US Cellular Launches BlackBerry Curve 9350

RIM's latest smartphone ‘BlackBerry Curve 9350′ is now available for purchase via US Cellular. For a limited time only, the handset can be yours for free with a new two-year contract and after a $100 mail-in rebate. This special offer ends on November 20th. Specs-wise, this CDMA smartphone packs a 2.44-inch 480 x 360 display, an 800MHz processor, a 5MP rear-facing camera with LED flash, a full QWERTY keyboard, GPS, WiFi, a 3.5mm headset jack and runs on BlackBerry 7 OS. [Press Release]

BlackBerry outage affects millions for third day

After having initially said the issues were resolved following one day of service interruptions, millions of BlackBerry users across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and even some areas in South America still find themselves without access to the Wen or messaging services for the third consecutive day. Research In Motion confirmed earlier that a bug on a Blackberry server was responsible for knocking millions offline on Monday, and the Waterloo, Ontario-based smartphone maker elaborated on Tuesday that the continued interruption was caused by a core switch failure. RIM now says the outage has caused a large backlog of data that must be cleared before service can return to normal. No firm timeline has been issued.

RIM announces NFC-based BlackBerry Tag tap-to-share service

Research In Motion co-CEO Jim Balsillie took the wraps off a new NFC-based BlackBerry service during his keynote presentation at the GITEX conference in Dubai this week. Dubbed BlackBerry Tag, the new feature will allow BlackBerry users to share contact information, documents, URLs, photos and other multimedia files by tapping one handset against another. BlackBerry Tag will also allow users to add each other as BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) contacts with a simple tap. ”BlackBerry Tag is an exciting and innovative feature that makes sharing contact information and multimedia content effortless and seamless,” Balsillie said in a statement. “BlackBerry Tag opens a new dimension to the BlackBerry platform that is powerful, simple and intuitive and we think it will be welcomed by both users and developers.” BlackBerry Tag will be enabled on NFC-equipped handsets in an upcoming BlackBerry 7 OS update. RIM's full press release follows below.

BlackBerry Tag enables effortless ‘tap to share' exchanges of multimedia content and contact info between friends

Friends can also add each other as BBM contacts with a simple ‘tap'

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES–(Marketwire – Oct. 10, 2011) – GITEX -During his keynote presentation at the GITEX conference in Dubai, Research In Motion (NASDAQ:RIMM)(TSX:RIM) Co-CEO Jim Balsillie today unveiled a new way for BlackBerry® smartphone users to connect with one another and share multimedia content.

BlackBerry® Tag, which will be incorporated in the next BlackBerry® 7 OS update*, will allow users to share contact information, documents, URLs, photos and other multimedia content by simply tapping their BlackBerry smartphones together. BlackBerry Tag will also enable friends to instantly add one another as contacts on BBM™ (BlackBerry® Messenger).

“BlackBerry Tag is an exciting and innovative feature that makes sharing contact information and multimedia content effortless and seamless,” said Jim Balsillie, Co-CEO at Research In Motion. “BlackBerry Tag opens a new dimension to the BlackBerry platform that is powerful, simple and intuitive and we think it will be welcomed by both users and developers.”

BlackBerry Tag takes advantage of Near Field Communications (NFC) technology included in the recently launched BlackBerry® Bold™ 9900x9930 and BlackBerry® Curve™ 9350x9360x9370 smartphones, and these are the first BlackBerry smartphones that will support BlackBerry Tag.

RIM also announced plans to expose BlackBerry Tag through APIs on the BlackBerry platform, allowing software developers to take advantage of “tap to share” functionality from within their own applications.

* Subject to network operator certifications. Check with your local operator for availability.

Canaccord sees strong global BlackBerry 7 sales in September

Global sales of Research In Motion's latest round of BlackBerry smartphones were solid in September according to checks performed by Canaccord's Mike Walkley. The analyst said in a research note on Monday that initial sales of RIM's new phones such as the BlackBerry Bold 9900 and BlackBerry Torch 9810 have been strong, especially among enterprise customers upgrading from older BlackBerry smartphones. ”Our September checks indicated solid global sales of new BlackBerry 7 smartphones, with strong initial enterprise upgrade sales of the Bold at Verizon, strong initial sales of the Bold in certain markets in Europe, and solid sales of the Torch at AT&T with its $49 price,” Walkley wrote, noting that sell-through to consumers has been weak at Verizon Wireless, Sprint and T-Mobile. Read on for more.

