RIM Talks BlackBerry Messenger Growth Numbers

Every so often RIM shares with us how BlackBerry Messenger is doing. At the BBM Hackathon at NYC Tyler Lessard, VP of BlackBerry Alliances & Developer Relations, share the latest numbers. They are pretty impressive and I think it is the first time RIM has shared how many BBM groups there are.

• 45 Million active users worldwide
• Over 5.2 million BBM groups created
• Growing by over 2 million new users monthly
• 70% use it daily to communicate with friends
• Billions of messages sent each day
• BBM is the largest mobile social network for BlackBerry users

Let us know if there are any other stats you want us to ask them about!

via:bbreview

RIM Releases BlackBerry Messenger 6 Officially!

RIM let us know that the official roll-out of BlackBerry Messenger 6.0

started at 12:01AM EST TODAY (THIS MORNING)

Sorry we jumped the gun a few hours ago but now you understand why. You can start checking App World now for the update but due to their 24 hour cache period that may take a bit. As you have already seen RIM has started approving apps in App World that make use of the Social Platform available in BBM 6 so they are available when BBM6 launches now.

In an interview with Mike Kirkup, Director of Developer Relations @ RIM, he told us that BBM now has 45 million users and is seeing tremendous growth. They process over a billion BBM messages a day and the number is only growing. This ability to use BBM inside 3rd party apps is going to be explosive but more on that soon. RIM’s goal is to let developer harness BBM’s instant feature. Mike told me his colleague described it as both Instant AND Intimate. In other words sub 3 second messages along with a intimate private chat setting. Now developers are going to be able to tap into that powerful BBM social graph.

You should be able to find BBM 6 in App World sometime today or directly at:
www.blackberry.com/blackberrymessenger[qrcode pix=150]http://nhcbba.com/downloads/Blackberry_Messenger[/qrcode]

Check out the press release below:

RIM’s Management Changes Are For the Best

It seems that every time the blogosphere catches wind of a management change, either the post is written as “another nail in the coffin for RIM” or the post follows a series of “bye bye RIM” comments. There doesn’t seem to be much talk around the fact that management changes are a) normal in a large company b) most likely motivated by career advancement and not company stock price and c) good for bringing new blood to the company. Here are some RIM management change stories that have been coming up:

Did RIM lose its BlackBerry software boss just ahead of QNX transition? – Yes, it makes sense that a company transitioning to an entirely new platform would lose its VP of Handheld Software. The handheld software is what everyone has been complaining about so it’s not such a bad thing that the VP is out.

RIM loses BlackBerry PlayBook product manager to Samsung – The PlayBook was announced early, delayed and eventually came out lacking features that garnered it pretty harsh initial reviews. Is losing the PlayBook’s product manager therefore a bad thing? Probably not.

RIM Marketer Joins a Rival and RIM CMO Out on Eve of Playbook Tablet Launch – RIM’s marketing team is constantly getting criticized because they couldn’t convey the right messages about the BlackBerry Platform. To this day, you still find people who own a BlackBerry and have no idea it runs apps. We should be happy the marketing team is getting new leadership.

Research In Motion Announces Retirement of Don Morrison – The COO has probably made a lot of money in his years at RIM and would rather spend his time in the Muskokas.

Research In Motion Provides Management Update and Details On Cost Optimization Program – The only troubling thing here is that it seems like the same old guys are just moving up a rank or expanding their duties. It doesn’t seem like much has changed really.

When there’s blood in the water, sharks will come and every time someone at RIM decides to change careers, the move is taken as something bad for RIM. It’s great to see some of the old RIM people moving on as the company is in a transition period. What we’d like to see from RIM is more startup acquisitions to bring fresh blood into the company. One of the more exciting acquisitions was with ScoreLoop. Not only will the company help bring a better gaming ecosystem to RIM, but having that staff internally will help the company culture. More acquisitions like ScoreLoop could help bring the company into a new era of consumer smartphones.

via: bbcool

RIM VP Confirms QNX Phones but Cannot Confirm Timing

RIM’s Mike Lazaridis practically confirmed that BlackBerry PlayBook’s new QNX based operating system was coming to phones awhile back. Now according to TechRadar we have Carlo Chiarello, VP of GSM/UMTS @RIM, confirming the same with some more adjectives. Lazaridis said that QNX would come to the top of the line BlackBerry phones once they have multi-core processors available and Chiarello confirms that.

According to Chiarello RIM already has working prototype models of the QNX based phones which makes me wonder what processor they are packing. Here is what he had to say about these devices:

 

“That [QNX] experience is going to start to come in to our high tier products. I can’t tell you when; I’m not allowed to. But it’s absolutely part and parcel of what we’re working on now.

“I can tell you that it’s going to come in to the higher tier value propositions first. It’ll probably come into an all-touch first, more than likely… but I can’t tell you timings specifically. But it looks marvelous!”.

I am assuming that QNX phones are not coming before 2012 but I am not sure about TechRadars assumption/guess of 18 months. It could be but I doubt RIM can wait that long. Especially once they have native email and calendaring along with BES policies on the PlayBook they should be able to port that to a phone at a faster pace.

via:bbr

BlackBerry Balance – What is it?

[Mobile – Click Here for Video]

Earlier this month RIM officially launched a new program called BlackBerry Balance that is designed to help business users separate their work from play eliminating the need have multiple BlackBerry devices. Alec Taylor, VP of Platform Product Marketing at RIM, explains the basics in understanding the recently announced BlackBerry Balance solution for smartphone users in the enterprise. If you aren’t sure what BlackBerry Balance is, or if the program relates to you, then you’ll want to see the video interview (see above).

Twitter for BlackBerry v2.0 beta coming this week!

