RIM has renamed its upcoming QNX-based operating system BlackBerry 10, following a dispute over the BBX trademark.
Research
In Motion's next-generation operating system for its BlackBerry devices is no
longer BBX. Now, the QNX-based platform is BlackBerry 10.
That
renaming allows RIM to sidestep an increasingly thorny trademark battle with
Basis International Ltd., which markets business software and claims the "BBX"
name. The U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico issued a
temporary
restraining order Dec. 6 (case 1:11-cv-00953-WJ-ACT) preventing RIM from
using "BBX" at its Singapore conference this week.
"The
Court ... concludes that all of the -likelihood of confusion' factors weigh in
favor of BASIS," read the order. "The BBX mark is identical to the mark which
RIM is allegedly using to [present] its BBX product."
RIM
then shifted course on the BBX name. "BlackBerry 10 is the official name of the
next generation platform that will power future BlackBerry smartphones,"
tweeted RIM's
developer-relations team Dec. 6.
RIM
hopes its upcoming generation of "superphones" running BlackBerry 10 will help
it beat back vicious competition from Google Android smartphones, Apple's
iPhone and Microsoft's renewed Windows Phone push. In a bid to keep its product
line fresh until that rollout, the company recently issued a slate of
BlackBerry devices running BlackBerry 7 OS.
But
according to some analysts, that hasn't been enough for RIM to hold the market share
line.
"Looking
in retrospect, we should have downgraded in mid-October," read a Nov. 28
research note from Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu, "when the stock was $24 and our
supply chain checks indicated that while its new flagship BlackBerry Bold 9900
was doing decently, the rest of its product line was lagging."
In
a Nov. 17 research note, Canaccord Genuity analyst T. Michael Walkley suggested
that Apple's launch of the iPhone 4S had impacted sales of BlackBerry devices:
"While our September/October checks indicated solid sales of new BlackBerry OS
7 models, especially the Bold 9000 series as an upgrade enterprise sale, our
recent checks indicate slowing sales trends post the launch of the iPhone 4S
and price reductions of the iPhone 4 and 3GS."
RIM
has offered precious few details about BlackBerry 10's user interface or
release date. That's likely to change as the release date for the actual
devices approaches, and RIM begins to make a hard case for why the platform
stands out against others on the market. In the meantime, one big question
remains: What happened to BlackBerry 8 and 9?
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