Tomorrow Research in Motion (RIM) will officially introduce a smartphone (or maybe not one) on the new BlackBerry 10 operating system. On the eve of the presentation, several unexpected statements were made about the possible future of this software platform, which, in fact, led me to try to figure out That prepares the market for the appearance of BB10 and the return of RIM to the it mainstream.
Intrigue
I think it would not be a big exaggeration if you say that BB10 is one of the most anticipated software products for the entire, albeit very short, history of the mobile it industry. So expect except MeeGo from Nokia and Intel. All the more unexpectedly, a statement was made by RIM CEO Torsten Heins that after launching the platform, RIM could sell its mobile unit. At first glance, the analogy with the statement of Nokia before the release of the long-awaited N9 smartphone on MeeGo Harmattan, that this will be the first and only product of the company on the new operating system, suggested itself. But it was not there. Thorsten Haines made a reservation that we are talking about a possible strategic alliance with another company and the transfer of licenses to use RIM infrastructure to it in order to create the most competitive offer on the market. That is, the case of Nokia's MeeGo Harmattan, is about something else altogether.
The question of which strategic partner Torsten Haines could say was not a long time left unanswered. Lenovo Financial Director Wong Wai Min in an interview with Bloomberg, taken from him at the economic forum in Davos, said that the company had already consulted with RIM about the possibility of doing business together and creating a strategic alliance. Naturally, as long as no decision has been made, it will depend on the success of the BlackBerry 10 platform, both among developers and end users. Later, however, Lenovo officially reassured everyone, saying that they should not exaggerate the statement of the company representative. Lenovo has no specific intentions about cooperation with RIM.
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Nevertheless, nothing prevents us from hypothetically presenting such an alliance. In addition, in theory, he looks very justified. How good things would not have gone with RIM after the release of the sale of the smartphone Z10, alone the company would be difficult to resist Android, iOS and WP8 devices. And then there's Ubunta, Firefox, Tizen and Sailfish on the way, so RIM is really desirable to cooperate with some powerful manufacturer. But with whom, if not with Lenovo? ZTE and Huawei are immediately dismissed due to conflicting relations with the North American authorities. HTC? - maybe, in principle, but HTC is unlikely to get involved in such a large-scale project (the potential scale of BB10 is lower). Acer? - it is also possible, because the company is not doing well: computer sales are falling, and the company's products in the mobile segment clearly do not shine. On the other hand, it is for these reasons that Acer can be dropped. Here, it seems to me, RIM will not lead to such an alliance. ASUS - may well be! Especially with a product like PadFone. But on the other hand, ASUS has already sort of declared that the next generation of PadFone will be on Windows. And yet, ASUS, I would not discount. This company is very wise, quite technological and strong enough, so such an alliance cannot be ruled out. Still, Lenovo seems to be the preferred option.
In the baggage y rim
It is customary to say that RIM is going through hard times, and partly this is true, but only partly, because in any story there are ups and downs, this is normal. On the North American continent, the BlackBerry qwerty communicators were the main business gadgets in the pre-iPhone era and stood up to the iPhone in the first years. In June 2010, the company reported on the sale of the 100 millionth smartphone.
However, this success in the keyboard segment, as a result, resulted in a lag in the segment of products with touch controls. Realizing it, RIM attempted to combine a keyboard form factor with touch controls, but made sure that in order to confidently resist iOS and Android (and now Windows Phone), it needs to radically rework the operating system under the touch control, or rather, make a new one.
To this end, in 2010, that is, at the peak of popularity of its products, RIM acquired two companies: QNX Software Systems, developer of the QNX operating system, and Cellmania, a software manufacturer that allows telecom operators and programmers to distribute applications through centralized online platforms, like the App Store or Android Market. The first result of these acquisitions was released a year later: in June 2011, a 7-inch BlackBerry PlayBook tablet running on the BlackBerry Tablet OS operating system went on sale.
Here, probably, it is worth saying a few words about the QNX operating system, on which both the BlackBerry Tablet OS and the upcoming BlackBerry 10 are based. This name hardly speaks to the average user. Nevertheless, it is on QNX that the work with VISA credit cards is built in all regional offices in North America. On the basis of QNX implemented traffic management systems and nuclear reactors. On-board computers of cars more than a dozen of the world's largest manufacturers work on QNX, - more than 20 million cars worldwide. Benzol production control systems, thermal cutting of metal and firing units of rocket engines are also based on QNX.
