Nielsen: BlackBerry nearly a non-factor in Q2, Android and iOS take top spots

New numbers from Nielsen illustrate what has long been obvious to anyone who pays attention to technology: old feature phones will soon be a thing of the past. Nielsen reported on Thursday that two-thirds of new mobile phones purchased in the second quarter of 2012 were smartphones. What's more, Nielsen found that just under 55% of all U.S. mobile subscribers owned smartphones, meaning something that was considered a high-end item just five years ago is now commonplace. As far as smartphone operating systems go, Nielsen found that recent adopters over the past quarter unsurprisingly gravitated toward Android, which accounted for 54.6% of all new smartphone purchases, and iOS, which accounted for 36.3% of all new smartphone purchases. RIM's BlackBerry devices continued to lose market share during the quarter, as BlackBerry OS smartphones accounted for just 4% of all new smartphone purchases - just two quarters ago, RIM's share among new smartphone buyers sat at 15%.

BlackBerry remains top smartphone in Washington

Research in Motion's BlackBerry operating system has gone from being a leading smartphone platform to the struggling OS it is today. While adoption rates may be slowing with consumers and businesses, the same cannot be said for U.S. Government workers, a new report claims. The Washington Post on Tuesday reported that nearly half a million federal workers, including President Barack Obama, are still using BlackBerry phones. That number hasn't dipped over the past few years despite RIM's plummeting sales. “We appreciate RIM's focus on security, which is paramount for government use,” said Casey Coleman, chief information officer at the General Services Administration. Some agencies are changing their policies and allowing workers to choose other smartphones, however, which may impact BlackBerry's government market share moving forward. Coleman added that other platforms are proving equally secure, and that the GSA places “a priority on adoption where appropriate of innovative new technologies.”

Apple and Google's OS share slides in March as BlackBerry shows narrow gain

The smartphone and tablet landscapes remained largely unchanged in March as far as operating system usage share is concerned. New data from analytics firm Net Applications shows that the collective operating system share owned by Apple's iPhone and iPad inched down to 59.87% in March from 60.59% in February. iOS's share had skyrocketed in February as it continued to gain after losing share ahead of the holidays. Google's Android smartphones and tablets dipped as well in March according to Net Applications's data, dropping to 18.66% from 19.02% in February. Symbian stayed flat at 2.77% in March, and the only mobile operating system to show gains during the month was RIM's BlackBerry OS, which climbed a fraction of a point to 2.21% from 2.15% in February.

BlackBerry dealt another blow as government agency opts for iPhones, Android

Government deployment of BlackBerry smartphones in the United States has been big business for struggling Canadian handset maker Research In Motion, but the tide seems to be turning toward Android and iOS. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said earlier this month that it would be ditching BlackBerry smartphones in favor of Apple's iPhone, and now the General Services Administration has added the iPhone and Android devices to its list of approved devices. The GSA, an independent 12,635-person agency that procures supplies and products for other federal agencies, spends upwards of $70 billion each year with contracted vendors. In addition to BlackBerry phones, Android devices and iPhones have now been approved for purchase by GSA staff in order to support “applications that can help them work more efficiently with customers like the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security,” a spokesperson told Bloomberg Businessweek. It is not clear when the policy change went into effect.

HTC Sensation XL, Nokia C3, BlackBerry Torch 9810, Samsung Galaxy Mini discontinued by Vodafone UK

In the UK, Vodafone is set to discontinue four smartphones, according to SoMobile. These are the HTC Sensation XL, Nokia C3, Samsung Galaxy Mini, and BlackBerry Torch 9810. For the first three of those this undoubtedly has something to do with the fact that they'll all be getting successors announced at the end of this month in Barcelona during Mobile World Congress. The HTC One X should succeed the Sensation XL in the ‘huge smartphone' category for the Taiwanese company, while the recently leaked Nokia Asha 302 will pick up where the C3 left off. And the Samsung Galaxy Mini 2‘s pedigree is pretty obvious from its name. So we may safely assume that Big Red will sell these new handsets at some point.

