New BlackBerry Smartphones, Much touchscreen, little innovation

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Research In Motion (RIM) tries to ground. Five new smartphones with BlackBerry OS 7 operating system of the BlackBerry-maker throws against the overwhelming power of Android and iPhone into the race. Experts doubt the success of the strategy. So many new BlackBerrys, the Canadian company Research in Motion (RIM) has never been presented at once. It was “the largest launch of Blackberry smartphones ever,” enthused Mike Lazaridis, RIM‘s CEO, as he introduced the device on Wednesday at the company headquarters. With three and two almost completely new smartphone models goes hand in hand with RIM a general change in the offer: All five models are equipped with touch screens, all equipped with the new operating system version Blackberry OS 7.

Similar to Nokia and RIM was very late to the trend towards touchscreen phones followed, had long clung to operate a keyboard with scroll wheel. The first BlackBerry with touch screen, the Storm model was also no success. RIM had tried to score with a very unique solution on touch screen: The screen was hung move had to be pushed quite hard to show a reaction. The concept fell by many testers and regular customers .

But now the company is newly launched with all five devices on standard touch screens. The models are on the Bold 9900 and 9930 installed in addition to the typical Blackberry keyboards. A step that can be understood as customer loyalty, because Bold smartphones are something like the bread and butter Blackberrys. You are loved by many years of Blackberry users for years because of their largely unchanged quick tap keyboard.

Five times seven times but only new

In its latest incarnation it will be the thinnest smart phones that the company has ever produced. However, the longer you know, because the models Bold 9900 and 9930 , the company had already, in May, when newly introduced . Even then it was said that the two would be the first BlackBerry, which run on the new Blackberry OS 7.

But with this ability, they will not be alone. The 9810 Torch is supplied with the new software. In this model, right behind the small screen Ausziehtastatur one is hidden. The 9810 Torch therefore contributes to thick. The Torch for 9850 and 9860 models of the renamed successor to Storm’s compared with no physical keyboard, so a little slimmer and have, according to RIM‘s 3.7 inches diagonal with the largest display within the Blackberry family.

A new operating system but no update

More important than the new hardware, but is likely to be simultaneously introduced seventh version of the Blackberry operating system. Especially for the RIM promises a much faster browser with new features and improvements in the reproduction of HTML 5 pages. A technology called Liquid Graphics will also speed up the graphics performance and designed so pleasant to deal with the touchscreen. Moreover, there should be some optimized for the Blackberry OS 7 apps.

Whether these changes actually justify the leap to a full version number is at least debatable. Maybe you could dub the update as version 6.5. But that would in turn have caused confusion. Because of the possibility to equip your older devices with the new software is no question at RIM. A fact can be explained easily if one of a whole new operating system version, and not only speaks of an update.

Maybe the update is simply too high demands on the hardware. RIM thus stresses that all new Blackberry with 1.2 GHz processors are equipped. Adobe‘s Flash multimedia technology, the software version 7 is not, however. According to RIM, this requires a dual-core processor, we do not yet have. This problem could be just an update on the all-new operating system based on QNX bring, wait for the many users. But that is only now on the Blackberry Tablet Playbook.

Where is the advantage?

Real innovations can not be seen with the new models. While other manufacturers are already using dual core chips (HTC sensation) and try out 3-D screens (LG Optimus 3D), RIM is still trying to sell the integration of NFC chips (Near Field Communication) as a great novelty. That will manage the company, so to stop the trend of dwindling market share, for example, questioned the analyst from Informa Telecoms Malik Saadi. He believes that NFC chips have a nice time being, but for lack of applications largely useless and expensive extra.

RIM has struggled with the new models a time advantage. While Apple‘s mysterious iPhone rumored to five in September or October to come on the market, RIM wants to bring some of its new smartphones already in the end of August worldwide dealer shelves.

How long will they stay there, is another question. If RIM really brings out a smartphone version of the installed on the playbook QNX operating system, it’s time for new hardware. No later than next spring, it would be far, Canadians do not want to completely lose touch.