Inside BlackBerry » Global

BlackBerry Live 2013 Panel Recap: Built for Mobile in Emerging Markets

Luke Reimer — Thu, 30 May 2013 13:29:01 +0000

The fastest adopters of mobile innovation are not just infrastructure-rich markets. It’s in regions like Africa and Asia where peoples’ first experience of the Internet is mobile. Smartphone uptake is exploding in emerging markets due to rising wealth, brand desire, access to education and need for key services in health, welfare, education and finance. In many ways, they are further advanced in mobile service innovation, as many businesses are built first from a mobile perspective.

Across emerging markets, mobile is consistently an engine of growth, but as technology evolves, the mobile industry will need to play an active part in helping governments address socio-economic challenges, enable progress and build sustainable mobile ecosystems for the future. To discuss some of these challenges, we held a panel at BlackBerry Live 2013 with industry leaders, analysts, and developers to exchange insights on BlackBerry innovation in emerging markets around the world.

Participants in the panel included: Robert Bose and Wes Nicol, BlackBerry’s Regional Marketing Directors for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and Latin America (LATAM) respectively; Leandro Melo de Sales, Professor at Institute of Computing (IC) at Federal University of Alagoas (UFAL) and Principal at BlackBerry Tech Center, Brazil; Alexander Rusli, CEO of Indosat, one of Indonesia’s largest telecommunication networks and service providers; Leon van Dyk, BlackBerry apps lab manager in South Africa; and Victor Dibia, developer and founder of denvycom in Nigeria.

Tomorrow’s the Big Day: How to Follow all of the BlackBerry 10 Launch Event Action

Luke Reimer — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 14:39:56 +0000

(Originally posted on the Inside BlackBerry for Business Blog)

BlackBerry 10 is launching in less than 24 hours and we couldn’t be more excited. The official launch event will happen simultaneously in multiple cities around the world including New York City, Toronto, London, Paris, Johannesburg and Dubai. Tomorrow we will unveil the BlackBerry 10 platform as well as the first two BlackBerry 10 smartphones. To keep you connected to all of tomorrow’s action, we thought it would be helpful to provide a list of all of the BlackBerry social channels where you can get the most up to date information in real time.

How to Stay Connected to the Action

Twitter is a great first stop for real-time information and updates. @BlackBerry will be live-tweeting from the global launch event providing news and updates as they happen. @BlackBerry4Biz will be a great resource for business related announcements and updates, and @BlackBerryDev will provide up-to-date information for developers.

We will also be posting updates throughout the day on our LinkedIn Company Page, and the BlackBerry for Business LinkedIn Group will be a great forum to join in on conversation.

You can also check out our blogs regularly for more in depth updates and information about the newest BlackBerry 10 features:

The Inside BlackBerry Help Blog will also be providing tips, how-tos and walkthroughs.

How to join the conversation

We also want to hear from you. Leave us your initial thoughts on BlackBerry 10 in the comments below. If you’re tweeting, be sure to include the #BlackBerry10 hashtag. We’ll be back tomorrow with updates. Until then, let the countdown continue!

BlackBerry in Emerging Markets: Focus on Africa

Donny Halliwell — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 19:07:53 +0000

One of the best things about my job at BlackBerry is that I get to learn about the tremendous impact our products have on the lives of consumers and developers all over the world. From Saratoga Springs, USA to Phalaborwa, South Africa, BlackBerry devices have found their way to the farthest reaches of our great planet.

Africa is such a fascinating region for us. As an emerging market, you might be interested to know that mobile adoption in Africa is projected to reach 85 percent, or 950 million subscribers, in the next three years. To put that into perspective, that’s more than three times the entire U.S. population!

What’s really cool is that in South Africa, BlackBerry devices maintain a 70 percent market share. According to researchers at Ovum, this is largely the result of high-quality apps – like BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), a favorite in the region – and app stores like the BlackBerry App World storefront.

There are so many ways to engage with markets around the globe. A great place to get started is by following the BlackBerry Europe & Africa communities on Facebook or YouTube.

