BlackBerry 6, Windows Phone 7 Ready for Business Competition (
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For enterprise users, how will Research In Motion’s new BlackBerry 6
operating system match up against Microsoft’s upcoming Windows Phone 7?
That question could become particularly important, given that many firms are
beginning to engage in a long-awaited tech refresh after months or years of
pinched IT budgets. While Windows Phone 7 is targeted more at a consumer
demographic, many businesses will likely evaluate Microsoft’s attempt at a
complete smartphone operating-system revamp, if only because a portion of those
same businesses have traditionally used Windows Mobile devices for corporate
communications.
Meanwhile, BlackBerry has been attempting to hold its traditional stronghold
in the enterprise against a rising batch of competitors, notably Google Android,
while carving inroads in the consumer market.
That would put the operating systems on a collision course, to use a hoary
cliché, if their respective companies hadn’t already been competing fiercely in
the mobile space against not only each other, but also Apple and Google.
RIM
President and co-CEO Mike Lazaridis first unveiled the BlackBerry 6 operating
system on April 27, along with a WebKit-powered Web browser, during an
address at the company’s Wireless Enterprise Symposium in Orlando,
Fla.
Lazaridis described the next version of the smartphone operating system as
the “biggest step forward for the BlackBerry experience in our history.”
Revamped features include multitouch functionality, bookmarks, easy-to-access
search, and pan-and-zoom scrolling from screen to screen. A supposedly faster
Web browsing experience comes courtesy of a new rendering engine.
Some analysts see the new BlackBerry operating system as a chance for RIM to
achieve a better competitive position vis-à-vis Google Android and the Apple
iPhone.
“We think the UI [user interface] will improve access to the BlackBerry apps
store,” Mark McKechnie, an analyst with Broadpoint AmTech, wrote in an April 27
research note. “The new OS will come with a browser that includes multitouch,
kinetic scrolling and pinch to zoom. Further checks suggest the OS and browser
will be ported to recently shipping models, including the Bold 2, pending
technical hurdles.”
RIM
also used the Orlando conference to unveil two new handsets, the BlackBerry
Bold 9650 and BlackBerry Pearl 3G. The Bold 9650 is the first device in
that line to support CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) networks, allowing it
to operate on EvDO Rev A networks in North America and 3G UMTS (Universal
Mobile Telecommunications System)/HSPA and quad-band EDGE (Enhanced Data for
Global Evolution)/GPRS/GSM networks abroad.
According to analysis firm comScore, RIM leads the U.S.
smartphone market with a 42 percent share, while the Apple iPhone holds second
with a 25 percent share. Windows Mobile and Google Android trail in third and
fourth place with 15 percent and 9 percent, respectively.
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