During his presentation on the BlackBerry Social Platform today, Tom Goguen, VP, Collaboration & Social Networking at RIM, announced the upcoming beta release of Twitter 2.0 for BlackBerry in what he called “the coolest Twitter app for mobile”. The new version is a super app and will have the ability to send a Tweet from within any app on the device and will also tie into Universal Search. Stay tuned for more!

via:cb

RIM Announces New Facebook App for BlackBerry PlayBook

Press Release

Waterloo, ON – Following on the success of the Facebook for BlackBerry® smartphones app, Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today announced Facebook for BlackBerry® PlayBookTM — a new app that delivers popular features of Facebook, optimized for the 7″ high resolution, multi-touch LCD display of the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.

BlackBerry PlayBook Video Chat Application Officially Announced!

Press Release

RIM Announces New Video Chat Application for the BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet

Allows BlackBerry PlayBook users to easily share special moments with friends and family

Waterloo, ON – Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today announced the availability of the BlackBerry® PlayBookTM Video Chat application – an easy and fun way for friends and family to place and receive video calls between BlackBerry® PlayBookTM tablets over an internet connected Wi-Fi® network.

“BlackBerry is a renowned mobile communication solution for connecting users to the people and information that matter most throughout their day,” said Tom Goguen, VP, Collaboration and Social Networking at Research In Motion (RIM). “With the BlackBerry PlayBook Video Chat application we are excited to be enabling our customers to share important moments and events with family and friends via video calls. With the BlackBerry PlayBook’s high-resolution video cameras and stunning display, a Video Chat call is the next best thing to being there.”

Key features of the PlayBook Video Chat application include:

• One-Click Video and Voice over Wi-Fi Calls – with just one click users can make a call from their Video Chat contact list, log of recent calls or simply by entering the BBID email address of the person they want to call.
• Incoming Call Notifications – users will receive a notification pop-up when a new video call comes in, allowing them to accept the call as either a video or voice call, or decline the call. For those quiet moments – such as when while watching a movie or playing a game -users will also have the ability to simply set the “Do Not Disturb” option and the BlackBerry PlayBook will automatically ignore all incoming calls.
• Powerful In-Call Functions – by using the picture-in-picture function users can easily preview their own video image prior to placing the call in order to see what will be displayed on the other end. They can also easily switch cameras from front to rear so their friends can see what they are seeing, and for private moments users can mute/unmute audio or make or take calls using voice only.
• Friends List – BlackBerry PlayBook Video Chat comes complete with a Friends List for maintaining your favorite contacts. A picture can easily be added to a contact to personalize the entry and a Call Log makes it simple to keep track of received and missed calls.

The BlackBerry PlayBook Video Chat application will be showcased this week at BlackBerry World 2011 (www.blackberryworld.com) in Orlando FL. It is expected to be available on May 3 and will be distributed to existing BlackBerry PlayBook customers through an over-the-air software update and will also be available on BlackBerry App WorldTM.

Carriers at odds with RIM over NFC payment data

RIM is butting heads with carriers over plans for NFC-equipped BlackBerry phones that could be a sign of things to come for Apple and others, unnamed carrier officials said Thursday. The company is fighting with GSM carriers like AT&T, Rogers and T-Mobile over where to store the personal identifiers needed for making the short-range wireless payments. Carriers want the information to be encrypted in SIM cards so that it can be portable, the WSJ said, but RIM wants the information stored in a secure memory partition on the phone.

The approach would make it harder to switch away from a BlackBerry without reloading those details. However, it would also prevent carriers from having a large amount of sway over how NFC was used or complicate any switch away from a carrier. RIM’s model would favor those with unlocked phones by letting them carry info from network to network, even to another country. The company is also believed to be talking to banks directly and could skip middlemen that might hike the price of a transaction. Software Senior VP Jim Tobin wouldn’t comment on specifics but said that RIM would still be “carrier supportive.”

The conflict might be a dry run for an encounter with Apple, which is rumored to be adding NFC to the iPhone 5. Where RIM or Android’s creator Google will often let carriers have say over most of the software, Apple demands that the firmware be stock everywhere and usually only allows modifications to carrier profiles for access to features like tethering. It may follow a similar strategy to RIM and put identifiers on built-in storage rather than the SIM. Bell mobility corporate development head Almis Ledas was already anticipating a dispute:

“We expect some closed operating system vendors will probably try to build [them directly] into the handset,” he said. “RIM and (Apple) fall into that category.”

Success in pushing a more device-centric NFC strategy should become clearer in mid-to-late 2011, once RIM introduces its new BlackBerry lineup and Apple introduces the iPhone 5.

 

via: Engadget

Bayalink announces BlackBerry connector for iPad

Bayalink hasn’t been much in the spotlight, but we have checked them out a few times in the past. If you’re not familiar with them, the idea is basically an application that allows you to interact with your BlackBerry using a full size display and keyboard via your PC. You can interact with most apps (some 3rd party are exceptions) including email, calendar, contacts, tasks, memos, and browser. Today Bayalink let us know that they are looking for beta testers for their BlackBerry connector for iPad. This will allow you to use your iPad to connect to and control your BlackBerry Smartphone.

Bayalink Liberty gives iPad users unique capability to securely connect to their BlackBerry data and interact with that data using the tablets screen and keyboard similar to how the Liberty technology has been used by enterprise customers for years on the PC, laptop and notebook. In subsequent releases, users will be able to surf the internet or intranet through the BlackBerry (with no VPN required) on a disconnected iPad via their standard BlackBerry data plan.

Users interested in participating in the beta program (which will start in a few months) can send an email to beta@bayalink.com for more info. Keep reading for the full press release.