July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

BlackBerry isn’t going to let a recent report detailing high return rates for its new flagship smartphone go without a fight.

The company announced today that it will seek a review of the Detwiler Fenton report by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Ontario Security Commission in Canada. BlackBerry will be sending out a formal request to the regulators over the next few days.

“Sales of the BlackBerry Z10 are meeting expectations, and the data we have collected from our retail and carrier partners demonstrates that customers are satisfied with their devices,” BlackBerry president and chief executive Thorsten Heins said in a statement today. “Return rate statistics show that we are at or below our forecasts and right in line with the industry. To suggest otherwise is either a gross misreading of the data or a willful manipulation. Such a conclusion is absolutely without basis, and BlackBerry will not leave it unchallenged.”

Specifically, the report claimed that returns for the BlackBerry Z10 are outpacing sales, and that consumers found the interface unintuitive, according to Bloomberg. Verizon Wireless has also refuted the report’s claims.

BlackBerry also noted that Detwiler Fenton refused to make its report and its methodology available, even after it called out the findings.

Without seeing what went into the report, it’s tough to determine its validity. I found the Z10 to be a pretty disappointing device in my review, but I can’t imagine too many people outside the BlackBerry faithful were eager to buy it. If the returns are coming from BlackBerry fans, then the company has an even bigger problem on its hands.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Have you been considering the new BlackBerry Z10 but aren’t sure what to think about the still-fresh BlackBerry 10 operating system? If you’re an iPhone or Android owner, now you can try out BB 10 in your mobile browser.

It’s a relatively simple demo that gives you a chance to try out the interface, predictive keyboard, BlackBerry Messenger, BlackBerry Hub, and other programs inside BB 10. The demo isn’t fluid, but it does at least give you a sense of what it’s like to use the Z10.

In our own review of the BlackBerry Z10, we didn’t give the phone high marks because it features a crummy app selection, limited functionality, and instability. But perhaps you’ll have a different opinion?

To access the demo on your iPhone or Android phone, just point your mobile browser to BlackBerry.com/glimpse.

Screenshots via Sean Ludwig/VentureBeat

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

The BlackBerry Z10 may be a boring beta meant for no one, but at least it’s super repairable.

So say the teardown experts at iFixit, who are giving the new BlackBerry phone a glowing repairability rating. Unlike many phones these days, the Z10 won’t require you to use a special tool to replace its battery, which alone is something to applaud.

“It’s a relief to see a smartphone in this day and age with a removable battery,” iFixit said.

Glorious.

The Z10 is also conducive to more involved repair jobs. iFixit found that it was pretty easy to remove the Z10′s motherboard and display, which were both held in place with very little adhesive. iFixit says it found this development to be particularly wonderful.

Like a lot of phones today, though, the Z10′s display is fused to its glass, which complicates the repair process if either breaks. That stinks, but considering how repairable the device is elsewhere, we can only complain so much.

For iFixit, the takeaway here is pretty clear: “The BlackBerry Z10 is proof that smartphones can be thin, easily-repairable, and have replaceable batteries,” they say.

That’s significant because it flies in the face of the prevailing wisdom that thin smartphones are simply incompatible with easy repair. Even if the Z10 doesn’t sell well, we can at least hope other smartphone makers take BlackBerry’s lead on this one.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Perhaps because the marriage between the ThinkPad and BlackBerry seems so natural, another Lenovo executive is hinting that the company would be open to purchasing the beleaguered smartphone company.

Lenovo chief executive Yang Yuanqing told the French financial paper Les Echos that a BlackBerry deal “could possibly make sense, but first I need to analyze the market and understand what exactly the importance of this company is,” as reported and translated by Bloomberg.

The statement comes after Lenovo chief financial officer Wong Wai Ming told Bloomberg in January that the company was looking at a variety of opportunities to expand its mobile presence, including BlackBerry. At the time, BlackBerry chief executive Thorsten Heins seemed baffled by Ming’s statement.

BlackBerry’s stock price jumped 14 percent this afternoon following the Lenovo chatter, closing at $14.90.

BlackBerry is betting the entire company on the success of its new BlackBerry 10 smartphones, but my review of the company’s flagship Z10 phone didn’t bode well for BlackBerry’s future. Heins hasn’t ruled out selling the company, but he’s also discussed other options, like potentially licensing BlackBerry’s software to others.