Is there an emerging global market that interests you? Let us know in the comments below.

Action Starts for India and Thailand BlackBerry Users

Donny Halliwell — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 18:06:04 +0000

We live in a busy world with more connection to international cultures than ever before, but are we really taking the time to appreciate it? Recently I connected with some members of our teams in Thailand and India about something I thought was pretty cool. In August, they launched an initiative called “Action Starts Here” with the goal of inspiring people to take action to get things done. The symbol of this charge is the BlackBerry “spark” — the white star icon with a red background on your BlackBerry device — which has been known to inspire action in more than a few people I know. The teams opened the response up to the community to share their own “action item” they wanted to perform.

The folks at BlackBerry India were nice enough to share a few graphics surrounding the pledges made by their BlackBerry device users, and I’ve shared them with you below. Seriously, how great is it that 24% of pledges have to do with friendship?

But what I enjoyed more than the taglines and commercials was the response from the people. Some pledges were very straightforward (“Run,” “Quit smoking,” etc.), while others were far more personal and complex. For example, Teach for India fellow Himani Sanghvi pledged to set up a computer and resource-sharing center for her school, which is in Dharavi, a slum in the suburbs of Mumbai. While this may seem a lofty goal for some, Himani’s dedication is the embodiment of BlackBerry people in action, and hopefully helps to motivate all of us to accomplish our own pledge to get things done.

Learning about the “Action Starts Here” initiative is inspiring me. Tell us what action you’d like to start in your community.

RIM CIO Robin Bienfait Answers Your Tough Questions on BlackBerry in Enterprise

Luke Reimer — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 13:19:30 +0000

It’s been an honor to be a part of conversations with enterprise customers during a major transition for Research In Motion® (RIM®). We’ve had many valuable questions sent to us, and we’re taking the opportunity to get answers from Robin Bienfait, Chief Information Officer (CIO) for RIM. Robin oversees the Enterprise Business Unit, BlackBerry Operations, Customer Service, and Corporate IT functions. In short, she plays a major role in leading the vision for BlackBerry enterprise solutions, and the execution of making that vision a reality. Check out our chat below:

Hi Robin, thanks for joining me today! I’m looking forward to representing our enterprise customers and voicing the questions that they have.

My pleasure Luke, it’s both a challenging time and a very exciting time for us at the moment, and I’m glad I can help to address our customers’ concerns directly.

Can you tell me a bit about your background and the role that you play with our enterprise customers?

Our customers are the reason we do what we do every day. My job is to meet customers where they’re at and help bring solutions to them that work best for their environment. I spent 22+ years at AT&T through all sorts of engineering and network operations leadership roles. When I left AT&T to join RIM over 5 years ago, I had led 30,000 people all dedicated to building a scalable and reliable enterprise class network. During that time, I interacted with enterprise customers on a daily basis, as I continue to do today. I believe it’s important to get to know the different pieces of a business – it’s not just about being a leader, it’s about getting involved in problems and solutions. I am 100% committed to using my experience, knowledge, and dedication to meet the needs of our enterprise customers – that’s what I’m here for.

New BBM Hackathon Events Announced! Come Hack With Us

Luke Reimer — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 22:12:28 +0000

The Research In Motion® (RIM®) Developer Relations team recently hosted a BBM™ Hackathon event in NYC. Developers were invited to apply for a chance to participate in the event, getting one-on-one time with BlackBerry® platform experts and network with other developers while working on integrating social elements into apps using the BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM) APIs.

Attendees told us that they found the direct contact with our social platform experts to be invaluable – and we liked hearing that so much that we’ve decided to host more of these hackathon events across the globe in the coming weeks.

Rugby World Cup 2011: 3 Ways BlackBerry Keeps You Connected

Douglas Soltys — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 17:45:47 +0000

Full disclosure: while Fall is particularly pretty in the Waterloo area, right now I wish I was in New Zealand for the Rugby World Cup 2011, which kicked off this month and ends October 23rd. While I won’t be able to cheer from the stands, that won’t stop me from following all the action! Allow me to introduce you to a few ways your BlackBerry® smartphone or BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet can help you stay on top of the games at the Rugby World Cup 2011 (RWC 2011).

