Rabu, 22 Agustus 2012

BerryReview.com Giving Back to the BlackBerry Community

BerryReview.com Giving Back to the BlackBerry Community

T-Mobile Reintroducing True “Unlimited” Data Plans According to Leaked Document

Posted: 22 Aug 2012 02:57 AM PDT

 Tmobile Unimited Plans2

Remember when carriers in the US offered unlimited plans that were really and truly unlimited? That all went away slowly with carriers imposing some sort of 5GB cap and then going to data buckets except for Sprint. It looks like T-Mobile is coming back to the land of unlimited and this time it looks like they plan on having a real unlimited plan.

According to a leaked document from TmoNews T-Mobile is planning on reintroducing unlimited plans starting September 5th 2012. The plan will be $30 for Classic Plan customers and $20 for Value Plan customers and works on all account types. It cannot be connected to a tethering plan which sucks but still its a nice deal.

Tmobile Unimited Plans

According to the leaked doc the new unlimited plan is to allow customers to:

  • Watch HD videos, stream music, and browse the web without worrying about data speed limits
  • Do not plan to to share their phone's data connection with other devices
  • Currently have 2GB data and want a worry-free data experience
  • Do not know how much data they will use per month and want the peace of mind of never having to monitor their data usage ever!

What do you think of T-Mobile reintroducing unlimited plans?

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Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, August 22, 2012, 5:57 am. | T-Mobile Reintroducing True “Unlimited” Data Plans According to Leaked Document | Leave a comment |


A Call To Action For The BlackBerry Faithful: Get People Thinking About BlackBerry Again

Posted: 21 Aug 2012 10:37 AM PDT

 

RIM, as we all know from the seemingly limitless negative press about them, is in a deep trough, fighting hard to tread water and stay afloat. The media would have us believe that RIM is dead, sinking fast, or soon to be dissolved and sold off into oblivion. The masses have been swayed to believe this as well, through a combination of blind trust in what they read on the internet, what they see on tv, what they are told by retail sales associates, and, yes, some (maybe a lot, admittedly) personal experience and dissatisfaction with BlackBerry, too. In this article, I’m going to lay out some things about RIM’s current situation, including my own opinion, and then I’m going to make a call for the BlackBerry faithful to do their part and take action to get people thinking positively about BlackBerry again. Feel free to skip the commentary if you’re tired of reading that stuff, but please read the closing, get out there, and spread the word.RIM would have us believe that they are not down for the count, that they can still be a strong player in the mobile market, and I believe them. Thorsten is cleaning house, leaning out operations, looking at any options available to them to keep the company viable and make it grow again. While it may not ever achieve the dominant position it once held in the market it largely created, I still feel that RIM has a very good chance of becoming competitive again.

Let’s look at some of the positive things RIM has going for it.

  • Emerging markets are increasingly embracing BlackBerry smartphones. RIM continues to add subscribers in all markets except North America, most notably India and Indonesia.
  • Cash reserve – When Thorsten Heins became CEO, RIM had a $3-billion cash reserve. They have dipped into this heavily since then in an effort to right the corporate ship and get back on course. Hopefully it will be enough.
  • Government agencies and corporations continue to depend on the security of BlackBerry and BES. While many governments and corporations have begun embracing Bring-Your-Own-Device in an effort to lower costs, those entities who value or require the utmost security, continue to make BlackBerry their preferred mobile platform. Several US government agencies recently rejected iOS and Android AGAIN, due to their inability to secure the devices and manage them remotely. According to sources, the competing platforms (in combination with BES competitors like Good) simply fell too far short of their security requirements.

BB10 is coming. It’s good. Developers are flocking to it, embracing it. It’s far more capable and easier to develop for than the current Java-based BBOS. In a perfect world, it will be good enough to win people back to the BlackBerry platform on its own merits. Unfortunately, the world is far from perfect, and that brings me to RIM’s biggest threat to its survival; the single largest obstacle it MUST overcome, and the one they have yet to really address: consumer perception.

Everywhere I go, whenever someone notices I have a BlackBerry, or a conversation starts about smartphones, I have to deal with the “I heard BlackBerry was dying” comments, the “BlackBerry is old and busted” mind-set. I’ve read countless posts about people being told by sales associates at carrier stores, mall kiosks, and big-box discount stores, “Oh, you don’t want a BlackBerry. BlackBerry’s dying.” Some even go so far as to say “BlackBerry is dead. They aren’t making them anymore. You really want this Android phone over here…” You’re lucky if you can still find BlackBerry smartphones on shelves in some places. The BlackBerry brand is so far out of the consumer mind share at this point that some people I talk to are honestly surprised that BlackBerry still exists.

