It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster ride of late for BlackBerry, achieving record sales while still trying to maintain a hold on the mobile phone market, as the likes of Samsung and Apple keep it from reaching the top spot. But what does the future hold for the Canadian manufacturer?
Sales of its new flagship QWERTY handset, the BlackBerry Q10, have got off to an impressive start with one UK retailer claiming it to be one of the most successful smartphone launches they’ve ever seen. Initial stock of the device sold out in less than two hours, becoming the retailer’s fastest-ever selling consumer electronics product within 24 hours.
The Q10, which is similar in appearance to previous BlackBerry devices, features a physical QWERTY keypad, a 3.1-inch Super AMOLED display, and an 8-megapixel camera with additional 2-megapixel front-facing camera, making for a stylish and functional smartphone, which has clearly impressed consumers.
This recent success is great news for the company however, a new report from research firm, Canalys, found that the majority of the top Android and iOS apps still aren’t available on the BlackBerry 10 platform.
BlackBerry App World has only 36 of the top 100 free and paid iPhone and Android apps, leaving BlackBerry users with only a small selection as well as missing out on the favourite and must-have apps .
Along with this, BlackBerry 10 users have also started to boycott on-demand internet streaming provider, Netflix, in anger that its services are not yet available on the new mobile platform. The movement, which started on CrackBerry’s forums, came after recent comments made by Netflix CEO, Reed Hastings.
Hastings stated that he had not yet used a BlackBerry 10 device and confirmed that there were no plans to bring the service to the platform anytime soon.
But, with sales of the firm’s flagship, the Z10, reaching figures around the one million mark, it seems that BlackBerry mobile phones could become a force to be reckoned with, as three more devices are expected to hit the market before the end of the year.
Next in line to be released is the BlackBerry Q5, dubbed to be a budget version of its sibling, the Q10, in a bid to bring the BlackBerry 10 platform to emerging smartphone markets across the world.
It is rumoured the Q5 will sport a QWERTY keypad and 3.1-inch touchscreen display, with speculation further suggesting it will be positioned at a lower price point than its predecessor, the Z10.
BlackBerry CEO, Thorsten Heins, said that the company “understands the importance of having devices to suit all markets and needs.”
Also rumoured to be coming to the fore this summer is BlackBerry’s BBM instant messenger service on Android and iOS. BBM currently has 60 million users worldwide with over 51 million using the service daily.
And with more than 10 billion messages being sent and received through BBM every day, the free download to the Google Play store and Apple’s App Store could be a winning move for the company, as could a pending BlackBerry 10 software update, which is also in the pipeline.
The BlackBerry 10.2 update is still in the works but users can expect to see several changes including multiple alarm settings and an overhaul of notifications, to name but a few.
With these plans in motion the manufacturer can continue its determined ride to success to try and become the mobile competitor it has worked so hard to be.
This guest post was written by Stefanie Keeling of Dialaphone – home of all the best mobile phone contracts and deals.
