What to Expect from BlackBerry 10
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With 2013 around the corner, one of the greatest things to expect out of the coming holiday season is the impressive number of smartphones available to consumers all over the world. From the iPhone 5 to Android’s new JellyBean OS and beyond, if there’s one thing consumers and business people alike won’t have to worry about, it’s the number of options they have to choose for a new mobile phone. With all these options though, it’s surprising that there is not as much talk of Research in Motion’s latest forthcoming innovation: BlackBerry 10.
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While Android and iOS continue to make appearances in dozens of phones, all in which appear very confusing to developers in their options and features, RIM plans to release BlackBerry 10 following the mad holiday season in favor of introducing innovations without fighting the mob of Android and iOS devices. The OS is unlike anything else on the market, as it hopes to merge technology and concepts from a vast majority of platforms, as opposed to alienating itself like iOS or Android, which restrict most development to very few platforms. BlackBerry 10 OS will offer a variety of compatibility and application opportunities to developers by building the technology on the platform of QNX, a desktop OS acquired by RIM in 2010.While iOS and Android both advertised taking elements of their technology from desktop environments, they’ve since departed from this element, in favor of promoting their technology as being an exclusive experience unlike the desktop experience. This has proven successful in convincing users afraid of the often daunting PC experience, and encouraging a simplistic, user-friendly mobile environment. RIM’s BlackBerry 10, meanwhile, appears to be basing itself over a major port of QNX, originally a desktop OS, in order to maximize compatibility across a variety of coding platforms while ensuring an effective usage of the ARM Architecture behind most mobile devices. In short, it’s fair to say RIM is taking a risk in making such a close desktop-oriented OS for mobile devices.
While it is indeed a risk, it also may be a gamble RIM could pull off well, especially as tablets continue to grow from obscurity to the mainstream of mobile devices on the market. While iOS and Android are indeed effective mobile environments, they can be too simple for those looking for enterprise level software and development, which RIM appears to be focusing its new motive by appealing more to business customers than traditional consumers. It’s safe to say RIM will need to strongly invest in making its OS app-friendly to be successful, but is an exciting welcome to the mobile world as an offering of powerful, enterprise-friendly solutions behind RIM’s powerful server architecture, and could perhaps be an excellent option for you to utilize in your business.