The analyst also stated that demand for entry-level BlackBerry 7 handsets in emerging markets like Latin American and Southeast Asia has weakened due to the onslaught of competitively priced Android smartphones. Looking forward, Walkley does not see RIM as an attractive candidate for a takeover in the near future. ”Given our belief QNX has a low probability of emerging as a viable long-term smartphone ecosystem versus iOS, Android or even Windows, combined with our belief RIM will struggle to grow its subscriber base longer term, we do not believe RIM can sell the company at a large premium to the current valuation,” Walkley noted, reiterating a Hold rating on RIM stock with a price target of $28.

BlackBerry EMEA outage spills over to second day

BlackBerry users across Europe, the Middle East and Africa again find themselves without service on Tuesday as a bug that knocked millions of users offline on Monday has seemingly resurfaced. Research In Motion announced early Tuesday morning that BlackBerry service across the EMEA region had been restored, but the Associated Press later reported that Internet and messaging services for users across the region are again offline. The report was later confirmed by several carriers including T-Mobile UK, Vodafone UK and Etisalat in the United Arab Emirates. The cause of the outage is unclear, however a report on Monday attributed the massive service interruption to a bug on a RIM server in England.

BlackBerry bug knocks millions of users offline in Europe, Middle East and Africa

BlackBerry users in Africa, the Middle East and Europe have been without service since 11:00 a.m. Monday, The Telegraph reports. A bug on Research In Motion's server in Slough, England is to blame and it appears to have impaired all users, independent of carrier or device. RIM has not issued a statement on the matter. “There is an issue with BlackBerry services at present,” a T-Mobile UK representative said on Twitter. “RIM investigating this at present.” Additionally, Batelco, a wireless carrier in Bahrain, issued a statement that confirmed the service was out in the entire country and explained the issue is being “dealt with by BlackBerry providers in Canada.”

Thanks Adam!

BlackBerry outage spreads to US and Canada, continues in Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia, South America

It's day three of RIM's BlackBerry service outage in much of the world, including Europe, the Middle East, Africa, India, Brazil and Chile. But now the problem appears to have spread into Canada - RIM's home turf - and we're even hearing reports of some service issues in the US as well. We've reached out to RIM for comment, but we'd like to hear from you.

BlackBerry outage woes not over yet

Seems like Research In Motion (RIM) is experiencing a roller coaster ride at the moment, taking their users across Europe for the ride as well. We first reported that BlackBerry services in Europe, the Middle East and Africa suffered some downtime, only to have RIM restore it back up within the day – and now there are still outages happening across Europe and the other regions mentioned for a second consecutive day.

Canada-based RIM continued to be on the receiving end of reports of interruptions to various services such as Internet browsing, the ability to roam as well as instant messaging. Pockets of these outages persist in select regions, and according to Everything Everywhere, the UK's biggest mobile operator by revenue, customers continued to experience new problems on Tuesday although they did not mention just which services were affected. As for India carrier Bharti Airtel, Ltd., intermittent outages to services also happened since 6 pm on Tuesday.

All RIM could do was muscle this statement – “Some users in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, India, Brazil, Chile, and Argentina are experiencing messaging and browsing delays. We are working to restore normal service as quickly as possible.”

BlackBerry Torch 9810 and 9860 now available in the UK

Two of the newest BlackBerry smartphones which come with a touchscreen are now finally available to purchase in the UK. The BlackBerry Torch 9810 and Torch 9860 sport very similar names, yet their predecessors couldn't be more different. If the 9810 is, as implied by its model number, the successor to the Torch 9800, even having the same form factor, the Torch 9860 is supposed to follow up the failed Storm series of all-touchscreen BlackBerry devices. We'll have to wait and see if it will manage to outperform its predecessors.

Anyway, regardless of whether you like your BlackBerry to be portrait sliding, or just a big touchscreen, you're in luck. The Torch 9810 is now in stock at both The Smartphone Centre and Clove. The former charges you £474.95 for the handset, shipping included. If you go with the latter, you'll only have to shell out £430.80, although shipping isn't free.

The BlackBerry Torch 9860 can now be yours for £414.95 if you get it from The Smartphone Centre, or £418.80 if you place an order at Clove. Shipping is handled similarly to the Torch 9810.

Android, iOS continue to absorb BlackBerry market share in U.S.