RIM's recent marketing blitz deemed a bust; BlackBerry 7 sales weakened in January

When new CEO Thorsten Henis took the reins at Research In Motion, he immediately pointed to the smartphone vendor's marketing strategy as an area the company needed to focus on if it hoped to regain share in key markets like the United States. The wheels on RIM's recent marketing efforts had already been set in motion, however, and early reports suggest that the increased volume of familiar BlackBerry ads aren't having the impact RIM was hoping for. Read on for more. RIM ramped up its marketing efforts in January, but the move does not appear to have paid off. “Our January checks indicated weak sell-through trends for the new BlackBerry 7 smartphones despite increased marketing efforts,” Canaccord Genuity analyst Mike Walkley wrote in a research note to investors late Wednesday night. “With very strong share gains for the iPhone 4S, increasingly price competitive Android smartphones, improving Windows smartphones, and strong sales of the affordable 7 inch Amazon Kindle Fire tablet, we anticipate increasing competition across all tiers of RIM's products in C2012.” As a result of weakening device sales and RIM's poor outlook for the current quarter, the analyst lowered his estimates for RIM's February quarter as well as the vendor's full fiscal year. And despite a new round of marketing that kicked off in February with RIM's “Be Bold” campaign, Walkley doesn't see much changing for the Waterloo, Ontario-based until late in 2012. “Given the strong share gains for Apple post the launch of the iPhone 4S and increasing Android and Windows competition in all price tiers, we believe BlackBerry 7 products will continue to struggle until BB10 products launch in late C2012,” the analyst noted. RIM expected to launch its first QNX-powered BlackBerry 10 smartphone - code-named the BlackBerry London - toward the end of the third quarter or early in the fourth quarter. Walkley reiterated his Hold rating on RIM's stock and maintained his $15 price target.

Bold or old? Who is the real Team BlackBerry? [HUMOR]

RIM recently took to Twitter to conduct an informal poll of BlackBerry users. On New Year’s Eve the smartphone maker asked #TeamBlackBerry how they planned to #BeBold in the new year. The result not only made for a rather useless infographic but also resulted in the creation of a team of masked avengers. GoGo Girl, Max Stone, Justin Steele, and Trudy Foreal were created to characterize certain BlackBerry users, but our friends over at WinSource had a different view. I know, I know. It’s especially cruel to kick RIM while they are down, but we can’t help but get a laugh out of it all. When Windows Phone users can make a justifiable jab at the expense of a once-dominant smartphone maker, you know the tides are turning. Don’t even be fooled for a second that the rise of Android didn’t contribute largely to RIM’s demise, and with Google and crew looking into more and more ways to make the OS enterprise-friendly it’s more than safe to say that the BlackBerry is a dying breed. It would actually make for a really great comic book storyline in the vein of Frank Miller’s darkly toned Batman books of the late 80s. The once triumphant hero is forced out of retirement in an attempt to thwart their greatest foe yet only to die, of all things, from a heart attack. Sad, yes. But let’s not weep too much for the BlackBerry name.

BlackBerry 10 open to licensing says RIM's new CEO

Earlier today we reported about RIM's reshuffling in upper management, with Thorsten Heins taking charge as the new CEO of the company. Well it looks like there could possibly be some major changes in the way RIM works in the future. At RIM's first official conference call with the new CEO took place earlier today, and some interesting topics were discussed. One of the most interesting points that came up was the possibility of licensing BlackBerry 10 OS. Heins confirmed that RIM will be open to letting other manufacturers creating devices running on BlackBerry “if it makes sense to follow the path.” Sounds like a possibility that should be explored when BlackBerry 10 is released in the future. Would you like to see HTC/Samsung BlackBerry phones?

RIM's rumored 2012 roadmap includes two new PlayBook tablets, one BlackBerry 10 smartphone

If you've been wondering what RIM has in store for us this year (after a rather bad 2011 for the company, especially in the newly-entered tablet space), well, wonder no more. We now have some rumored details concerning the Canadian company's roadmap for this year. Perhaps surprisingly after the while PlayBook debacle, RIM seems intent on launching not one, but two new tablets throughout this year. One will have a 7-inch screen like the currently selling PlayBook, and the other will be bigger, sporting a 10-inch display. The former should arrive around April, with HSPA+ support, and the latter will only be out in December (yet it will get LTE connectivity). PlayBook OS 2.0 will be released by the end of February. Originally, the 10-inch project was scrapped, but apparently it got revived at some point for whatever reason. The first smartphone to run BlackBerry 10, the new OS version from RIM, will be available in September. And it may be the only BB10 phone of the year. It may get unveiled in May during BlackBerry World. But as that will happen so far from its launch date, it will probably just be shown, and won't be ready to play with. We'll also see two new BlackBerry Curve handsets in 2012, both aimed at emerging markets (East Asia and Africa). One of them will be 2G-only, a rare occurrence these days, and they'll both obviously run BlackBerry OS 7.x. Don't forget that this is just a rumor for now, so treat it as such. Even if everything in here turns out to be true, it remains to be seen whether these steps will be enough for RIM to regain its ‘cool factor' in the developed world.

