We’re very pleased to announce that we have a way for you to keep up with the news and everything else from your BlackBerry Smartphone and PlayBook, with our new BSCOOPTODAY app for BlackBerry!
The app will be updated when we update here. The app is free, and is now available in the BlackBerry World app store. To see it, click here.
Few people remember third place. Whether in sport, science or business, there’s little glory attached to the bronze medal. But two multinational giants, BlackBerry and Microsoft, are straining to be the third player in the burgeoning smart phone market.
The latest figures from IDC, an industry analyst, show a rapidly expanding global market for this new generation of mobile phones. Over 216-million handsets were shipped during the first three months of 2013, an increase of over 40% compared to the same period in 2012.
But the lion’s share of that market – over 92% – is flowing to the two dominant platforms: Android (owned by Google and licensed to manufacturers such as Samsung) and iOS (owned by Apple). Between them, Microsoft and BlackBerry scrape together just over 6%, down from 8.4% in the first quarter of 2012.
To read the rest of the report, click here.
BlackBerry’s (NASDAQ: BBRY ) new Z10 smartphone has been widely touted as a critical step in the company’s efforts to regain its former glory against Google’s (NASDAQ: GOOG ) Android platform and Apple’s (NASDAQ: AAPL ) iOS. How does the device perform?
Motley Fool analyst Rex Moore used the phone for several weeks and offers his review in the following video. With the help of tech experts Andrew Tonner and Robert Brokamp, Rex argues that the Z10 is a great device, but it won’t be the product that’s going to drive a significant number of new customers to BlackBerry.
To read the rest of the Motley Fool’s article, click here.
According to C|Net.com, BlackBerry has managed to regain some lost market share in its home country of Canada.
In a research note to investors on Thursday, Raymond James analyst Tavis McCourt reportedthat while BlackBerry’s market share was just 6 percent in Canada in the fourth quarter of 2012, it jumped to 13.5 percent in the first quarter of 2013. The analyst believes that there was some excitement that cropped up around BlackBerry’s latest handsets, the Z10 and Q10, which helped spur the change.
Still, BlackBerry is still far behind where it once was. According to McCourt, BlackBerry had a 21.8 percent market share in the first quarter of 2011.
Regardless, BlackBerry isn’t likely to cause any sleepless nights for Apple and Samsung. The former earned 40.1 percent of the market in the first quarter, while Samsung held on to 29.8 percent of the space.
And then there’s Windows Phone, which just displaced BlackBerry for the No. 3 spot worldwide.
ORLANDO, Fla. — BlackBerry announced plans on Tuesday to offer its popular instant messaging system on rival devices and introduced a new mid-tier smartphone targeted at countries where its faded brand remains strong.
Tapping into its popularity outside North America, BlackBerry said the new Q5 smartphone would be available in selected markets in Europe, Latin America, Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
It gave no prices, but it will clearly target a younger, more price-sensitive crowd with the device, which will be available in colors including pink, red and white.
The new phone includes the tiny QWERTY keyboard that still sets BlackBerry apart from most rivals.
BlackBerry, under its old name Research In Motion, virtually invented the concept of on-your-hip email with a series of blocky devices with tiny thumb-operated keyboards.
But in recent years it has bled market share to Apple’s iPhone and Samsung’s popular line of Galaxy devices powered by Google’s Android operating system, forcing it into big job cuts, and a huge rethink of its products and priorities.
“You know it hasn’t been that easy and you also know there is still a lot of work to do, but man, we have reached solid ground with this company,” Chief Executive Thorsten Heins told delegates at the BlackBerry Live conference in Orlando, Florida.
To those who ask if the company can survive the drastic changes he brought in, Heins said: “We are not only still here, we are firing on all cylinders as a company.”
In a new shift of direction, Heins said BlackBerry would offer BlackBerry Messaging, free of charge, to consumers using rival phones.
“This is such a great experience, it is just too good to keep it only to ourselves. It’s time to bring BBM to a greater audience,” he said to cheers from the audience. BBM is used for 10 billion messages a day, he said.
BlackBerry long relied on BBM to keep customers tied to its own devices, so the shift recognizes a new reality where many customers have already fled.
Heins said he is confident that BlackBerry can offer the service more broadly without losing its own customers.
BlackBerry has gambled its future on a new line of devices using its new BlackBerry 10 operating system, and Heins said the two new BB10 smartphones BlackBerry has already started selling have given it its most successful launch year.
The touchscreen Z10 device is now available in many countries, including the United States, and Heins said the keyboard Q10 phone will be launched in the United States next month.
Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters.