A BlackBerry purchase would make little sense for most, but given that Lenovo currently holds the popular ThinkPad business PC brand, it could potentially capitalize on having two enterprise-friendly businesses. Lenovo has released Android smartphones of its own, but it has mostly catered to China and other Asian countries. Buying BlackBerry would give Lenovo the ticket to potentially make a huge splash in the global smartphone market (assuming it can fix the many problems BlackBerry is currently facing).

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

It’s going to be a good month for U.S. BlackBerry fans.

AT&T finally announced its official launch details for the BlackBerry Z10 this morning: It will be available on March 22 for $200 with a two-year contract. Pre-orders for the phone kick off tomorrow on AT&T’s website.

BlackBerry’s latest flagship phone, which I called a boring beta in my review, has been available in other parts of the world for weeks now. T-Mobile will also offer the Z10 to its business customers today for $249.99.

The BlackBerry Z10 reportedly sold out in certain markets when it launched, so it’ll be interesting to see what kind of welcome it gets in the U.S. Given just how quickly the U.S. smartphone market has jumped to the iPhone and Android though, I don’t expect any major success stories from the Z10′s launch.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins has some serious challenges ahead of him. But when it comes to the prospect of selling ultra-low-cost smartphones in emerging markets such as India and Indonesia, he says BlackBerry isn’t going to even try to compete in that segment.

One of BlackBerry’s best bets in making a comeback is to leverage its strength in international and emerging markets. But it wants to own the high-end purchases in these markets rather than the low end.

“[It's important to] understand where you are playing and resist being talked into segments that you know will not serve your purpose and will not result in shareholder value,” Heins said during a question-and-answer session yesterday in Waterloo, Ontario. “You will not see us getting into the 50-, 60-buck phone segment. This is not BlackBerry.”

BlackBerry now sells its new flagship Z10 smartphone in India for the unsubsidized price of 43,490 rupees ($800), and ideally it will attract the interests of wealthy Indian consumers. Cheaper BlackBerry 10 models will arrive, but those will not be in the $50 range if Heins holds steady.

“You will see new products being launched this year based on BlackBerry 10, all fully LTE-capable, the whole 10 yards, that are more geared towards those price bands where people need to be,” Heins said.

Via Bloomberg

Thorsten Heins screenshot via Sean Ludwig/VentureBeat

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Perhaps BlackBerry is finally paying attention: The company’s first major update for BlackBerry 10 on its Z10 smartphone fixes some of the most common complaints from reviewers and its users.

Announced this morning, the BlackBerry 10.0.10.85 update (BlackBerry really needs a simpler way of naming updates) offers 60 percent better battery life; fixes around the phone, calendar, and contacts (specifically around Google Calendar support); low-light performance improvements for the camera; better browser and media performance; and faster speeds for third-party apps.

The latter update could make BlackBerry 10 more enticing to developers. The company announced last week that the popular messaging client WhatsApp is coming to its platform — today it revealed that performance improvements was one of the reasons WhatsApp came aboard.

The update fixes some of the issues I pointed out in my BlackBerry Z10 review, but it’s still not enough to change my overall opinion. The BlackBerry Z10 still has an identity problem, and the company still hasn’t figured out who its new devices are meant for. Until BlackBerry offers some compelling features that are significantly better than the competition, it’s going to have a tough time competing against the iPhone and Android.

BlackBerry says the 150 megabyte update is already available on some carriers, and it’s working with other carriers to roll it out soon. You’ll get a notification when it’s available, and you can apply the update directly on your phone.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

It took about two hours for my initial excitement over the BlackBerry Z10 to disappear.

At first, I was impressed by how comfortable the Z10 felt in my hand and the ease with which it juggled multiple tasks at once. But it didn’t take too long before the BlackBerry 10’s crummy apps, limited functionality, and instability sent me running back to the iPhone and Android (yes, I always have two devices on me).

The phone feels like a beta product, not something that BlackBerry (formerly Research in Motion) has been toiling away at for years. After several delays, BlackBerry simply has no excuse — especially when this is the device that must save the troubled company.

