THAT Research in Motion
(RIM) found itself for much of last year an unwitting passenger aboard a
particularly nasty rollercoaster of market share and stock prices is
something that has been dutifully chronicled by the tech media.
There
were the widely-reported outtages involving its popular e-mail and
messaging services. There was the market’s lukewarm reception toward its
entry in the tablet landscape. There was the announcement that its
future platform, BlackBerry OS 10, will be delayed till late this year.
And then, the
multinational telecommunications giant headquartered in Waterloo in
Ontario, Canada, greeted the new year by announcing a management
shuffle, with co-chief executives and founders Jim Balsillie and Mike
Lazaridis stepping down from their posts and COO Thorsten Heins taking
over the reins. Unfortunately for Heins, the ink had barely dried on his
new appointment papers when he himself created a stir with statements
that seemingly flew in the face of shareholder and market demands for
profound changes to make the BlackBerry brand desirable once more.
All
this comes amid reports that RIM’s BlackBerry smartphones are rapidly
losing market share to both the iPhone and the myriad of Android-based
smartphones available, with the 23-percent market share RIM started out
with in 2011 reduced to 14.9 percent by year’s end.
However,
none of this was apparent in late 2011 when RIM hosted the global
launch of two new key products in its portfolio in not the usual
suspects in North America or some European capital, as these launches
typically go, but in Jakarta, Indonesia. Drawing the tech media from all
over the Asia-Pacific region for the by-invitation-only unveiling of
the BlackBerry Bold 9790 and the BlackBerry Curve 9380, RIM’s launch
underscored the importance of the region to its growth, particularly
Indonesia where, according to Gregory Wade, RIM regional managing
director for Asia Pacific, the smartphone maker’s market share would hit
a 42 percent high by the end of 2011 based on estimates by reseach firm
IDC. Even better, added Wade in an interview with Jakarta Globe, “By
2015, the annual shipment of BlackBerry smartphones to Indonesia would
reach 9.7 million, in front of Android and Windows [Phone] smartphones.
We are very optimistic about it.”
Such
optimism may be more than warranted. After all, not only does data
reveal that subscription to the popular BlackBerry Internet Service
(BIS), saw a huge uptick over the last two years, but when RIM opened
its first so-called experience shop in a major Jakarta mall the day
after the media event, a mammoth crowd turned up to take advantage of
the hefty discount being offered to early adopters of the BlackBerry
Bold 9790. Although there were no untoward incidents we witnessed during
the grand opening of the experience shop in the AM, which was attended
by no less than Balsillie, apparently things got a little ugly later in
the day as rumors spread that there would not be enough discounted units
to meet the demand. As the dust settled on the resulting chaos, dozens
had to undergo treatment for minor injuries.
The things people would do for an excellent smartphone—and at a price that can’t be beat at that.
And,
yes, BlackBerry fans and those eyeing to upgrade to their first
smartphone will be mighty pleased with the Bold 9790, which retains the
muted and sophisticated corporate stylings of its predecessors, while
coming not only in a more pocketable size—its dimensions come in at
110x60x11.4 mm and weighs only 107 grams, while its immediate
predecessor, the Bold 9900, stacks up at 115x66x10.5 mm and weighs in at
130 grams—but also boasting of the same hybrid touch-and-type paradigm
first seen in a Bold in the 9900.
Adding
to that pleasurable feeling is the fact that the Bold 9790 also packs
in BlackBerry 7, the latest iteration of the OS that has been powering
the BlackBerry experience for users for many years now, but which RIM
has heavily tweaked and tricked-out to make it even more user-friendly
than previous versions. The upsides are most apparent in the browser,
which the company claims is 40 percent faster and real-world use on
Globe Telecom’s BlackBerry Max prepaid plan more or less lived up to
RIM’s claim.
Although
we only spent a few precious minutes with the BlackBerry Curve 9380, we
quickly fell in love with it—not only because of its touchscreen, which
some may find a bit too cramped at only 3.2 inches but is nonetheless
dazzlingly vibrant, but also because it belies its Curve assignation,
which is supposedly the more affordable BlackBerry brand. Its discreet
styling and solid build give it a decidedly premium feel, and BlackBerry
7 just looks and feels better on a bigger screen.
All in all, the new smartphones that RIM launched in Indonesia late last year are solid additions to its portfolio.
Of course, the question is: Are the BlackBerry Bold 9790 and the BlackBerry
Curve 9380 enough to quiet the naysayers in the tech media? Perhaps
not—BUT they are excellent smartphones that should keep the millions of
BBM addicts around the world happy and not feel like poor cousins to the
iPhone and Android users out there, and that should buy RIM enough
goodwill until they are good and ready to reclaim their place in the
smartphone landscape with BlackBerry 10.
In Photo:
The Blackberry Bold 9790 and the Blackberry Curve 9380 are the latest
additions to Research in Motion’s portfolio of solid smartphones.
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