BlackBerry stakes future on smartphone

BlackBerry has launched two smartphones and software that it hopes will help turn a corner and restore it to the top table in mobile technology.

The BlackBerry 10 operating system, the Z10 touchscreen phone and Q10, the first BlackBerry smartphone with a Qwerty keyboard, were launched at an event in New York that was beamed live to London and other venues around the world.

Thorsten Heins, president and chief executive of BlackBerry maker Research in Motion, said the new software system was centred around the BlackBerry Hub, the key feature of which is the ability to amalgamate information from multiple apps such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn simultaneously within your phone in “real time”.

“We intend to lead the move from mobile communication to mobile computing,” he said.

The unveiling was designed to appeal to BlackBerry’s core business users as much as social users of systems such as BlackBerry Messenger.

It also allows you to use your phone for both work and personal use but keep them separately secure, Mr Heins said, with the hope of encouraging people to “go from using two devices to one”.

It will also allow video calls within its BlackBerry Messenger instant messaging system.

An app called Screenshare that works with BBM will allow users to give the person they are chatting with virtual access to their BlackBerry’s screen to look at pictures and other content on it.

A hi-tech camera with the ability to capture high-quality stills from a sequence of video, as well as a new picture editing system, is also included.

There are already 70,000 apps available for the new system via Blackberry World, the firm said, with Skype, Amazon Kindle, and Angry Birds among those already committed to the system.

Mr Heins also revealed that Canadian firm RIM will rebrand itself as BlackBerry in line with its biggest product from yesterday.

The Z10 will be available from today in Britain, the first country in the world where it will be on sale, Mr Heins said.

It will also be enabled to run on 4G, the next generation of high-speed mobile internet. The Q10 is expected to arrive in April.

RT @Forbes Blackberry 10: A New Market Worthy Competitor: In a global launch that spanned London, D... http://t.co/RAocOhSs #Philippines

— xxuriel (@xzuriel) January 30, 2013

R’n’B singer Alicia Keys was unveiled as the firm’s global creative director.

From a market share of 41% in 2007, the year the first Apple iPhone came out, it fell to 4% in the first quarter of last year.