BlackBerry 10 launched: What the experts are saying

Research In Motion Ltd on
Wednesday unveiled a long-delayed line
of smartphones it hopes will return the
company to the top of a market it once
dominated, promising its BlackBerry 10
devices will wow consumers and
businesses alike when they hit store
shelves.
The company also announced that it was
changing its name to BlackBerry, hoping
for brighten its tarnished image as it
launches the BlackBerry 10.
Here is some early reaction to the launch:
CHARLES GOLVIN, WIRELESS ANALYST,
FORRESTER RESEARCH:
"The keyboard is really fantastic. ... It
learns about you ... it infers what might
be the mostly likely word that you might
use based on other things you've written
in the past."
"I think the device lives up to the hype. It
really is an outstanding device, both in
terms of industrial design and software,
it's really excellent. - unsure about this
wording, phone was uneven
"However, our data show that in the U.S.
only about two in five blackberry
customers say that their next phone will
be a Blackberry and this is a huge
problem. What this device has to do is
first change those people's minds, and
then they also have to convince all the
people that they lost to come back."
"I think that a realistic success here for
BlackBerry is staunching the bleeding, not
losing any more share and maybe clawing
back a couple of points of market share."
ERIC JACKSON, MANAGING PARTNER,
IRONFIRE CAPITAL LLC
"the real news was the shipping dates.
The biggest disappointment was the delay
in the US - that it will take so long before
the devices get going there."
"All in all I'm still confident that a lot of
the subscriber base are going to want the
upgrade to BB10. It's a very strong
improvement over what they currently
have. This is not going to cause mass
defections from iOS and Android, but it
doesn't have to be a success for RIM.
You've got to start somewhere."
PETER MISEK, ANALYST, JEFFERIES & CO
"This puts them back in the game."
"The big blow away factor for me is, you
have a larger screen and you can do
everything with one hand.
"As expected, as delivered, solid device
and presentation. I'm looking forward to
how consumers react, and how much buzz
it generates, and whether the enterprise
embraces it."
ADAM LEACH, PRINCIPLE ANALYST AT
OVUM
"I think the product looks good. I think
they tried hard to differentiate from
what's out there and I think they've
ended up delivering something which
looks distinctive in the market."
"They've done well to pitch it as they
haven't completely thrown out the many
things that were good about BlackBerry
and they've kind of done them well to
enhance those and then build a new user
experience around that."
"The other thing they've done is getting
the content and application deals in place,
and I think that was kind of critical thing
for them to get right."
"I think they can definitely carve out a
niche for themselves in the smartphone
market... There's room for more than
two players in that market."
"It's unlikely, from what we've seen
today, that they will go on to overturn
Android and its dominant market position,
or return to the 25-30 percent market
share that they had."
"Obviously the better thing would be for
it to be available everywhere right now,
but I think as long as we're talking now or
next week or the next couple of months,
that's okay."
SAL MASIONIS, STOCKBROKER, BRANT
SECURITIES
"I think that the marketing presentation
was not as good - you gotta have the
pizzazz. Really, you're buying a product --
it could be a game changer -- but people
have to get excited about it, to buy it, to
use it."
The scheduled U.S. launch in March is "a
little bit of a problem too. When you have
a marketing thing, you like to have it so
that people can buy it."
"It's a very uphill battle -- the fight. They
have to market it right. They have to
market it in such a way that it's a little bit
different than the iPhones and go for the
encryption part of it, because that's
where the corporates -- you have to go
for the corporates, that's where the
money is.
CAROLINA MILANESI, RESEARCH VP,
GARTNER
"The most exciting thing for me was the
lack of mention of email and the focus on
everything else that consumers want to
do with a device. This is the new
BlackBerry. The change in brand is also a
good move: one name, one brand, one
promise. Shopping time could have been
better, but I think that they are being
cautious on supply."
MARK SUE, ANALYST, RBC CAPITAL
MARKETS
"So far so good, the buzz seems mostly
positive. It's an ultra-competitive
industry, however, so it's going to be a
tough fight for BlackBerry, which has
limited resources. Beyond the form
factor, elegant software, RIM has to get
partners to help win this battle ...
BlackBerry needs carrier partners to
promote the new devices, apps partners
to build the ecosystem, and enterprises
to commit to the device. So it comes
down to how many "likes" BlackBerry can
get from its friends."
CARL HOWE, VICE-PRESIDENT FOR
CONSUMER RESEARCH GROUP, YANKEE
GROUP
"the device stacks up well against iPhone
and Android devices. I believe it will
quickly gain ground with BlackBerry lovers
and with business that have invested in
BES enterprise infrastructures. Because
BlackBerry controls its entire ecosystem
including software, hardware, and
services, it can move quicker than
Android and Windows can. We see
BlackBerry rapidly becoming a solid third
ecosystem behind Apple and Android."
IAN NAKAMOTO, DIRECTOR OF
RESEARCH, MACDOUGALL, MACDOUGALL
& MACTIER
ON STOCK PRICE:
"I think a lot of it was built into the
market and people are taking some
profits. They took some profits yesterday
and even Friday. ... It was such a well
advertised-launch date that people moved
the stock up and then they took profits
ahead of when it was going to be
revealed.
"For RIM, it's a normal stock market day.
It would have been an abnormal stock
market day if it had got cut in half or
something."
MICHAEL GARTENBERG, ANALYST,
GARTNER
"RIM has clearly reinvented itself with a
new set of devices and a platform. It's
definitely met the table stakes for many
users. The challenge will be to keep the
momentum going for developers and
apps and leveraging the Blackberry brand.
Blackberry delivered the first step but
this is a marathon not a sprint."