Research in Motion may not open up its BlackBerry Messenger service as previously thought. Rumors that the BBM service would expand to Android handsets and iPhones, as evidenced by a photo of a beta app, are in doubt following the replacement of Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie by chief executive Thorsten Heins, according to an unnamed source speaking to the Wall Street Journal.
Patrick Spence, 14-year veteran of Research in Motion (RIM) and its head of global sales, has departed the company. Spence "will be taking on a leadership position in a different industry," according to RIM spokeswoman Rebecca Freiburger. No comment has been made if the move is in response to the announcement of RIM's new Chief Operating Officer and Chief Marketing Officer three weeks ago.
Apple led the market in mobile PC shipments during the March quarter, at least when including the iPad, according to preliminary NPD data. The company shipped 17.2 million iPads and MacBooks, representing a 118 percent jump year-over-year, and 22.5 percent marketshare during Q1. About 80 percent of those units were iPads though, whereas the other top sellers succeeded on the basis of notebook shipments.
The US International Trade Commission has ruled that a patent involved in Kodak's lawsuit against Apple and Research in Motion is invalid, according to AppleInsider. In particular an administrative law judge has quashed the 6,292,218 patent, Method for Live View Display and Digital Camera Using Same, on the basis of claim 15 in the document. Kodak will reportedly appeal the decision to the full commission, a necessary step if it intends to continue suing Apple and RIM for infringing the patent.
RIM and Motorola have submitted a new, compromise nano-SIM design based on a concept from Apple, reports say. The new design has the same outline and contacts as Apple's proposal, but with a notch on one side making space for what RIM calls a "push-push" mechanism; pushing in the card once secures it, pushing it in again pops it out. Apple's idea may have been less practical, requiring a tray to hold a card steady.
RIM on Tuesday announced it has partnered with TomTom to bring the latter's HD Traffic service onto the former's smartphones. BlackBerry apps including Traffic, Maps, and Locate Services will get TomTom's touch, and even developers will have access to mapping and traffic for integration into their own apps. HD Traffic provides real-time traffic information to platforms.
After what seems like nothing but job cuts and execs leaving, Canadian smartphone maker Research In Motion (RIM) on Tuesday announced it is naming two new executives to its team. The new Chief Operating Officer is Kristian Tear, while Frank Boulben has become the Chief Marketing Officer. Both are said to bring an abundant amount of mobile computing experience to the table. RIM President and CEO Thorsten Heins said the two have a strong understanding of the emerging trends in mobile communications and computing.
A rummaging through the source code of the dev alpha handset RIM distributed to developers at its BlackBerry World event last week has revealed 7 new codenames for upcoming BlackBerry handsets. According to N4BB, J. Duke from the OSBB site found a reference to Nevada, Winchester 2, Colt, London, Blackforest, Nashville, and Naples in the viewable file system. The London was reported on before and is the second version of the dev alpha phone, with Colt the name for the first-revision of the device.
Canadian smartphone maker RIM reveled that 80 percent of NFC phones sold during the first quarter of 2012 in the UK are its own. In an interview with the Inquirer, RIM's senior director of sales and operation Gerry Kelliher revealed the information, though didn't discuss other market, but the UK numbers represent a bump from the 72 percent in 2011. The company began incorporating the radios that can be used for wireless payments since August of last year because it believes in the technology and its consumer adoption.
Speaking at a BlackBerry World press conference, RIM CEO Thorsten Heins has admitted that the company has no plans to offer BlackBerry 10 updates for existing devices that run the BlackBerry 7 OS. The company has yet to announce a consumer device that will be powered by the new OS, though developers will be able to test apps on the Dev Alpha handset.
Nokia has filed several separate lawsuits against HTC, ViewSonic and Research In Motion. The latter companies are accused of patent infringement for technology that is claimed to be protected by as many as 45 different patents related to hardware and software.
Research In Motion has finally previewed its BlackBerry 10 software, which will power the company's Dev Alpha handset before arriving on other devices. In an attempt to maintain the traditional BlackBerry pedigree, the new OS focuses on productivity and brings a new virtual keyboard that mimics the company's characteristic hardware keyboards.
