Business cost reduction specialists focusing on telecommunications, energy and water services
BlackBerry World Conference 2011
11 May 2011
Steve Bellerby has just returned from the BlackBerry World conference in Florida. Here are a few of the highlights....
I have just returned to the office after a week in Orlando, Florida having attended the 2011 BlackBerry World Conference and I have to tell you IT WAS FANTASTIC! During his opening address on Tuesday morning, Mike Lazaridis, CEO of RIM, announced that everyone attending the conference (all 6,000) would receive the new BlackBerry PlayBook before the conference finished. Whilst this may have cost RIM a cool $3,000,000 at retail prices, it did at least guarantee that he received a great round of applause at the end of his address!
Other highlights of the conference were:
- BlackBerry Bold 9900 announced, "the best BlackBerry ever", with Liquid Graphics touchscreen, 1.2GHz processor and a new sculpted keyboard - this is the one that every executive will want.
- NFC (near field communications) on all new BlackBerry devices. NFC will be used for wave-and-pay-by-phone for relatively small value purchases.
- BlackBerry Balance, which allows corporate organisations to segregate business and personal content on the same device, so users will be able to access their Social Media (Facebook, Twitter etc) without compromising corporate security, and without having to carry two devices.
- BES to be able to manage other platforms. BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) will soon be able to manage iOS and Android based phones in the same way that it manages BlackBerry devices.
Finally, despite some of the negative comments I've seen recently about the PlayBook, I can confirm that it is an absolutely brilliant device. It has the best full HD screen I've ever seen on a mobile device, it is awesome for browsing the internet (with full Flash compatibility - unlike the i-Pad) and it deals with mail, calendar and contacts in an ideal form factor. One of my female colleagues also pointed out that it will fit comfortably into most handbags, which you can't do with an i-Pad! I guess that when all the Android Apps are available on PlayBook in a few weeks time (also announced at the conference) it will be THE tablet to own. In BlackBerry's own marketing words "amateur night is over" - a slightly pointed dig at Apple?