BlackBerry roadmap reveals two tablets and BlackBerry 10 smartphone (leak)

A leaked BlackBerry roadmap does have some important dates that you might want to take note of, especially if you are a BlackBerry fan. Word on the street (from N4BB actually) has it that there is one BlackBerry 10 model in the works, where it will roll out this coming September. This will be the first BlackBerry 10-powered handset that might end up known as the BlackBerry London, although certain circles do claim that this could be the BlackBerry Surfboard instead. Regardless of what it is called, you can bet your bottom dollar that RIM has to get this particular launch right in terms of hardware and software, as many see it as a last chance saloon before consumers, no matter how loyal they were to the RIM brand, makes the jump to other smartphone platforms. Apart from that, there might be a couple more tablets from RIM coming your way – you know what they say, if at first you do not succeed, try again. Do you think when April rolls around, marking the first year anniversary of the BlackBerry PlayBook, a 3G version of the 7″ tablet might actually roll out in commemoration as well? Apart from that, if RIM manages to pull over to December this year, then do expect to see a 10″ tablet sporting LTE 4G connectivity.

BlackBerry gets Game Boy skin

Here is a little throwback to the age where a quartet (and later, just two) of AA batteries delivered hours of handheld fun wherever you went, even while you are busy collecting them all Pokemans! The Game Boy Skin for a variety of BlackBerry models are now available, retailing for just $8.95 a pop. Supported BlackBerry models include the Blackberry Bold 9000, Blackberry Bold 9650, Blackberry Bold 9700, Blackberry Bold 9780, Blackberry Bold 9900, Blackberry Bold 9930, Blackberry Curve 8520, Blackberry Curve 8530, Blackberry Curve 8900, Blackberry Curve 9300, Blackberry Curve 9330, Blackberry Curve 9350, Blackberry Curve 9360, Blackberry Curve 9370, Blackberry Curve 9930, Blackberry Torch 9800, Blackberry Torch 9810, and the Blackberry Torch 9850, where you will need to specify just which BlackBerry you would like the skin to fit when you checkout. The skin is said to bring some retro flair to your smartphone without adding any additional bulk, while delivering protection from minor surface scratches.

PageOne launches Blackberry Responder App

Robust messaging and SOS alert functionality improves operational efficiency at the touch of a button
London, 10th January, 2012 - PageOne Communications, the UK’s leading provider of mobile messaging solutions to the public and enterprise sectors, today announced the launch of its BlackBerry® Responder App for BlackBerry devices. The App provides a simple, quick and secure way of ensuring important real-time operational and emergency messages are delivered to and acknowledged by individual users or groups.
Critical information sent via BlackBerry email can often become lost amongst everyday general messages, meaning staff miss important alerts and do not respond promptly to the sender. With a dedicated inbox, pop-up alerts and 2-way QuickReply options the Blackberry Responder App ensures vital information that needs to be noticed is actioned immediately. Receipt and opening of messages is confirmed and the QuickReply option allows staff to respond with status, action or updates.
“With the average employee receiving 100-200 emails per day, its vital to differentiate those that must be immediately acted upon,” said  Nigel Gray, Sales Director at PageOne Communications. “Doing so instantly makes your existing communications that much more effective.”
The Blackberry Responder App also offers optional lone worker functions such as an SOS alert and GPS location capability to provide additional support and peace-of-mind for lone field operatives. Pressing and holding the BlackBerry’s SOS alert button triggers an audible and visual distress signal direct to their employers Connect or Flare account, together with a GPS location if available. The SOS alert can also automatically be pushed to an email account, mobile or pager.
As part of their employer duty of care, staff overseeing operatives out in the field can see an audited overview of all remote staff and their status via a customised dashboard. Automated periodic reminder alerts can be set-up that must be acknowledged by the user, without which an SOS alert is auto-generated.
“The more for less mantra rippling through both the public and private sector has had a major impact on, and changed, working practices. We have seen a dramatic increase in the number of employees who should be classified as lone workers for some or all of their role,” added Nigel Gray. “The BlackBerry Responder offers a cost-effective way of meeting this employer duty of care to its employees.”
PageOne’s Blackberry Responder service requires no server/network hardware or software to be installed and seamlessly integrates with PageOne’s Connect and Flare web-based suites. Operational staff can send and receive messages to any combination of BlackBerry, pager mobile and email with an automatically generated audit trail of message delivery, receipt and reply. Using status updates they can also deliver more targeted broadcasts, for example sending only to staff who are ‘available’.
For further information on PageOne’s BlackBerry Responder Application, please visit http://www.pageone.co.uk/services/blackberry-smart-phone-messaging-app
-End-
About PageOne. www.pageone.co.uk
PageOne Communications is celebrating 25 years of innovation in mobile messaging solutions. The company has proven expertise in helping clients drive operational and cost efficiencies, deliver effective results and have a real business edge in a competitive market. With a rich heritage in all aspects of messaging - from paging and  SMS through to voice, email and location based services - it places its customers at the heart of its product development to help thousands of organisations across the public and major corporate sectors with reliable, cost-effective and award-winning solutions.
Note to editorsThe PageOne name is written as one word with a capital 'P' and capital 'O'.
Press Contact:Geraldine Fernandez / Robert Hickling 
Say Communications 
Tel: 020 8971 6400
Email: pageone@saycomms.co.uk
Source: RealWire