Samsung has taken the lead as the world’s number one mobile phone maker according to the latest report from analytics firm IDC. The report says that Samsung has achieved the number one spot due to its booming smartphone sale in a global smartphone market that grew by 42.5 percent year over year in Q1 2012. Total smartphone shipments for the quarter were 144.9 million, which compared with 101.7 million sales for the same period last year.
Previously believed to be Samsung, BlackBerry manufacturer Research in Motion admitted responsibility for the paid flashmob outside a Sydney Apple store. The faux mob was a phase in a viral marketing program for the upcoming BlackBerry 10 OS.
BlackBerry owners will soon have a new option for streaming music wirelessly from their handsets to a range of audio devices. RIM has set a release date for the BlackBerry Music Gateway, an accessory that relies on NFC and Bluetooth technology to stream from smartphones and tablets to home and car stereo systems. The device will begin shipping in June for $50.
Nokia's plans to shed its Vertu brand have reportedly come closer after a leak [free reg. required]. Uncredited tips to the FT had one of Nokia's Finnish neighbors, private equity firm Permira, reportedly in talks to buy the luxury phone badge for about €200 million ($264.9 million). A competing equity group, EQT, had discussed the idea at one point but would have stalled.
The BlackBerry 10 developer device RIM plans to give away next week at BlackBerry World has been spotted days in advance. A CrackBerry forum poster got a quick, power-off look at the experimental smartphone, which is a relatively simple, brick-like design reminiscent of the BlackBerry PlayBook. Other than seeing both front and back cameras, little was discernible without turning it on.
Apple had considered one of three core ideas for the iPhone, one of which included a hardware keyboard, former Apple executive and now Nest founder Tony Fadell revealed Friday. Speaking in an evening session with The Verge, he mentioned that the all-touch design that eventually shipped first had come after he wanted to try a virtual keyboard before resorting to the hardware option. The key iPod architect had understood the potential of an on-screen keyboard, which has infinite customization and can disappear when not needed, but didn't rule out physical keys at first.
BlackBerry users will now be able to quickly share their locations, thanks to today's update to the Foursuare app. The update (BlackBerry App World) implements NFC (near field communications) on certain BlackBerry models, such as the Bold 9900, to let users simply tap their handsets on NFC stickers to share their locations.
IHS iSuppli posted an estimate that suggested Apple may have kept its frontrunner position in smartphones in the earliest quarter of 2012. Although Samsung hasn't officially published smartphone shipments, researchers believed that it had shipped 32 million devices, putting it behind Apple's 35.1 million iPhones. If true, the gap would be wider than in the fall, when Samsung's reported 35 million to 36 million was close to Apple's 37 million.
According to information buried in the documentation for BlackBerry.net, the BlackBerry Curve lineup will soon receive an addition in the form a previously-unannounced handset. Users of the Crackberry forums have discovered documentation suggesting that the BlackBerry Curve 9310 will be released in the near future on Verizon's network.
The first BlackBerry 10 phones are now expected to be announced in mid-August with a planned release date in mid-October, according to a source quoted as "reliable" by enthusiast site N4BB. The prediction falls in line with reports from Research In Motion (RIM) itself that the first BlackBerry 10 devices would ship in the "later half" of this year. Some developers attending BlackBerry Jam early next month in Orlando are expected to receive "reference" phones for testing that do not reflect the true design.
AT&T posted results for its first quarter of 2012 that showed it still being defined by the iPhone. The carrier sold 5.5 million smartphones and noted that it activated 4.3 million iPhones, roughly a quarter more than Verizon's 3.2 million. While AT&T sold 5.5 million smartphones, the actual ratio of new iPhone sales wouldn't be definite, as a small number of iPhone activations would have come from older phones being switched to new users.
The total mobile user base is significantly less oriented towards Android than phone market share would suggest, according to research. An InMobi study saw iOS extend a slight lead in North America based on ad impressions, going from an 0.6-point lead at 33.1 percent in the fall to a 2.7-point gap at 36.8 percent in the winter. It had Apple, not Google, growing faster for at least the past several months.
New leaks have uncovered more of RIM's possible reorganization plans. The Reuters tip asserted that it had hired lawyers at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley, and McCloy to outline possible corporate plans. These could range from anything as simple as licensing patents to selling off parts of the company or making alliances with other companies.
