, Executive Vice President, BBM at BlackBerry.
BBM users, old and new, are enjoying the following features:
BBM Chat – Enjoy real, immediate conversations with friends on Android, iPhone and BlackBerry smartphones. Not only does BBM let people know their message has been delivered and read, it also shows them when a contact is responding to a message.
More than chat – With BBM, customers can simply and instantly share files such as photos and voice notes. Multi-person chats are a great way to invite contacts to chat together.
Get in the Group – BBM Groups lets users invite up to 30 friends to chat together, as well as share photo albums, calendars and files.
Post Updates and stay in the know – BBM lets people post a personal message, profile picture and a current status, and lets contacts see statuses instantly in Updates.
Your unique PIN – Every BBM user has a unique PIN that maintains privacy, so users are not required to ever give out their phone number or email address to a new or casual contact.
Android and iPhone users will have access to BBM Voice and Video calling, as well as the new community building tool – BBM Channels – in the near future.
For more information on BBM, or to download BBM, please visit www.bbm.com. Follow @BBM on Twitter for the latest news and updates.
About BBM
BBM has more than 60 million monthly active customers, with more than 51 million people using BBM an average of 90 minutes per day. BBM customers collectively send and receive more than 10 billion messages each day, nearly twice as many messages per user per day as compared to other mobile messaging apps. Almost half of BBM messages are read within 20 seconds of being received; indicating how truly engaged BBM customers are.
About BlackBerry
A global leader in wireless innovation, BlackBerry® revolutionized the mobile industry when it was introduced in 1999. Today, BlackBerry aims to inspire the success of our millions of customers around the world by continuously pushing the boundaries of mobile experiences. Founded in 1984 and based in Waterloo, Ontario, BlackBerry operates offices in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America. BlackBerry is listed on the NASDAQ Stock Market (NASDAQ:BBRY) and the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX:BB). For more information, visitwww.blackberry.com.
Forward-looking statements in this news release are made pursuant to the “safe harbor” provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and applicable Canadian securities laws. When used herein, words such as “expect”, “anticipate”, “estimate”, “may”, “will”, “should”, “intend”, “believe”, and similar expressions, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on estimates and assumptions made by BlackBerry Limited in light of its experience and its perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other factors that BlackBerry believes are appropriate in the circumstances. Many factors could cause BlackBerry’s actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including those described in the “Risk Factors” section of BlackBerry’s Annual Information Form, which is included in its Annual Report on Form 40-F (copies of which filings may be obtained at www.sedar.com or www.sec.gov). These factors should be considered carefully, and readers should not place undue reliance on BlackBerry’s forward-looking statements. BlackBerry has no intention and undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.
BlackBerry and related trademarks, names and logos are the property of BlackBerry Limited and are registered and/or used in the U.S. and countries around the world. All other marks are the property of their respective owners. BlackBerry is not responsible for any third-party products or services.
The BBM re-launch for iOS and Android starts today!
From BlackBerry:
This is the news you’ve been waiting for! I am thrilled to tell you that we are about to officially resume our rollout of BBM for Android and iPhone customers around the globe!* In the next few hours, people will start seeing BBM in Google Play, the App Store and in select Samsung App Stores – where it will be free to download.
The demand for BBM on Android and BBM on iPhone continues to be amazing. About six million people signed up for information about BBM at BBM.com. As you know, in just seven hours, about one million Android users were using the unreleased version of BBM for Android. What you don’t know is that more than one million people have found creative ways to “side load” BBM on their iPhone. This is incredible.
To help manage this unprecedented pent up demand for BBM, we are implementing a simple line-up system to ensure a smooth roll out. Here’s how it is going to work…
BBM Roll Out Details:
Download BBM – the easiest way is to visit BBM.com from your Android or iPhone browser*
Once you install the app, open it, and enter your email address to hold your spot in line
We will email you as soon as you reach the front of the line and can start using BBM
If you are among the millions that took the time to sign up at BBM.com, you can start using BBM immediately without waiting in line.* If you didn’t sign up in advance, don’t worry – we are focused on moving millions of customers through the line as fast as possible.
Our team of developers and engineers has been working around the clock to bring you BBM – and make some upgrades while we’re at it – and some incredible work has been done. I look forward to sharing more of this with you here, on Inside BlackBerry, soon.
