BlackBerry likely to unveil new smart phones next week
April 28th, 2011 - 12:01 pm ICT by IANSToronto, April 28 (IANS) BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) is likely to unveil new smart phones at its annual BlackBerry World conference next week in Florida.
“It’s going to be a newsy summer for us. And a very newsy BlackBerry World in a few weeks. Let’s just say I like what we’ve got,” RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie had said at a glam party in Manhattan to celebrate the launch of the PlayBook earlier this month.
RIM says at its annual BlackBerry World conference May 3-5 it will share “the latest information surrounding the BlackBerry platform to business leaders, IT professionals, BlackBerry Channel Partners, software vendors and solution providers.”
A Wall Street blog Wednesday said the Canadian wireless giant will unveil some new BlackBerry smart phones to arrest the decline in its share of the North American handset market.
Since RIM had introduced its latest operating system BlackBerry 6.0 at the last year’s gathering, it is expected to unveil BlackBerry 6.1, as well as at least one new BlackBerry smartphone, according to the blog.
RIM has already said that it will unveil BlackBerry 6.1-based smart phones during the current fiscal year ending in February 2012.
Co-CEO Balsillie has also said that the new 6.1-based smart phones will feature both Qwerty keyboards and touch-screens and offer much better performance and fidelity compared to 6.0-based BlackBerries.
In his note Wednesday, Mike Abramsky, an analyst with RBC Capital (a wing of the Royal Bank of Canada), also hinted that RIM could unveil a new touchscreen version of its BlackBerry Bold that runs on the new operating system, according to the journal.
“While new products and software may face mixed reviews (when compared to Apple), we believe once launched, they may exhibit uptake above low expectations,” the RBC analyst was quoted as saying.
The analyst’s note added that RIM may also release sale figures of its PlayBook tablet. He hinted that the BlackBerry make might have sold 100,000 PlayBooks in its first week of launch - a robust figure compared to sales of Motorola’s Xoom and Samsung’s Galaxy in their first week.
But on the Toronto Stock Exchange, RIM stock has failed to move since the launch of the tablet.
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- BlackBerry downgraded as stock tanks 14.4 percent - Apr 30, 2011
- Will Microsoft buy BlackBerry to take on Apple? - May 06, 2011
- BlackBerry stock slips as tablet gets lukewarm response - Apr 20, 2011
- PlayBook for those who want to work and play - Apr 18, 2011
- BlackBerry tablet will be a winner: Market analysts - Jan 11, 2011
- BlackBerry to sell tablet below $500 to undercut iPad sales - Nov 11, 2010
- PlayBook recall pushes BlackBerry stock to a new low - May 17, 2011
- Seven new BlackBerries to be unveiled soon - Jul 13, 2011
- No frenzy crowds to buy BlackBerry tablet on launch - Apr 19, 2011
- BlackBerry unveils PlayBook tablet to take on iPad - Sep 28, 2010
- BlackBerry sells 250,000 PlayBook tablets - May 20, 2011
Tags: bank of canada, blackberries, ceo jim, channel partners, current fiscal year, glam party, handset market, jim balsillie, launch, low expectations, partners software, playbook, qwerty keyboards, rbc, research in motion, royal bank of canada, smart phones, software vendors, solution providers, touch screens