May 4, 2009
RIM's WES 2009 started today. For those of you that don't know - this is one of the largest North American conferences focusing on the wireless world of the year - albeit it is focused around RIM - but still has a lot of industry and market information. I attended last year, but was not able to make it this year. Maximizer has sent a contingent of 4 staff made up from our offices in NA and Europe. Check out our twitter updates here.
BlackBerry 8220
Rumor Summary:
- Apex - a CDMA version of the Pearl Flip 8230 with EVDO
- Niagra 9630 - blending the style and size of the Curve and Storm with the keypad from the Bold
- 1 Ghz CPUs - this is as good as it seems. For anyone that has used a smartphone and been frustrated by slow responses, this will be welcomed with open arms. The first device manufacturer - RIM or otherwise - that can bring this to market will have a winner on their hands.
- An LTE BlackBerry - this new device is unlikely to be available for trial but just knowing that RIM is working on it is a good thing for the industry
- Version 5 of the BlackBerry OS - this will bring some much anticipated features such as
- incoming call display integration (meaning application vendors can extend and their own add-on value when the call comes in)
- improved SD card support
- Push API for BIS - something that currently only works with the BES
- UI updates - when are they not improving the UI - but it will still be appreciated ;)
- § New updates this time around include themes, transitions and toolbars
- o Geocoding APIs - this is used for tagging "where you are" with the internal GPS to allowing application vendors to do their thing with this information. Ideas here are targeted marketing - score 1 for the marketers of the world (is that good or bad?)
I don't know which of these rumors are going to be proven true - but if nothing else it shows the world (again) that things are moving faster and faster. All we can do is try to stay on top of what we can and try to find ways of using this change to innovate, differentiate and win in a fast changing market.