BlackBerry Bounceback Beat Back

Research In Motion has a new name, a new operating system and a pair of new handsets, but it’s still got the same old sinking stock price.

On Thursday, shares of the smartphone pioneer continued the downward slide they began the day before, during the unveiling of its long-awaited BlackBerry 10 OS and handsets. BlackBerry shares opened down 10 percent and, at $13.21, they’re down nearly 4 percent as I write this.

Why the pessimism after what seemed to be a fairly successful launch event? The estimated arrival dates of the first of BlackBerry’s BB10 phones. Though the touchscreen Z10 debuted in the U.K. and will ship in Canada and the United Arab Emirates next week, it won’t hit the U.S. market until March. And the Q10, a BB10 handset with a physical keyboard, won’t be available anywhere until April. Later-than-expected ship dates imply smaller-than-hoped-for unit shipments, and the Street clearly finds that disappointing.

Beyond that, there are concerns about the BlackBerry ecosystem and addressable market that I mentioned earlier this morning. That said, BB10 is a vast improvement over its predecessor, and has certainly closed the gap with Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android. It’s not hard to imagine it appealing to BlackBerry diehards looking for a next-generation device. But the legacy user base is an easy mark. Those BlackBerry users who have defected to iOS and Android over the last few years will be a far harder sell.

RIM hasn’t forgotten its roots, launches BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 for businesses

RIM is all set to unveil its new BlackBerry 10 devices at the end of January, hopeful that they will make a splash among consumers. Despite that focus, the company hasn’t forgotten its core enterprise roots, and it launched its new BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 (BES 10) today.

The company first released details of the new system for businesses at the end of August, promising that it will launch in the first quarter of 2013, and it has delivered on its word. RIM is coming under increasing pressure for corporate customers from Apple and Samsung — which invested in enterprise-focused Fixmo this week — and its new enterprise service consolidates all of its services for business into one place, while also allowing easier management of non-BlackBerry devices.

RIM was the main target of a Samsung ad which aired this week and poked fun at the fact that many companies are limited to using BlackBerry devices for ‘work phones’. It has set out to address that and, while it has long had technologies allowing other devices to use BES, it has made management of multi-platform devices a central part of BES 10.

With BES 10, everything from the company's mobile device management (MDM) to its security, infrastructure, and app management products come together into a "single unified web-based console."

Other key features that the company is stressing include application management for apps — both internal and public — via BlackBerry World for Work, improvements to over-the-air activation for devices and ‘enhanced’ IT policies.

BES is available on a 60-day trial without cost, while existing customer can upgrade their software through a range of packages.

RIM’s focus on content for BlackBerry 10 appears to be going well and its final Port-A-Thon to encourage developers to port iOS and Android apps to the platform saw more than 19,000 submissions last weekend. That volume has forced the Canadian firm to push back the deadlines for its developer incentive programs.

This walk-through shows the BES 10 product working, and includes it being set up with a BlackBerry 10 alpha device.

Headline image via Honou

BlackBerry 10 adds so many features that so few people want

“RIM CEO and possible Bond villain Thorstein Heins gave the world its best look at BlackBerry 10 today; while previous demos had focused on the camera and keyboard, this morning focused on even more everyday features,” Brian Barrett reports for Gizmodo. “It looks like it does some things very well-and that they’re not the things you’d care about.”

“This new peek, combined with what we saw earlier this year, gives the impression of a very competent mobile operating system. But it’s also one that we’re still months and months away from, during which time more and more companies will switch on over to iPhones and Androids and, with Windows 8 synergies kicking in just next month, WP8,” Barrett writes. “And more than that, even if it were to arrive today - even if it had arrived last fall - BB10 seems to serve very few masters. It’s a great OS for browbeaten, unorganized, over-caffeinated, multilingual business persons sure. But how many of us does that really describe? Outside, that is, of RIM’s own CEO.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: There will be no BlackBerry 11.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "John" for the heads up.]