RIM has
already met with 30 carriers to show them the BB10 operating system and
the response has been positive, Chief Marketing Officer Frank Boulben said in an interview from the BlackBerry 10 Jam conference in San Jose, California.
“We’ve
been hearing things like, ‘Unique, revolutionary, really slick,’” said
Boulben, who had just returned from a trip that included stops in
Singapore, Mumbai and Johannesburg -- some of the markets where the
BlackBerry remains popular.
RIM is counting on overseas customers to offset shrinking demand in North America, where the BlackBerry has lost ground to Apple Inc.’s iPhone and Google Inc.’s
Android operating system. Even with analysts projecting a 45 percent
decline in RIM’s sales this fiscal year, the company says its installed
base of customers continues to grow. The BlackBerry now has 80 million
subscribers, up from 78 million, Boulben said.
The
challenge for Boulben is persuading carriers, software developers and
U.S. customers to embrace BlackBerry 10, an operating system that was
delayed at least twice. RIM is touting the software’s ability to run
multiple programs at once, making it easier for business customers to be
productive, part of its bid to win back market share from Apple
and Google.
‘Literally Zero’
RIM’s
share of the global smartphone market, which it once dominated, tumbled
to 4.8 percent in the second quarter from 12 percent a year earlier,
according to research firm IDC. RIM, based in Waterloo, Ontario, reports its latest quarterly results in two days.
Ehud Gelblum, an analyst with Morgan Stanley
in New York, said his biggest concern is that BB10 doesn’t have the
support of developers who build the news, games and music applications
that have helped drive the success of the iPhone and Android.
“A
thriving app ecosystem is vital,” Gelblum, who rates RIM the equivalent
of a sell, said in a research note yesterday. “We are finding literally
zero support for RIM’s new BB10 OS, following our latest developer
checks, raising the possibility that when RIM finally throws its big
BB10 launch party, nobody shows up.”
Boulben, a Frenchman who joined RIM from LightSquared
Inc. in May, disputes that view. The BlackBerry 10 Jam developer
conferences have been sold out, he said, including this week’s San
Jose event.
Prototype Devices
RIM
has already given out 6,000 BB10 prototypes that developers can build
apps on and it’s making more, he said. There are also about 25,000 apps
available for the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, which runs on software
similar to BB10. Most of those should work on the new phones, RIM
has said.
The fact that BlackBerry subscriber
numbers are still rising, helped by growth in places like India and
Africa, counters the claim that RIM is in decline, Boulben said.
“That is a good response to everybody that has a negative outlook,” he said.
RIM
is planning to have a splashy event early next year to introduce the
BB10 phones, which will include touch-screen versions and more
traditional qwerty keyboard models. Before that, RIM will have a
“progressive reveal” of BB10’s strengths with corporate
information-technology chiefs, technology experts and media,
Boulben said.
The exact timing of BB10 phones going
on sale will be up to carriers in the Americas, Europe, Australia, Asia
and Africa, he said. It will hinge on how long they take to test
the handsets.
“Lab entry at some carriers can take
as little as six to nine weeks and for some carriers, 16 to 20 weeks,”
Boulben said. “That explains with a carrier whether it will be January
or February.”
In any case, BB10 should deliver the
first really new smartphone operating system since Apple’s first iPhone
in 2007, Boulben said.
“In the last five years
there hasn’t a groundbreaking new experience and we believe in this one
you have all the ingredients,” he said.
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