An even bigger problem became clear the more I used the Z10: Who is this thing for? It’s not going to win over gadget geeks with its minuscule app selection (70,000 at launch, but few that you’d actually want to use), and the BlackBerry faithful will likely be better served by the upcoming Q10, which features a traditional physical keyboard. And I can’t imagine that anyone would latch on to its fairly boring interface and lack of personality.

It’s a phone built out of desperation and hubris — not for anyone, or any specific need, in particular.

The good: Classy design, great feel caters to business folk

The BlackBerry Z10 isn’t a complete failure, as it manages to impress at first glance (hence my enthusiastic first look at the phone). From afar it looks a lot like the iPhone 5. Up close it bears a simplicity that’s exceedingly rare as smartphone makers obsess with screen size and design bling. It looks like an expensive device that only business people should be using — which is great for maintaining BlackBerry’s image but somewhat damning when attracting typical smartphone buyers.

With its rounded corners and soft-touch rear cover, the BlackBerry Z10 feels more like an expensive leather briefcase than your typical smartphone. It’s also comfortable to hold and navigate with one hand thanks to a reasonably-sized 4.2-inch screen. BlackBerry could have tried to spar with big-screen Android phone makers, but the smaller screen size shows a certain amount of restraint that I can’t help but appreciate. (It’s also slightly bigger than the 4-inch iPhone 5, so BlackBerry can still hold that over Apple.)

The BlackBerry 10 has a few other things to like as well, though it still has a long way to go. It relies on a gesture-based interface that quickly becomes intuitive — swipe up from the bottom of the screen to show your running apps, swipe from the left edge go backward, and swipe down to reveal more options. A helpful gesture — swiping up, then right — sends you to the BlackBerry Hub, which puts all of your e-mail, texts, Twitter updates, and other communication alerts into a single interface.

Few apps stood out on the Z10 (more on that below), but its browser is worth mentioning. It’s fast, renders web pages accurately, and it even supports Adobe Flash. BlackBerry clearly put a lot of thought into the browser’s rendering engine, which feels as zippy as Chrome on Android and the latest version of the iOS browser.

The phone also sports BlackBerry Messenger, which for some fans may be the only reason they’ll need a new BlackBerry device. At this point, modern messaging apps and services like iMessage and Kik are far more useful than BlackBerry Messenger. But for business people who’ve lived with BlackBerry phones over the past year, it’ll be tough to give up BBM.

Just like the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, which runs an operating system that serves as the core of BlackBerry 10, moving between multiple applications on the Z10 is fast and seamless. It’s powered by a fast 1.5 GHz dual-core processor and 2GB RAM, so it’s certainly no hardware slouch either.

Call quality and reception was impressive, though that’s something BlackBerry should have mastered by now. Its touchscreen keyboard is fashioned after the physical BlackBerry keyboard, and it’s also helped by some impressive predictive text technology (though BlackBerry hasn’t confirmed this, I believe it’s powered by SnapKeys, the folks behind the excellent Android keyboard).

But despite those few positives, the Z10’s problems make it impossible to recommend.

The bad: No compelling features or apps

For a device that should remind us why BlackBerry is a smartphone brand that matters, the Z10 is surprisingly average.

It has 70,000 apps, but few that you’ll actually want to use. Apps for popular services like Twitter work, but these are riddled with bugs and errors. Twitter would often just stop refreshing my timeline and mentions, and sometimes I had to reboot the app to get it working again. It’s also still missing popular apps like Spotify and Instagram. Don’t expect to keep up with the cool kids with this phone.

Core applications are surprisingly lacking as well. For maps, the Z10 relies on a modified version of Microsoft’s Bing Maps, which doesn’t have nearly as much location data as Google Maps. Simply using the maps application was a pain — it would often take forever to load, and it had issues finding my location. It’s inexcusable for a modern smartphone platform to have unreliable mapping — just look at the backlash against Apple Maps.

The Z10 is all about productivity, except it doesn’t always work properly. My Gmail account stopped updating for days on end, apps crashed frequently, and the phone often got stuck in landscape orientation. All of this led to me completely rebooting the Z10 far more often than I would have liked.

Battery life is somewhat disappointing as well. Sometimes the Z10 would last for a typical workday, and sometimes I had to charge it in the middle of the afternoon. I was never able to figure out what was draining the battery on certain days. At least the battery is removable — it’s an increasingly uncommon feature in smartphones, but something that BlackBerry road warriors should appreciate.