For updates on how quickly the line is moving you can follow @BBM on Twitter. I will be back tomorrow with another post to provide you with an update on the line-up and to share more detail about the work the team has done over the last several weeks.
Lastly, thank you for your patience. We know you’re excited (we are too!) and we look forward to having you join us on BBM.
*Samsung customers in Sub-Sahara Africa can download BBM today from the Samsung Apps store. iPhone and other Android users in Africa will be able to download the app in three days’ time.
(Reuters) – The European Union and Canada agreed to a multi-billion-dollar trade pact that will integrate two of the world’s largest economies and paves the way for Europe to clinch an even bigger deal with the United States.
Talks were launched in May 2009 but stalled for months over quotas for Canadian beef and EU cheese. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso met in Brussels on Friday to resolve outstanding issues.
In a cheeky touch, chefs served Italian gorgonzola and Greek feta cheese at a four-course lunch laid on for the two leaders to celebrate the EU’s first trade deal with a member of the Group of Eight biggest world economies.
“This agreement is a landmark achievement for the transatlantic market,” Barroso told a news conference, flanked by Harper. “With political will and a good dose of hard work, there is a way to reach a result that benefits people on both sides of the Atlantic,” he said.
EU trade chief Karel De Gucht called the Canada accord a “template” for Europe’s negotiations with the United States.
The deal marks a breakthrough for Brussels’ free-trade agenda, which had previously achieved smaller agreements with South Korea and Singapore. It is expected to increase bilateral trade in goods and services by a fifth to 25.7 billion euros ($35 billion) a year, according to the latest EU estimates.
Barroso said he hoped the agreement could come into effect from 2015, after EU governments, the European Parliament and the Canadian provinces give their blessing.
However, France signaled some reservations about an influx of Canadian beef under the deal, even if its Munster and Camembert cheese will now fill shelves in Canada’s supermarkets.
“I am waiting for confirmation from the Commission that this accord, particularly in agriculture, does not set a precedent for talks with the United States,” said French Trade Minister Nicole Bricq at a meeting with De Gucht and her peers in Luxembourg.
For Canada, the deal will make it the only G8 country – and one of the only developed nations anywhere – to have preferential access to the world’s two largest markets, the EU and the United States, home to a total of 800 million people.
“This is the biggest deal our country has ever made,” Harper said, adding that it outstripped the North American Free Trade Agreement between Canada, the United States and Mexico.
‘OUTRAGEOUS’ BEEF DEAL
The Commission is negotiating trade pacts with more than 80 countries on behalf of the bloc’s 28 members, following the collapse of the marathon Doha round of global trade talks. The delays that dogged the Canada agreement showed how difficult such deals can be.
European efforts to sign a free trade accord with the United States faced a setback this month when a second round of negotiations was cancelled because of the U.S. government shutdown.
Despite plans to do a deal by the end of next year, the talks have also been overshadowed by reports the United States bugged EU offices under surveillance programs made public by fugitive former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.
Still, the Canada agreement should provide a boost for EU-U.S. negotiations. Both deals seek to go far beyond tariff cuts and to reduce transatlantic barriers to business. There are also similar sticking points, such as agriculture.
“It’s a good signal. I’m a transatlanticist,” German Economy Minister Philipp Roesler told Reuters in Luxembourg.
“It’s a great basis for all other negotiations, such as the TTIP talks with the United States,” he said, referring to the proposed deal by its formal name, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.
The EU-Canada pact would eliminate tariffs on almost all goods and services, set larger quotas for EU dairy exports and make it easier for EU carmakers to export vehicles to Canada.
For the first time, provincial governments in Canada will commit to opening their lucrative procurement markets to allow European companies to compete for contracts alongside locals.
The EU will eliminate duties on a range of Canadian agricultural products, from wheat to maple syrup. Canada will be able to export 80,000 tons of pork and 50,000 tons of beef free of duties to the European Union.
But French beef farmers said they were “outraged”. “Worst of all, the (European) Commission is blindly preparing for a deal with the United States that will hasten the bankruptcy of farms and jobs in the sector,” France’s beef farm federation FNB said.
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