BlackBerry 10 Milan slider cancelled?

Here's an interesting story. Remember how BGR reported that BlackBerry 10 was rumored to be a disaster, and RIM countered their story with claims that the rumors were false? Well, today's tip seems to suggest that the former's source might be right. According to the folks over at N4BB, RIM's first BlackBerry 10 device - the slider device that was codenamed Milan has been reportedly cancelled. No word on why the device was cancelled but apparently it's a hardware-related issue. But since the phone was never officially announced, it's hard to make a big deal about the issue either - it could have been a fan-made drawing or a leaked concept for all we know. However, if the device is indeed real, and was cancelled due to problems, could it possibly be BlackBerry 10-related? Nothing is certain right now, but if you've been waiting to get your hands on the Milan, I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you.

Unannounced BlackBerry Milan slider cancelled because of hardware issue

About a month ago we showed you a leaked image of an upcoming BlackBerry portrait slider, the device codenamed Milan. This was supposed to run BlackBerry OS 10, and launch this year. Well, apparently that won't happen anymore. According to one of N4BB‘s sources, the BlackBerry Milan has effectively been cancelled by RIM before even being released. The reason seems to have something to do with a hardware issue. There can be many of those during the development phase of a new smartphone, but to cancel a handset for such a problem can only mean that it was huge and basically unsolvable without severely altering the hardware (which at this stage we're guessing would have simply ended up costing way too much). Image via CrackBerry

Android and iOS both lose usage share in December as BlackBerry gains

Usage of Apple's iOS platform and Google's Android operating system both declined between November and December as BlackBerry and Symbian both showed gains. Despite huge activations over the holidays, new data released by analytics firm Net Applications shows that Internet usage of iOS on Apple's iPhone and iPad displayed the sharpest decline in December, dropping to 52.10% from 54.04% in November. Google's Android platform on smartphones and tablets dipped less than half a point to 16.29% in December but it stayed in the No.3 spot as Java ME gained more ground, climbing to a 21.27% share last month. Also showing usage gains in December were RIM's BlackBerry platform, up to 3.51% from 3.18% in November, and Symbian, which climbed to 5.76% from 5.27% a month earlier.

Spotify for BlackBerry now available… with a catch

Spotify announced on Wednesday that its BlackBerry client is now out of beta and officially available for download. Spotify is a free ad-supported desktop music service that allows its users to listen to any song they want, provided it has been licensed by Spotify. Users who want to take advantage of the service's mobile features, which include offline caching and access to the full Spotify library, must pay a $10 monthly subscription fee. We're fans of Spotify here at BGR so we highly recommend BlackBerry users give it a try. The download is free (remember, you'll need a monthly plan to use it, though) and accessible from the BlackBerry App World now. The catch? You'll need to own one of five BlackBerry models (BlackBerry Bold 9780, Bold 9700, Curve 9300, Bold 9000 or Curve 8520) in order to use the app, which means it looks like CDMA users are being left out in the cold for now.

$199 BlackBerry PlayBook FireSale Returns, Buy Yourself One Until Supplies Last!

A few weeks ago, RIM announced a similar sale where the 16GB Playbook was selling for just $199, 32GB for just $249 and 64GB for just $399 ($300 less than the regular price for each model!). And it quickly sold out on almost every good place we've known on the web.

But, Best Buy and Staples are offering the BlackBook at the aforementioned prices again, and they will be available for purchase "while supplies last". So, what are you waiting for? Head past the break to get yourself one. Now.