Now, the average smartphone consumer is only going to believe or understand what they see in the media, and what they are told by their local mobile sales rep, so RIM has a tremendous task ahead of themselves. They need to win back mind share before they can even hope to win back market share. They need to get the word out. They need to shout it from the mountaintops. They need planes flying banners over beaches, blimps over football games; they need to pay a popular UFC fighter to get it tattooed on his back, maybe even buy the naming rights to someone’s child on Ebay. RIM needs to get people interested in BB10 and the BlackBerry brand again.

A recent Wall Street Journal article stated yesterday that RIM “will start delivering nearly complete versions of its new smartphones to carriers next week—the start of a crucial effort to convince consumers and carriers alike that the BlackBerry can compete with the iPhone and Android devices.” This is a good first step, because it’s the carriers who mostly buy devices from RIM, not individuals. The carriers have to be on board with BB10, and with multiple (unconfirmed) reports that both AT&T and Verizon have been advising retailers to push customers away from the iPhone (I’d link you, but there are a lot. Just google it.), this might just be RIM’s best chance to make a good impression with BB10, especially if they tout that famed BlackBerry data compression. RIM MUST get carriers not just willing to, but WANTING to sell (or even mention, or *gasp* display!) their devices, or many consumers will continue to have no idea that BlackBerry still exists.

While it’s certainly not good to over-hype a product before its release, it will be the kiss of death for RIM if they UNDER-hype BB10. They need to carefully balance the marketing of BB10, make sure people know it’s coming, what it can do, and then deliver a stable working product that meets those expectations. Failure to do this will, I fear, put RIM beyond all hope of recovery in the consumer market. They’ve disappointed too many people too many times in recent memory.

*WARNING: FANBOI SOAPBOX ALERT*

Winning over the carriers and retailers is an admirable first step, but it will not be enough. Being all but dismissed from relevance, RIM needs all the help it can get to get noticed again, and so, I say unto you, the BlackBerry Faithful: rise up. Make yourselves known. Evangelize! Go forth and educate the masses. Dress in BlackBerry accoutrements. Station yourselves in retail establishments that carry mobile devices. Wherever you go, be it pub, parlor, or pastry shop, showcase your BlackBerry. Your PlayBook. Your BlackBerry bridged to your PlayBook. If you have a Dev Alpha, pack an extension cord and an external battery, and show it off! Talk to people about what BlackBerry can do. Tell them how it works for you. Tell them what’s in the works for BB10. Tell the sales associates to ask their boss for info on it. Get out there and sell it! Let people know that they aren’t limited to just 2 choices (I know, there’s actually 3, but most of them probably aren’t even aware of Windows Phone, either).

It has been pointed out to me that it is preposterous to provide free marketing for a company that is on the ropes, that “doesn’t care about its customers, doesn’t listen to them”. Maybe RIM hasn’t failed me personally on such a level as to make me give up on them yet. Maybe I have simply not seen enough from a competing platform to draw me away from BlackBerry yet. Maybe I’m a just a fanboi. I’m definitely an idealist, and I believe in supporting products I believe in. BlackBerry is one of those products. I WANT RIM to succeed. I WANT them to come back. I’m also selfish. I WANT to keep using BlackBerry, because it meets my needs and is my platform of choice. I liked what I saw at BlackBerry World this year. I saw a troubled company working hard to change internally, embrace the developer community, and realign itself to new missions. This is not easy to do, and it takes time. There is no overnight magic-bullet solution for the dark and messy situation RIM finds themselves in.

Bear in mind that this post isn’t aimed at BlackBerry haters, disgruntled BlackBerry users, or users of other platforms. It’s not designed to change anyone’s mind. It is aimed squarely at those that still believe in RIM, for whatever reason, and want them to succeed. Do I expect people to quit their jobs or take vacation time to picket retailers and accost mobile customers about their phone choices? No. I don’t expect everyone to suddenly drink the Kool-Aid and “work for RIM for free”. Wouldn’t it be a good thing, though, if more people were more educated about their options?

The time is now. We don’t have to wait for RIM to get this ball rolling. In fact, the sooner it’s rolling, the better. RIM needs people to not just KNOW about BB10; it needs them to WANT BB10. It needs them to be antsy for its release. It needs the buzz. We can help provide that. We are BlackBerry People. We are People Who Do. Be Bold, ye of faith, and spread the good news.

 

 

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Posted by rrrebo for ©BerryReview, August 21, 2012, 1:37 pm. | A Call To Action For The BlackBerry Faithful: Get People Thinking About BlackBerry Again | 37 comments |


RIM’s Low Cost Smartphone Strategy is Paying Off in South Africa

Posted: 21 Aug 2012 09:42 AM PDT

BlackBerry Buddies 

RIM is having some serious market turbulence in North America but they are currently holding strong to emerging markets. One of their key markets is South Africa where they currently have 18% of the whole cell phone market. That puts them in second place after Nokia which has 50% though the iPhone has 1% and Android has about 2%. That account to 4.8 million BlackBerry users out of RIMs current 78 million.

