Blackberry 10 – will it save RIM?

While Research In Motion are posting record low financials Frank Boulben, the new Chief Marketing Officer seems confident in the upcoming BlackBerry 10 Operating System. He spoke to the Associated Press claiming that the new software will impress the audience. The new devices are expected in early 2013 – a year later than first expected.

Boulben said that RIM will be touting featuring that the current devices lack. The company have said that the new operating system will be able to run multiple programs at once and will allow the audience to switch between programs without returning to the home screen. If this is correct then it will be a step ahead of iOS and Android, which currently require the users to return to the home screen first to resume or start an application.

Boulben said “You'll be able to flow seamlessly from one application to another. The underlying operating system is truly multitasking.” An impressive claim, however the problems for RIM are much deeper.

Apple's iPhone may not be a technical leader in some regards, but a huge portion of their audience are deeply interconnected to the App Store. Android's store is growing in popularity all the time, earning a dedicated user base. RIM have a relatively small store which won't attract a new audience. RIM have less than 100,000 apps available online while Google claim to have over 500,000.

RIM are set to hold their shareholders meeting in Waterloo, Ontario today – a few weeks after releasing a poor set of financial results along with job cuts and more delays with the Blackberry 10 operating system. Their stock is also trading at a nine year low.

RIM are relying heavily on the release of Blackberry 10. Sales of their Blackberry smartphones have dropped by 41 percent in the last quarter. They still have a core business following although they will be alienating this audience by announcing that their first raft of OS10 phones won't have a physical keyboard. We feel it will be a bad move for the company.

Analysts feel they have left it too late, and the announced delay until 2013 hasn't helped the company gain confidence from industry experts. Boulben admits they will miss sales this year, but next year will be strong. He said “We won't be present for this year, but next year we will be present in a larger market.”

He added that people in America change their phones every 18 months, so they have millions of potential customers. He also wants to develop a global marketing message for BlackBerry 10, rather than let individual countries run their own promotional campaigns.

Kitguru says: The future of RIM is going to be based on the success or failure of  BlackBerry 10 OS. Lets hope it is a success.

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