As a refresher, the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet features a 7" high-resolution multi-touch display, dual HD cameras including a 5 megapixel camera for still shots and video recording and a front-facing 3 megapixel camera for video calling.

In an effort to make some money from the tablet, which despite of its amazing hardware, didn't quite live up to the expectations, RIM has announced quite a few BlackBerry PlayBook offers and deals in the recent past. This, however, is seemingly one of the last before we break into the new year.

Click here to know more about the BlackBerry PlayBook specs and features.

Click one of the following links to avail these BlackBerry PlayBook offers:

• BlackBerry PlayBook at Best Buy
• BlackBerry PlayBook at Staples

RIM responds to claim of BlackBerry 10 software problems

RIM has responded to an exclusive BGR report published on Thursday in which our source claimed BlackBerry 10 was delayed not because the vendor was waiting for a new LTE chip, but because RIM's developers have not yet been able to resolve many of the issues plaguing the new OS. "RIM made a strategic decision to launch BlackBerry 10 devices with a new, LTE-based dual core chip set architecture," RIM told AllThingsD. "As explained on our earnings call, the broad engineering impact of this decision and certain other factors significantly influenced the anticipated timing for the BlackBerry 10 devices. The anonymous claim suggesting otherwise is inaccurate and uninformed. As RIM has previously explained, and as Mike Lazaridis reiterated on the earnings call, we will not launch BlackBerry 10 devices until we know they are ready and we believe this new chip set architecture is required to deliver the world class user experience that our customers will expect. Any suggestion to the contrary is simply false." Contrary to RIM's statement, our source indicated that the company has not yet been able to get core features like email and BlackBerry Messenger working as desired on BlackBerry 10 smartphones, and that it is “pushing this out as long as they can for one reason, they don't have a working product yet.”

BlackBerry 10 could be ‘too little, too late'

Research In Motion confirmed part of an exclusive BGR report Thursday night when its co-CEOs announced during an earnings call that its first BlackBerry 10 smartphone would not launch until the “latter part of 2012.” Despite RIM's earlier statement that a QNX-powered smartphone would launch in the first half next year, we reported in November that RIM's first next-generation smartphone would not launch until the third quarter. RIM co-Chief Mike Lazaridis blamed the delay on new dual-core processors that were not yet ready to be manufactured in bulk, but the fact remains that by the time RIM's first QNX-based smartphone launches it will be competing against Apple's sixth-generation iPhone, a horde of new Android phones with next-generation features and specs, a variety of Windows Phones from Nokia, and more. According to one analyst, BlackBerry 10 may be “too little, too late.” Read on for more.

RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky went out on a limb and continued to see a potential upside for RIM long after other analysts were jumping ship. It now appears as though the Waterloo, Ontario-based vendor failed to capitalize on what little opportunity Abramsky had identified. The analyst recently began dropping his price target on RIM stock and on Friday, he cut it further to $16 from $20, troubled by RIM's weak fourth-quarter guidance and the BlackBerry 10 delays.

“BlackBerry 10 is now pushed out to 2H/CY12 (from 1H/CY12), making RIM significantly late to the high-end smartphone market, risking further share losses and competitive developer momentum,” Abramsky wrote in a note to clients on Friday. He continued, “As visibility continues to decline with BB10 delayed, we see few catalysts over the next six months (valuation volatility may occur on newsflow) and recommend investors remain on the sidelines.”

RBC lowered its estimates for fiscal 2012 to $18.9 billion in revenue with earnings of $4.55 per share, down from earlier estimates of $19.3 billion and $4.40. Abramsky cut fiscal 2013 estimates as well in light of BlackBerry 10 launch delays; he now sees revenue totaling $18.1 billion and EPS coming in at $3.00, down from $20.0 billion and earnings of $4.30 per share.

RIM tells Blackberry owners how to remove Carrier IQ's software

The whole situation with Carrier IQ has gotten carriers and handset manufacturers denying the software's existence left and right. RIM has also been denying that they install Carrier IQ's software on their phones but admitted that carriers could have installed the software after receiving phone shipments from RIM, but the good news is that RIM is now teaching Blackberry owners how to remove the software from their phones if they chose to.

Luckily for Blackberry owners, the process of removal of Carrier IQ's software on Blackberry devices appears rather straightforward, similar to that of removing your run of the mill third party applications. If you'd like a breakdown on Carrier IQ and what it actually does before removing it, head on down to MobileBurn, but if you've already made up your mind regardless what Carrier IQ's explanation is, you will be able to find removal instructions from RIM's website.