Right now RIM is going strong mainly because they are hitting the low cost market with some enticing offers while iPhones are priced in the stratosphere. The Curve is the most popular smartphone in South Africa and has very low cost unlimited internet access. BlackBerrys also account for 7 of the top 10 selling phones in the country. Dave pointed out to me (via N4BB) that RIM is also setting up "BlackBerry Buddy" kiosks around South Africa for support, advice, and software updates at:

  • Sandton City – Johannesburg
  • Menlyn Park – Pretoria
  • Mimosa Mall – Bloemfontein
  • Canal Walk – Cape Town
  • Gateway Shopping Centre – Durban

Check out the more details on RIM's current market in South Africa from the IOL Daily News and GlobalPost

If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:

Posted by the BerryReview Team for ©BerryReview, August 21, 2012, 12:42 pm. | RIM’s Low Cost Smartphone Strategy is Paying Off in South Africa | Leave a comment |


BlackBerry PlayBook Gets a VoIP Client Taki With SIP Support

Posted: 21 Aug 2012 07:34 AM PDT

 Taki2

Dmytro let us know about his latest BlackBerry PlayBook app called Taki. Taki is a native SIP softphone VoIP client that can be used with multiple VoIP services. This allows you to make calls from your PlayBook if you are subscribed to a VoIP service that supports SIP (here are their recommended ones). According to the dev this can also be used to talk to Skype contacts if you have a Skype SIP profile or use a SIP provider that provides an interconnect with Skype.

Taki3 Taki4

I have not had a chance to try out Taki myself but check it out for $0.99 in App World or at the project website. Keep in mind this is the first release of Taki so expect some bugs. Let us know what you think if you get it to work.

If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:

Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, August 21, 2012, 10:34 am. | BlackBerry PlayBook Gets a VoIP Client Taki With SIP Support | Leave a comment |


Nobex Contacts Beta Scans Your Emails For Contact Information

Posted: 21 Aug 2012 07:17 AM PDT

NObex Contacts NObex Contacts2

Nobex Technologies is well known for their Nobex Radio streaming service and apps. It seems like they have extended a bit beyond that with a new Nobex Contacts service that showed up in App World. Jason pointed out the service (via BBNews.pl) which scans your incoming email for new address or contact details in signatures and adds it to your address book. Some of you may realize that there are a few services that already do something like this with the most popular being Gwabbit.

I am not sure what made Nobex decide this is the time to launch a contacts scanner app but early reports are saying it works well. I am still just as hung up about the service scanning all of your incoming emails on their servers but their privacy policy might assuage your concerns. They also have a manual mode which only processes emails you manually send to Nobex's servers.

Check out Nobex Contacts in App World or at www.nobexcontacts.com. They seem to be in beta until the end of September and it looks like it will be free until then.

If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:

Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, August 21, 2012, 10:17 am. | Nobex Contacts Beta Scans Your Emails For Contact Information | One comment |


RIM Wins LIDE Business Marketing Award For Brazilian Marketing Campaign

Posted: 21 Aug 2012 06:45 AM PDT

Brazil Campaign 

For a company that has a history of lackluster marketing efforts its nice to see RIM doing well in the emerging markets that are currently sustaining them. Diego let me know that RIM was awarded the LIDE Business Marketing for their "Qual é o seu outro lado" (What’s your other side) campaign, which targeted exclusively the Brazilian market. The campaign showed the other side (fun/sportive) of local celebrities João Dória Jr, Malvino Salvador, MariMoon, Sabrina Sato and Tony Belotto.

I found some samples of the campaign embedded below but let me know if you spot more.


Desktop Video Link | Mobile Video Link

More details can be found in Portuguese below:

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Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, August 21, 2012, 9:45 am. | RIM Wins LIDE Business Marketing Award For Brazilian Marketing Campaign | 2 comments |


Enter Slacker “Hook Me Up Sweepstakes” (No Facebook Account Required)

Posted: 21 Aug 2012 05:50 AM PDT

BlckBerry3

Quite a few of you asked me if it was possible to enter the Slacker Hook Me Up Sweepstakes we mentioned yesterday without a Facebook account. I am not sure why that would be the case but it turns out Slacker has thought of you. Just head on over to http://bit.ly/ORzjul to register for the contest without a Facebook account.

Check out all the rest of the details in our original article

If you liked this article, you might find these interesting:

Posted by Ronen Halevy for ©BerryReview, August 21, 2012, 8:50 am. | Enter Slacker “Hook Me Up Sweepstakes” (No Facebook Account Required) | Leave a comment |


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