Does BlackBerry Have What it Takes to Lead Once More?

BlackBerry was once the smartphone dominator, claiming the lion’s share of the market and leading the way for a complete shift in the way we manage communications, information and collaboration. The success of the Apple iPhone has come at the expense of BlackBerry, and while the former leader may be down, it is certainly not out.

In fact, BlackBerry is fighting Windows for the No. 3 spot in the market behind Apple and Android. The Microsoft product has seen significant gains in the market and Android continues to take more. iPhone sales have maintained, while BlackBerry took an initial hit.

Thanks to new launches, the smartphone maker is expected to enjoy resurgence in market demand.

The BlackBerry 10, for instance, is not something to take lightly if you’re a competitor. And BlackBerry plans to make the user experience the best it’s ever been, promoting the ability to test drive the new device on its website, Blackberry.com/Glimpse.

Users can view it on their mobile phone, testing the BlackBerry 10 software on their iPhone or Android device.

While the experience won’t perfectly mimic the use of the phone, it’ll give users an idea of what to do with the software. Hardware for a smartphone may be a moot point if they all offer similar capabilities. The performance of the software, however, has to offer value more than what the user is experiencing to drag them away from the favorite platform.

BlackBerry is positioning the 10 as its second chance in the market. To get a better idea of what the company has going on, MobilityTechzone invited John Cash, Senior Manager of Enterprise Accounts, US Sales & IT Channels for BlackBerry, into the newsroom at ITEXPO in Miami.

One key point worth mentioning: the company name change. What used to be RIM has now emerged as BlackBerry the company. Most people interchanged RIM and BlackBerry before the change, but it also gave the company the opportunity to make some key changes. “I think that’s probably true,” said Cash in reference to the interchanging of the names. “I think also what it says is we are literally a new company with a new platform. But really we are one company with one brand.”

That brand may have something to prove with the BlackBerry 10. Does it offer enough capability, support and interactive elements to draw users away from their Android or iPhone? Will Windows pose a significant enough threat that the device won’t survive?

“This is an exciting revolution to us,” continued Cash. “One thing is that all the navigation is completely touched base on the Z-10. We have a feature called peek so you can peek into any application into your hub. Your hub is where all your information flows to. This is a combination of your personal information and work information. Your Blackberry has two file systems in it, one for work and one for personal.”

“Now, I can easily switch back and forth between the two with a simple pull down motion,” he added. “When I lock the work partition, all my work data is locked at that point and essentially I wouldn’t have access to it if I wanted to hand this device to you to play around on it. You won’t have access to anything in my work partition. That’s important for organizations who want to manage their data.”

To learn more about BlackBerry and its latest product launch, see the video above.