Boring and soulless

What bothered me the most about the Z10 was perhaps more aesthetic than functional. It’s simply boring. The home screen is uninspired (down to generic-looking icons), BlackBerry Hub feels like a messy block of text, and I’ve yet to find an app that truly felt interesting.

I’ve always felt that one of Android’s biggest problems over its first few years was that it didn’t really have a soul. It wasn’t until former WebOS designer Matias Duarte joined up as Android’s director of user experience that Google’s mobile OS finally got a swift dose of personality.

The BlackBerry Z10 doesn’t have that problem. It definitely has a soul, but it’s one of a buttoned-up and humorless corporate drone. Forget about attracting new users: With an image like this, BlackBerry will have trouble holding onto its 80 million users.

I have a feeling BlackBerry knows just how boring BlackBerry 10 currently is, otherwise it wouldn’t have named Grammy-winner Alicia Keys its global creative director. Right now it’s unclear if Keys will have any actual creative input or if she’s just a celebrity name to make younger buyers pay attention. But hopefully her mere presence will be enough to inspire the company.

BlackBerry already has a strong hardware lead in Todd Wood, its VP of design, but the company needs a strong software designer like Duarte to give BlackBerry 10 some character. Judging from some of the most popular apps on iOS and Android, consumers are beginning to recognize the importance of good design. It’s not something that BlackBerry can avoid for too long in its software.

The verdict: This phone isn’t meant for you — or anyone

The BlackBerry Z10 isn’t the worst phone I’ve come across, but I can’t in good conscience recommend it to anyone. BlackBerry still has a lot of work ahead of it in terms of software updates and attracting developers. And maybe along the way, it can also figure out who the heck needs this phone.

BlackBerry-faithful should keep an eye out for the keyboard-equipped Q10. Pricing and availability of that model still hasn’t been announced.

The Z10 won’t be the phone that saves BlackBerry, but at least the company has finally gotten the ball rolling on its next-generation devices.

Hopefully by the next round BlackBerry will figure out who it’s actually serving.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Okay, I’ll admit I was wrong. I didn’t expect many surprises from the BlackBerry 10 launch event today, but it was actually full of them, including RIM officially changing its name to BlackBerry and bringing on singer Alicia Keys as its first global creative director.

But perhaps most surprising of all, the BlackBerry Z10 and Q10 smartphones don’t suck. In many ways, they’re honestly more enjoyable than plenty of Android phones I’ve tested over the years.

First, the specs: The Z10 is a 4.2-inch touchscreen phone with a 720p resolution, while the Q10 has a 3.1-inch screen with a traditional BlackBerry keyboard. Beyond those surface differences, both phones feature a dual-core 1.5 gigahertz processor, 2 gigabytes of RAM, and 16 gigabytes of storage. You can upgrade the Z10 with a 32GB SD card, while the Q10 supports up to a 64GB card.

Both phones were fast and responsive, and they also both feel comfortable in your hand. Obviously, the Q10 is targeted at hardcore BlackBerry users who can’t live without a physical keyboard. It feels like a next-generation BlackBerry Bold — as it should. I didn’t have much time to type on the Q10, but based on my initial impressions, it feels just as comfortable as RIM’s past keyboards.

I spent much more time with the Z10 because there were far more of them available for testing, and I received a test unit from BlackBerry. (BlackBerry has been fairly vague about when the Q10 will be available, and given the dearth of units available today, I’d wager the company is still working on finalizing the phone.)

Unlike BlackBerry’s past attempts at touchscreen smartphones, the Z10 feels thoroughly modern. BlackBerry 10 shows no trace of the archaic BlackBerry 7 interface, and that’s evident from the moment you wake up the phone (there’s no visible unlock swipe, you simply swipe up from the bottom bezel). BB10 takes some getting used to, but its combination of easy multitasking and helpful gestures makes it a completely different experience than iOS or Android. I also appreciated the fact that the Z10 isn’t as hefty as many Android and Windows Phones (the benefits of sticking with a sensible screen size).

Check back next week for a full review of the Z10.