ComScore released its most recent U.S. Mobile Subscriber Report on Wednesday, which suggests that iOS and Android are continuing to absorb share at the expense of RIM's BlackBerry OS in the United States. Android's market share increased 5.6 points to 43.7% during the three month period ending in August. iOS grew 0.7 points to a 27.3% share during the same period. Meanwhile, RIM dropped 5 percentage points to a 19.7% and Microsoft's Windows Phone platform and Symbian both remained relatively flat, losing just 0.1 percentage points and 0.3 percentage points, respectively. Samsung's grip on the overall mobile phone market continued to grow in the U.S. It now has a 25.3% share, up from 24.8% in May, and is followed by LG (21%), Motorola (14%), Apple (9.8%) and RIM (7.1%). 84.5 million U.S. residents now carry a smartphone, up 10% as noted in the comScore's May report. Read on for the full press release.

comScore Reports August 2011 U.S. Mobile Subscriber Market Share

comScore Releases Report "iPhone 5: Implications for the Operator Industry"

RESTON, VA, October 5, 2011 - comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released data from the comScore MobiLens service, reporting key trends in the U.S. mobile phone industry during the three month average period ending August 2011. The study surveyed more than 30,000 U.S. mobile subscribers and found Samsung to be the top handset manufacturer overall with 25.3 percent market share. Google Android continued to gain ground in the smartphone market reaching 43.7 percent market share.

In light of Apple's new iPhone announcement, comScore has also released a report highlighting the implications of this new device to the mobile operator marketplace. A complimentary copy of the report can be downloaded at the following link: http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Presentations_Whitepapers/2011/iPhone_5_Implications_for_the_Operator_Industry

OEM Market Share

For the three-month average period ending in August, 234 million Americans age 13 and older used mobile devices. Device manufacturer Samsung ranked as the top OEM with 25.3 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers (up 0.5 percentage points from the prior three-month period), followed by LG with 21.0 percent share and Motorola with 14.0 percent share. Apple strengthened its position at #4 with 9.8 percent share of mobile subscribers (up 1.1 percentage points), while RIM rounded out the top five with 7.1 percent share.

Smartphone Platform Market Share

84.5 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones during the three months ending in August, up 10 percent from the preceding three month period. Google Android ranked as the top smartphone platform with 43.7 percent market share, up 5.6 percentage points from the prior three-month period. Apple strengthened its #2 position, growing 0.7 percentage points to 27.3 percent of the smartphone market. RIM ranked third with 19.7 percent share, followed by Microsoft (5.7 percent) and Symbian (1.8 percent).

Mobile Content Usage

In August, 70 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers used text messaging on their mobile device, up 1.0 percentage points. Browsers were used by 42.1 percent of subscribers (up 2.3 percentage points), while downloaded applications were used by 41.6 percent (up 3.0 percentage points). Accessing of social networking sites or blogs increased 2.3 percentage points to 30.9 percent of mobile subscribers. Game-playing was done by 28.5 percent of the mobile audience (up 1.6 percentage points), while 20.7 percent listened to music on their phones (up 2.1 percentage points).

About MobiLens

MobiLens data is derived from an intelligent online survey of a nationally representative sample of mobile subscribers age 13 and above. Data on mobile phone usage refers to a respondent's primary mobile phone and does not include data related to a respondent's secondary device.

BBM caught cheating with Android, CrackBerry epidemic to spread?

RIM's killer BlackBerry feature has always been BBM. So, you'll have to excuse us if we give some side-eye to these leaked shots of the private messaging service two-timing its Canadian maker. The pics over on TechnoBuffalo, supposedly obtained by a RIM employee, show off the BBM for Android app in question running on a crude developer phone. Not much can be glimpsed from the set aside from the application's icon and account interface. It could all be a slick hoax, or maybe the Waterloo-based co. really does plan to release its prized service into greener Android pastures. We'll let you know for sure when we hit up DevCon later this month.

BlackBerry Bold 9900 now available at Orange UK, free from 41 per month

In the UK, so far if you wanted to purchase a BlackBerry Bold 9900 on contract, Vodafone was more or less your only option. So if you didn't favor Big Red or had an ongoing relationship with another operator, there wasn't much you could (inexpensively) do.

That changes today, although it's only good news if you like Orange or it's already your operator of choice. Orange now has the BlackBerry Bold 990 in stock and ready to ship for Pay Monthly customers.

Sprint's LG Marquee, BlackBerry Curve 9350, and Kyocera Duramax now available

Yesterday was a big day for Sprint, as many Sundays are (since the carrier loves to release new handsets on that particular day of the week). Not as big as tomorrow may end up being, but still, three new devices have hit the streets – and Sprint's shelves.