Canadian smartphone maker RIM is closer to picking its financial advisor and JPMorgan Chase & Co is the leading candidate, Bloomberg reported on Friday. A source who wished to remain anonymous said the decision may arrive in a matter of days. The company is considering a licensing deal for its tech or a strategic investment, sources indicated, and has even talked with Bank of America.
Filed in 2010 but published on April 19, Research in Motion (RIM) applied for a patent for a multiple position input mechanism on a mobile phone, such as a keyboard. While sliding keyboards have been a mainstay of some mobile phones for years, this patent describes a method to have multiple usable positions of the keyboard with both sliding and rotation, each one exposing more phone display than the last.
As part of the call discussing its fiscal results, Verizon on Thursday both narrowed down its shared data plan schedule and reiterated that it was still interested in Windows Phone. The shared data would be coming in mid-summer, CFO Fran Shammo said. The tier is expected to significantly reduce the cost of having more than one smartphone in a family.
RIM out an end to at least one rumor on Wednesday with the BlackBerry Curve 9220. Its new entry smartphone is the first to have a dedicated BlackBerry Messenger key. Hitting the side-mounted BBM button launches the app from wherever the user is in the OS, making it easier to respond to a message or share something as soon as it shows.
Just as Blackberry sales in the United States stagnate under pressure from other smart phone manufacturers, Research in Motion (RIM) is finishing up lease negotiation for a 1,500 square foot store in Dubai. Managing director of RIM's Middle East division, Sandeep Saihgal, stated in an interview with Bloomberg that expansion into Kuwait, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia would follow completion of the Dubai store. Patrick Spence, RIM's global head of sales, amplified Saihgal's remarks by remarking that the approach in the Middle East would differ from their successful presence in Indonesia.
Oracle CEO Larry Ellison in commentary during the ongoing trial against Google revealed that he had tried to buy RIM or Palm. An internal investigation had explored the idea, which was meant to improve competition with Apple or Google. The database developer concluded that it was a "bad idea" that didn't make financial or competitive sense.
A trio of sources leaked Monday that RIM has been looking at hiring banks to advise it on "strategic options." The Bloomberg tips had the BlackBerry designer looking for one Canadian and one international bank. The negotiation was explained more as evaluative than a definitive direction.
A new Pew study has emphasized the rift in technology adoption for the US. About 19 percent of Americans have a tablet of some sort, researches said, and as many have an e-reader. A full 22 percent of Americans, however, had no Internet access at all, a figure that has remained largely constant since 2009.
RIM could be getting close to releasing a pair of major projects based on a pair of tentative rumors in mid-week. One possible sighting emerging from TechnoBuffalo had BlackBerry Messenger being run on an Android device for testing purposes. The lone shot had few extra details, but conspicuously showed an "iPhone test" contact entry, suggesting RIM was developing for both platforms.
RIM's former co-CEO Jim Balsillie had proposed using BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS) servers to provide data for non-BlackBerry hardware shortly before he resigned his position, new leaks uncovered on Friday. The method outlined to Reuters would have let carriers offer Android and iPhone devices with cheaper data plans that limited Internet access to chat (possibly BlackBerry Messenger) and social networks, much like entry BlackBerry plans do today. RIM would presumably have made money from leasing access to carriers eager to get more smartphone customers and offload some of their bandwidth needs.
RIM has started up a BlackBerry Challenge Council in the hopes of getting rid of some stereotypes regarding the capabilities of its smartphones. The Council will host contests and produce webisodes that attempt to inform the public of the BlackBerry's real capabilities through comedy. The videos will feature MTV and CollegeHumor regulars as well as celebrities.
Previously unknown firm Touchscreen Gestures has sued Apple, HTC, RIM, and Samsung this week for allegedly violating four patents for some of the simplest elements of touchscreen input. iOS devices, newer BlackBerrys, and Android devices allegedly copy methods for single taps, double taps, dragging, and scrolling. The patents had been transferred at some point from notebook trackpad developer Sentelic, although whether they were bought or handed over with hopes of a payout aren't clear.
Demand for the iPhone has actually grown since the release of the iPhone 4S, a new ChangeWave Research study claims. The firm polled 4,413 people in March; of the people who said they would buy a smartphone in the next 90 days, 56 percent said they were planning to buy an iPhone. That figure is actually up two points from December, which not only represented part of the holiday shopping season, but came just two months after the launch of the 4S.