BlackBerry has unveiled a lower-cost smartphone aimed at consumers in emerging markets, stepping up its efforts to regain market share lost to Apple’s iPhone and devices running Google’s Android software.
The lower-cost Q5 is the company’s third smartphone to run the new BlackBerry 10 system. It will have a physical keyboard, something that sets BlackBerry devices apart from Apple’s iPhone and most Android phones.
BlackBerry chief executive Thorsten Heins said the “slim, sleek” device will be available in red, black, white and pink. He announced the phone on Tuesday to a packed ballroom to open the company’s annual three-day conference in Orlando, Florida.
The device will be available in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific and Latin America beginning in July. The Q5 isn’t expected to be released in North America for now. The company did not disclose prices for the new phone.
Read more here.
Incase you’re wondering, yes, this is (was) backberryscoop.wordpress.com. We’ve now moved to a new host with a new name BBSCOOPTODAY.COM.
We had to rename the web site due to Copyright issues with the BlackBerry company.
Please update your bookmarks so you don’t miss a beat!
Over the past few weeks, I have been getting questions about how I got started blogging and then becoming a news-oriented web site. I thought I’d write about a full how to so that the other readers have a good resource on what to do.
These are my experiences and I am not recommending a particular company.
In 2006, I was frequenting other Apple News web sites. After reading them for sometime, I decided to start my own news web site.
Blogging was new back then, and I really didn’t have a lot of money to start a full-fledged news organization. So I looked for a free blogging host – and I found a few, but went with a familiar company.
Google’s Blogger.com was a good starting point for me. It got me familiar with what a blog was (and wasn’t), how to write, and to look for information and news relating to my blog’s content.
After a year with that (and with information exploding about the new iPhone) I quickly outgrew that service and found another one called WordPress.com. That service offers free (limited) blogging and templates. Currently, WordPress is the #1 blogging platform in the world, and is the one that I am using for all of our news web sites.
WordPress.com also lets you create other blogs (for free or with a fee). As I started to read other news web sites that were not Apple related, I saw a need for content that was easy to read yet understandable. So I started two more news web sites and one programming web site.
Here is what you need to start a blogging (news) web site:
* CHOOSE A THEME:
What kind of blog is this going to be? Personal, news, how to, etc.
* COME UP WITH A GOOD NAME:
Make clear what the topic is going to be on the blog’s heading so a user knows what the topic is right away.
* TIME:
If you’re planning on running a blog yourself (like I am) you need to block out time to search for, and then post articles for your site. I spend on average three to four hours (sometimes more) each day looking for related content. I use resources major news organizations to other related news web sites.
* HAVE GOOD WRITING SKILLS:
No matter what language your blog is in, nobody likes to read gibberish or a long winded article. Get to the point, and use the K.I.S.S. method (Keep It Simple Stupid!)
* KNOW YOUR TOPIC:
When you write an article and post it you will get questions about it. On an average, I can get anywhere from 5 – 20 questions per day about an article.
* KNOW YOUR READERS:
Have a way for them to either interact with you, with other readers, or both.
* DON’T JUST COPY AND PASTE AN ARTICLE:
Due to Copyright laws, if you want to write something about another person’s article, do not just copy and paste it to your blog. Write an overview of it and then include a Hyperlink to the original article so the user can read all of it.
If you follow these simple steps, you can be well on your way to becoming a full-fledged blogger.
Thanks for reading.
ZDNet: BlackBerry Live, the conference formerly known as BlackBerry World, kicks off Tuesday and it’s safe to assume there will be a fair amount of BlackBerry 10 platform cheerleading, a pat on the back or two regarding the Z10 smartphone, some insight to Q10 sell-through with a heavy dose of mobile device management.
The real question will revolve around how BlackBerry intends to build on its initial BlackBerry 10 platform launch.
The conference, held in Orlando May 14 to May 16, comes a few months after the Z10 launch and more recently the Q10 debut. The Q10 is a QWERTY BlackBerry 10 phone that’s supposed to appeal to the hard core BlackBerry fan.
In addition, the Q10 is reportedly going to be more of a keeper for the enterprise, which is BlackBerry’s sweet spot. According to analysts, demand for the Q10 is shaping up nicely, but no one knows for sure. Verizon Wireless CEO Dan Mead said he was optimistic about BlackBerry’s QWERTY play and the platform overall.
Julius Genachowski, chairman of the FCC and friend of the president, on Friday announced his resignation after a mixed tenure that has disappointed some of the consumer groups that were his earliest supporters but also sketched a plan to bring Americans more access tobroadband Internet for years ahead.
To read the rest of the article, click here.
Top 5 (CrackBerry.com)