The newly available handsets are the LG Marquee, the BlackBerry Curve 9350, and the Kyocera Duramax. And one of them can already be found heavily discounted at an independent retailer. Read on for more details.

The Kyocera Duramax (seen in the picture above on the left) is a rugged flip phone that comes with support for Sprint's Direct Connect Push-To-Talk service. Suffice to say that its ruggedness is this phone's main feature. Aside from that though, it's also got a 3 MP camera with LED flash and video recording support, a microSD card slot, and a non-slip surface.

Sprint will now give you a Duramax if you part with $69.99 (after a $50 mail-in rebate) and you sign a new two-year contract. If you're interested, here's the link to Sprint's dedicated Web page.

The BlackBerry Curve 9350 (in the center of the picture above) is one of the most affordable devices to come out of RIM, and after being delayed at least once it's finally out at Sprint too. The carrier charges $49.99 (after a $50 mail-in rebate) for the Curve 9350, and again a two-year service agreement is required to get this price. If you want to dive into the BlackBerry world but don't want to spend an arm and a leg, get a 9350 from Sprint now.

The BlackBerry Curve 9350 has a 2.44-inch screen with 480×360 resolution, an 800 MHz processor, 512 MB of built-in storage, a microSD card slot, a 5 MP camera with LED flash and VGA (640×480) video recording, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and a 1,000 mAh battery.

Finally, Sprint has also made the LG Marquee (seen on the right side of the image above) available for purchase. This is the carrier's very own version of the internationally-launched LG Optimus Black. It's an Android smartphone running Gingerbread, and coming with a 4-inch 480×800 touchscreen, a 5 MP autofocus camera with LED flash, a 2 MP front-facing camera, a 1 GHz processor, 2 GB of built-in storage, Wi-Fi, GPS, a 3.5 mm headset jack, and it's only 9.2 mm thin.

Images of BBM on Android reportedly surface [updated]

BGR exclusively reported in March that Research In Motion was working to bring its popular BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) platform to Android smartphones and the iPhone. Now, images that purportedly show a beta version of the chat application running on an Android device have been leaked by TechRadar. Reportedly, the app is set to launch on Android before next year and RIM is already in the final stages of testing the solution. The leak lines up with BGR's original report that RIM would develop an Android client before an iOS version. In addition, BGR reported that RIM will likely limit the features of BBM on iOS and Android in an effort to woo users who want a more robust BBM experience back to a BlackBerry. RIM has plenty of stiff competition in the chat space, however. Applications such as Kik, Skype-owned GroupMe, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger all offer similar features and are available across multiple mobile platforms, and Apple's iMessage service will launch this month with iOS 5. Hit the jump for a second image that provides a better look at the UI.

UPDATE: As pointed out by a tweet from Chris Parsons, it appears as though the image used in the screenshot below was pieced together from a marketing shot posted by RIM in August.

Best Buy Now Offering $200 Discount On BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet!

Grief-struck by the falling market shares and loss in demand of the BlackBerry Playbook tablet, Research in Motion has slashed the price of the BlackBerry Playbook tablet PC further.

The first-ever and the only BlackBerry tablet which was earlier available for $499 is now available for just $299, giving you a flat $200 discount through Best Buy. The Best Buy BlackBerry Playbook tablet is listed at $299 for the 16GB variant.

The moves can also be seen as a consequence of newer devices making their way into the market. Amazon Kindle Fire is a prime example and is certainly the most-affordable tablet at just $199, even though it relatively lacks in terms of hardware.

BlackBerry Playbook was announced earlier this year, and debuted with BlackBerry Tablet OS. It has a 7” capacitive multi-touch display, a 5 megapixel primary camera with LED flash, a 3 megapixel front-facing camera for high-quality video calling, and BlackBerry QNX OS.

The device is driven by a 1GHz dual-core processor which is supplemented by 1GB of RAM. It is capable of recording and playing back high-quality video, games and apps. RIM also announced support for Android apps on BlackBerry PlayBook which requires the Android App Player for BlackBerry.

Other interesting features include Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, onboard GPS, BlackBerry services, BlackBerry Bridge feature to connect the tablet with the BlackBerry smartphone, 16GB onboard storage for carrying your media with support for up to 32GB using a microSD card, Adobe Flash support and much more.

Click here to know more about BlackBerry Playbook tablet.

Click here to visit the BlackBerry Playbook Best Buy page.