BB and its new OS

    Over the past years, the BlackBerry
smartphone has lost its market
share as individuals and companies
resort to iPhones and Android
devices.
To remain competitive, the company
re-invented itself with a new
platform, along with corresponding
devices. The new BB10 OS and
BlackBerry Z10 smartphone are a
big bet for BlackBerry company.
The messaging service and the
security aspects have always been a
selling point for BlackBerry. In fact,
unlike Apple, Nokia and Android
devices — which use open standards
— the BlackBerry uses highly
secured propriety data transmission
protocols.
The data that is send from a
BlackBerry is encrypted and can only
be decrypted in the data centre in
Canada, thus avoiding any
interceptions along the way in the
wireless networks or Internet.
Some time back, the security set-up
was misconstrued as a bane. UAE,
India and a few other countries
banned the devices with reasons
bordering national security and anti-
terrorism.
Appeal to users
However, the secure BlackBerry
network remains a feature
cherished by many in the business
world, as well as other sectors of the
economy.
The new BlackBerry 10 software will
still spot the unrivalled security.
Now that Blackberry company has
done enough work on clearing the
air surrounding its security
measures, the focus is turned on
how the software will appeal to
users.
Recently, the company announced
that it had sold six million
smartphones in the quarter ended
March 2, 2013.
The figure includes one million
devices powered by the new
BlackBerry 10 software. This means
that the company has sold one
million BlackBerry Z10 smartphones
over a two-week period.
Incidentally, it is a small figure
when compared with sales from
rivals. Apple’s iPhone 5 sales were
more than five million during the
first week after launch in September
last year. For a flagship device
running on the new BlackBerry 10
platform, the bare fact is that the
competition is stiff.
BlackBerry 10 platform now has
100,000 apps. The growing apps
store, in addition to availability of
third party apps, will appeal to users
as the new software slowly
infiltrates the market. However, for
the sake of boosting the chances of
the new operating system, more
needs to be done on the apps store.
Unlike other platforms like Android,
which have experienced incremental
up-grades, the new OS for
BlackBerry is a complete overhaul.
The company has built it from
scratch with little resemblance to BB
OS7 that runs on other BlackBerry
smart devices.
The operating system has its own
unique features when compared
with either Android or iOS. One
clear outstanding observation about
the software is that it has merged
the home screens, apps, widgets and
an inbox into a slick interface that is
easy to navigate.
The smooth user interface and
features like the messaging Hub are
a boost to user experience.
Exploring the OS on BlackBerry Z10
phone has an almost similar
approach to that of navigating on a
Windows 8 phone. The main
BlackBerry 10 home screen is made
up of “Active Frames” which
resemble “Active Tiles” in Windows
8.