After over a year of delays, today is finally the day for the unveiling of the new Blackberry Z10, a departure from previous Blackberry design in that it actually looks cool and has impressive functionality. It seems like it wasn’t that long ago when Blackberry dominated the market and there was no shortage of loyal users -including myself. Sadly, with less than 7% of smartphone market share, Blackberry is in need of a revival and this may be it.
After many of my friends started to upgrade to sleeker phones, I was one of the last Blackberry users still holding on. What I lacked in network reliability (remember the multiple blackout outages?), I gained in being a member of the fraternity of Blackberry loyalists. I reluctantly gave up on my Blackberry Bold last May, but before that, seeing someone else with a Blackberry would warrant nothing short of a similar reaction as when you unexpectedly spot someone wearing
the same hat as you – THE SAME HAT!
There is a lot at stake and the future of Research In Motion (RIM)/Blackberry is riding on the success of the Blackberry Z10. It will be interesting to see if this will be the
“Eye of the Tiger” comeback that the company needs or will Blackberry become another casualty of the tech revolution. Either way, I’m happy to see RIM give it one final shot and who knows, comeback stories are possible - like the San Franciso 49ers making it into the Superbowl this year.
-BM
*Intro image from
Ubergizmo.com // Images from today's press conference via
Techcruch.com