Canadian smartphone maker RIM on Wednesday revealed it will release five newly updated apps this week that will integrate BlackBerry Messenger. They include Facebook and Twitter as well as the completely self-developed Travel, BlackBerry App World, and BBM Music. Version 3.0 of both Facebook and Twitter for BlackBerry allows users to automatically share their status or latest post with their BBM contacts from inside the app.
Apple will stay out in front of the tablet market for at least the next four years, Gartner predicted in a long-term estimate on Tuesday. The analyst group saw sales for the entire tablet market for 2012 nearly doubling, up 98 percent to 118.9 million, with Apple still in the clear majority at 73 million. While the gap would close, Apple would keep the largest piece of the market even until 2016.
RIM's Developer Relations VP Alec Saunders on Monday clarified his position on restricting sideloading on the BlackBerry PlayBook and BlackBerry 10. He noted that, rather than blocking a manual transfer of an app from PC to device, RIM would be encrypting apps to prevent bootlegged copies while still allowing legitimate sideloads from developers and end users who'd downloaded the title. He indirectly positioned it as a balance between Apple's mostly locked down view and the loosely checked Android method.
RIM's market share of the US government is going up, The company's Senior VP of BlackBerry security Scott Totzke argued in an interview held late last week and published Monday. While the enterprise was still a soft point, he noted to Bloomberg that the total number of installs was slightly growing even with cutbacks meaning fewer employees. About 400,000 units were sold to the government for federal-level workers in the past year, and 40 percent of clients had upgraded, although most of those were BlackBerry 6 given BB7's clearance in February.
The stabbing at RIM's party for BlackBerry Messenger has resulted in further tragedy as London's Metropolitan Police have reported that the victim has died of his wounds. Philip Sherriff, one of RIM's UK employees, passed on early Sunday. His attacker is believed to be Ashley Charles and has already been charged with attempted murder.
Efforts to spy on BlackBerry Messenger chats in India are almost live, officials explained Saturday. The method would be "up and running soon," India Today was told. As it worked, it would effectively require a wiretap warrant from the Union Home Ministry that would collect all communication from that individual user, catching it in an unencrypted format before it's locked down and sent through the BlackBerry Internet Service.
RIM is dropping app sideloading support from the BlackBerry PlayBook in a bid to prevent the problems that have plagued Android, the company's Developer Relations VP Alec Saunders stated earlier in the week. The company would have a "solution" for developers to do it in testing, but the end user would have to go through BlackBerry App World, much like Apple does with the App Store. He believed Android had a rampant problem with piracy, where about a quarter of material was pirated.
Removing doubts around earlier rumors of a BlackBerry 4G PlayBook, a CrackBerry forum poster revealed overnight that he had access to at least three of them. Showing both the SIM tray and the presence of a "mobile network" settings pane, user fakedeadmau5 proved that the design was fundamentally the same as the seven-inch original save for cellular hardware. He also showed a rudimentary BlackBerry Messenger app, suggesting that RIM had at least been trying to get BBM working on cellular PlayBooks after failing to get it working on Wi-Fi only.
RIM's wider executive purge is real, the company confirmed Thursday night. Along with dropping its CTO and COO last week, it explained to the Wall Street Journal that BlackBerry Messenger VP Alistair Mitchell had also left. Senior BlackBerry platform VP Alan Brenner had also left.
Reports of a stabbing at a RIM BlackBerry BBM party in London have started circulating on the Web via Twitter. A number of attendees at the event have tweeted that at least one person, and possibly two have been stabbed. Police were called and guests were informed that they were not to leave the scene, according to The Next Web.
Dutch company NXP BV has filed a lawsuit against Canadian smartphone maker RIM for allegedly infringing on six of the company's patents. The firm is a wholly owned subsidiary of NXP semiconductors and wants compensatory and triple damages, though the numbers aren't revealed. It also seeks a stop of the sale of devices that infringe upon these patents, which include the BlackBerry Torch, Curve, and Bold, as well as the PlayBook tablet.
Android now makes up more than half of all smartphones sold in the US, comScore found on Tuesday. As of February, Google's platform had climbed to 50.1 percent, giving it an absolute majority of the country's smartphone share. The iPhone was still gaining share, however, and was now up to 30.2 percent.