More BlackBerry 10 news:

• BlackBerry 10 kicks off with Z10, Q10 smartphones
• Alicia Keys named BlackBerry’s global creative director
• Research in Motion renames itself just ‘BlackBerry’
• BlackBerry isn’t giving up on the PlayBook yet — tablet-focused services in the works
• BlackBerry 10 launches with a ton of big apps, including Skype, Kindle, Facebook, & more
• BlackBerry’s popular BBM app adds video calling & screen sharing
• BlackBerry’s web store finally gets music, TV shows & movies

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

As far as press events go, RIM seems to be sparing no expense with its massive BlackBerry 10 launch event in Manhattan. It’s taking place among Manhattan’s southern piers, filled with RIM’s trademark colors, and it’s jam-packed with press, analysts, and plenty of RIM employees. Heck, even the Wi-Fi works properly.

Strutting out on stage, with the most confidence I’ve seen in a RIM executive in some time, chief executive Thorsten Heins kicked off the event. “We have definitely been on a journey of transformation … not only to transform a company brand … but also a journey to transfer mobile communications into true mobile computing,” he said.

Heins noted that the company was forced to make a tough choice a few years ago, between adopting someone elses mobile platform, or building something new from the ground up. “We made the call to go it alone,” Heins said. He thanked the people who made BlackBerry 10 possible, including the people who developed the QNX operating system, and former co-CEO Jim Balsillie for nabbing plenty of carrier partnerships.

Out of nowhere, Heins dropped a bombshell: RIM will now simply be known as BlackBerry. “It is one brand, one promise,” he said. “Our customers use BlackBerry, our employees work at BlackBerry, our shareholders are owners of BlackBerry … from today on we are BlackBerry everywhere  in the world.”

With the audience’s excitement on high, Heins introduced the first BlackBerry 10 phones: the fully touchscreen BlackBerry Z10, and the keyboard-toating BlackBerry Q10. The Z10 sports a 4.2-inch display with a 720p resolution, while the Q10 features a 3.1-inch display along with a full keyboard. (Images of the Z10 have been floating around the web for months, so its reveal didn’t come as much of a surprise.)

Vivek Bhardwaj, BlackBerry’s head of software portfolio, joined Heins on stage to show off some of BlackBerry 10′s capabilities. He demonstrated how easy it is to move between multiple apps, a method the company calls “Flow,” as well as how the BlackBerry Hub is always just a few flicks away.

BlackBerry Messenger fans will have a lot to look forward to in the new OS. Bhardwaj showed off a new video calling feature, which looks like it may give Apple’s FaceTime some decent competition. He also demonstrated a feature that’s completely unique to BB10: Screensharing. Bhardwaj was able to view a colleague’s phone screen with just the touch of a button.

When it comes to media, BB10 has more support from partners than any of BlackBerry’s past efforts. Heins said that BlackBerry World will feature music from all the major labels, and movies from eight major studios.

RIM’s vice president of global alliances and business development, Martyn Mallick, boasted that BlackBerry 10 has 70,000 apps — more than any platform at launch. He confirmed that the company has app commitments from Skype, Amazon Kindle, and Whatsapp.

Unfortunately, BlackBerry didn’t have any specific release dates or pricing for the BB10 phones in the U.S. Heins said that the Z10 is expected to be available on the four big U.S. carriers in March, with pricing around $150 on a three year contract. The Z10 will be available in the United Kingdom tomorrow, in Canada on February 5, and in the United Arab Emirates on February 10.

Heins pulled out another bombshell towards the tail-end of the press conference: BlackBerry has brought on singer Alicia Keys as its first Global Creative Director.  “We wanted someone at the top of her field, well respected, immensely creative — someone who incorporates technology and creativity into her day to day work,” Heins said.

On stage today, Keys recounted “breaking up” with BlackBerry after being tempted away by other platforms (she wouldn’t say which). But now that there are new phones and an entirely new platform, she’s exclusive to BlackBerry once again. Keys will also take part in the BlackBerry “Keep moving project,” alongside well-known artists like direct Robert Rodriguez and author Neil Gaiman who will use BlackBerry 10 devices in their work.

After cutting off the livestream to other launch events around the world, Heins revealed that everyone at the NYC launch today will be getting a BlackBerry Z10. Check back later for some hands-on thoughts on the BlackBerry Z10 and Q10.