BlackBerry.com/Rugby

In honor of the tournament, we have created a Rugby World Cup 2011 resource center for #TeamBlackBerry. From here, you can see the latest RWC 2011 news and upcoming games, learn how you can win a BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, and more.

And if you think you’ve got what it takes, make sure to enter The Ultimate Fan contest and demonstrate your Rugby World Cup 2011 devotion.

Check it all out at BlackBerry.com/Rugby!

Official Rugby World Cup 2011 app for BlackBerry smartphones and BlackBerry PlayBook tablet

Available now for download in the BlackBerry App World™ storefront, the Official Rugby World Cup 2011 app for BlackBerry smartphones and BlackBerry PlayBook tablet gets you inside the Match Centre for live coverage, near real-time commentary and stats.

Get them both here: RWC 2011 for BlackBerry PlayBook and BlackBerry Smartphone

BlackBerry Australia & New Zealand Face Paint Facebook App

Why hide your enthusiasm for Rugby World Cup 2011 when you can paint it all over your face? With the BlackBerry® Face Paint app, available on our Australia and New Zealand Facebook® page, you can show all of your friends your team spirit. Check it out here:

Facebook Paint Your Face Application

What team will you be following on the Official Rugby World Cup 2011 app for BlackBerry? Better yet, what color will you paint your face? Tell us in the comments section below – and for our #TeamBlackBerry teammates who are able to attend, tweet us a picture on @BlackBerry using the hashtag #BBRugby!

BlackBerry PlayBook Stereoscopic 3D Demo (VIDEO)

Douglas Soltys — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 19:58:23 +0000

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

Earlier this week, we showed you some BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet applications being demoed by The Astonishing Tribe (TAT) at Mobile World Congress 2011. Both the ‘Scrapbook’ app demo and BlackBerry® WebWorks™ videos were great demonstrations of the power the BlackBerry PlayBook platform has for providing a rich application experience – and that wasn’t all TAT had on hand for us!

The above concept demo, which shows a BlackBerry PlayBook tablet outputting stereoscopic 3D visuals, demonstrates many of the hardware features of the tablet: 1080P HD visual, micro HDMI output, and multi-touch support. It’s also really cool to look at, whether you’re wearing 3D glasses or not! Check it out and let us know what you think of the possibilities of the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.

BlackBerry PlayBook PM Ryan Bidan MWC 2011 Catch-up (VIDEO)

Douglas Soltys — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 19:20:46 +0000

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

I interviewed Ryan Bidan at CES 2011 in January to answer questions Inside BlackBerry readers had about the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. I thought Mobile World Congress 2011 would be a good opportunity to play catch-up with the BlackBerry PlayBook Product Manager, and Ryan was kind enough to give us some more time to discuss this week’s PlayBook announcements, as well as the tablet’s presence at the show. Please post a comment if you have questions you’d like us to ask Ryan in future videos!

BlackBerry Developer Day and AppCircus (VIDEO)

Mike Kirkup — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 19:11:48 +0000

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

BlackBerry Developer Day at Mobile World Congress 2011 was a jam packed development party. Each bootcamp and speaker session was filled with eager developers looking to learn more about BlackBerry development. I was able to meet up with Mike Kirkup, Director of Developer relations, at the end of the day and get his thoughts on how things went, as well as the rundown of his BlackBerry Development Roadmap session (highlights: Near Field Communications, OpenGL 2.0, Magnetometer and Digital Compass support are all coming in BlackBerry 6.1).

We also were able to talk briefly about the AppCircus Spotlight on BlackBerry event. The event was streamed live on our BlackBerry Mobile World Congress 2011 page, but if you missed it, don’t worry! We have a full video recap of the event available by clicking the link below. Make sure to also check out these BlackBerry App World download links for the event winner, Gbanga and honorable mention, UrbanStep.