BlackBerry is on a roll
by Volker Weber
BlackBerry is announcing quite a number of things at MWC in Barcelona:
- BES 12 to manage old BlackBerrys, new BlackBerrys, Android, iOS and Windows Phone. One Server.
- BBM Protected, an enterprise BBM suite.
- BlackBerry Z3, a sub-$200 touch BB 10 device, to be introduced in Indonesia.
- BlackBerry Q20, a keyboard BB10 device, which brings back BB7 features: 'Menu', 'Back', 'Send' and 'End' buttons and the integrated trackpad
- New pricing for BES.
All of these address specific pain points. It's incredible how fast BlackBerry is correcting its path now that the management team has changed. They are not blaming anything on previous management, but they are changing course very quickly.
Comments
My 2 cents:
- eBBM could become very important these days. Security even for IM is in peoples focus again. Like the "BlackBerry Balance" approach here.
- BES12 is going to be great but BlackBerry needs to provide a clear migration path of data from existing servers. It won´t be be possible to perform an inplace upgrade from existing servers. Looking forward to get hands on the beta in a few weeks.
- BlackBerry should make the Z3 available in Europe and NA (and other countries as well) via direct marketing and not through carriers. With the same price tag. Easy business.
- Q20 sounds like THE perfect BlackBerry to me. Symbiosis between old traditional and new modern UI/handling. Now just need some tech. details to be clear about this.) wondering how large such a device might become with a 3.7" screen AND the extra button row. Or maybe it even gets the Windermere touch buttons ? Who knows.
Sounds like the Q20 could be what the Q10 was trying to be. I've missed countless calls from the stupid swipe-down-to-answer on the Q10. Give us a hard key to answer and end calls!
