As Blackberry 10 nears, market watchers are showing optimism toward RIM. The company's blog also showcased the speedy BlackBerry Flow in a new video today.
The New Year may bring a fresh start for Research In Motion, and the potential success of its upcoming BlackBerry 10 operating system has begun to make itself present in the mobile market. As shares of RIM begin to grow, which are currently valued at $11.98, the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CBIC) has also upped its rating of the company.
What this means for the smartphone industry is that RIM’s BlackBerry brand could rebound as a competitor against iOS, Android and Windows Phone devices come 2013. While BlackBerry may have a lot of catching up to do to rival the likes of Android, which accounts for 75 percent of the smartphone market share as of Q3 2012, BB 10 could be enough to secure BlackBerry’s existing fan base and possibly spread.
“With a January 30 BB10 launch date locked in, along with carrier and developer feedback now more clear, an upgrade of the existing subscriber base will be the most likely outcome,” wrote CIBC World Markets analyst Todd Coupland in a research note according to Forbes. “Even in the face of lower services ARPU, RIM looks materially undervalued.”
While the CIBC analyst acknowledges that RIM’s ability to directly compete with iOS and Android is questionable, BB10 is a step in the right direction.
“BB10 helping RIM win back material share from Android and iOS remains an open question,” he wrote. “Regardless of market share upside, it is out view that RIM is now in a good position to successfully stabilize its base, which will help repair its brand reputation and push shipments higher on a year-over-year basis off a low base.”
Coupland continued to write that BB10’s multi-tasking features, swipe to type keyboard and other capabilities “should re-ignite BlackBerry fan support,” and coincidentally enough RIM’s BlackBerry blog highlighted some of these abilities in a new video on Monday.
The clip showcased the BlackBerry Flow feature that will come with BlackBerry 10, which pulls up a series of windows on a users’ screen to display all apps currently running. This allows BlackBerry patrons to easily swipe through their apps without having to return to a central home screen.
BlackBerry’s blogger Donny H. put this feature to the test in the video, showing that users could perform a handful of tasks such as pulling up information about meetings from BlackBerry’s calendar and finding the number of Twitter followers a user has in a short period of time. The user, Jeff, was challenged to find this information and BBM it to Donny in 30 seconds, which (of course) he did successfully.
The gimmicky video may not demonstrate any exciting capabilities that we can’t find on other leading mobile operating systems, but it certainly proves that BlackBerry could get back into the game.
Check out the video below to see Blackberry Flow for yourself.