That is, the basis of the BB10 - you can not imagine more powerful. In fact, the QNX core automatically turns all devices on the BB10 into professional devices that can be seamlessly integrated into other QNX-native systems. An example of this is the Porsche Carrera presented on BlackBerry World 2012 with an on-board computer built on QNX and synchronized with the BB10 smartphone via NFC.
But the most powerful QNX framework for user devices is not enough - they understood RIM very well, and therefore integrated into BB10 modern standards for developing applications, such as, for example, HTML5 and Qt. Moreover, by repacking (saving with another extension) BB10 supports most applications written for Android 2.3.3. In a word, in BB10, the interests of developers of various directions are taken into account as much as possible. In addition to this, RIM announced a special program, under which for each application hosted in AppWorld, the developer automatically receives $ 100 and a smartphone on the BB10. In my opinion, a very correct marketing move to stimulate a dramatic extensive growth of the ecosystem, which currently has about 70 thousand applications.
In Lenovo's baggage
And now we turn to another member of a possible strategic alliance, - guarded the Chinese it-industry, in the past year became the supplier of personal computers No. 1 in the world. The progenitor of Lenovo, New Technology Developer Incorporated, was formed in 1984 with the participation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which still owns a controlling stake in Lenovo. In 1986, the company was renamed Legend and released its first full-fledged product: the Legend Chinese Character Card, a hardware and software system for translating the interface of English-language programs into Chinese, which essentially marked the beginning of the entire Chinese IT industry. However, a fundamentally important event in the company's history occurred in 2004, one year after the renaming of the Legend to Lenovo, when the company bought IBM's rights to manufacture computers of the ThinkPad line and to use the IBM brand for 5 years.
Lenovo not only worthily continued the truly aristocratic traditions of IBM in the design and production of personal computers, but also very productively built a marketing strategy, independently launching several product lines, each of which was clearly targeted at a particular target group of consumers. Currently, Lenovo echelon-PC consists of 8 product lines.
You ask: what about computers here, when BB10, is a mobile OS. In principle, the remark is certainly true, but, firstly, QNX naturally supports the x86 architecture, so it’s unlikely that it will take more than a year to create a desktop operating system that is as compatible with BB10 as possible from Lenovo and RIM. What's more, when speaking of Lenovo, to say nothing about PCs is even weirder than talking about PCs in connection with BB10.
However, Lenovo is not only a manufacturer of personal computers and servers. Lenovo is the number one company in China for the production of smartphones and tablets. In the international market, it is less well known in this segment, in which it has been actively operating since 2010. However, Lenovo started experimenting with telephones and communicators back in the middle of the last decade. She had models on Windows Mobile, on Symbian, then devices began to appear on Android. Lenovo produced not only phones and communicators, but also so-called MID devices, which most likely can be considered prototypes of modern tablets. At the moment, Lenovo's smartphone product line consists of 4, and the tablet of 2 product lines.
I personally happened to use Lenovo's two mobile products: the ThinkPad Tablet transforming tablet and the P700i smartphone. I would like to say a few words about my experience of using these models. ThinkPad Tablet - a frank masterpiece of engineering. The constructive advantages of this tablet is difficult to overestimate. As an example, I will say that this is the only tablet on the market with full-sized USB. Plus, pen input and an incredibly durable case. In general, a worthy successor to the traditions of the classic, laptop line ThinkPad Tablet. But the main thing is not this, but how easy, smoothly and, most importantly, Android ICS runs long on a Tegra 2 processor that underlies this device. So, in a nutshell, of course not to describe all the advantages of this device, but please check for the word, this is one of the best tablets on the market. His only drawback seemed to me the operating system on which it runs. The tablet itself makes the impression that the user is so serious and impressive that Android looks like a kind of dummy patch in it and nothing more. Not without reason, the next generation of the device, ThinkPad Tablet 2, is already running on Windows 8.
But the ThinkPad Tablet is a fairly expensive business device. But another gadget Lenovo, with whom I happened to meet - a budget representative of the user line of smartphones. The P700i is based on the MTK 6577 processor, it only has 512 MB of RAM, but Android ICS works so fast and smoothly in it that sometimes you even want to double-check, but is it true that the hardware that the manufacturer claims is in the smartphone? With a retail price of 9 tr. This smartphone has a magnificent 4-inch IPS-display with a 800x480 resolution that is classic for this diagonal and decent viewing angles from the Fragman device, as well as a very capacious 2500 mAh battery, which even with a maximum load of the device for a day and a half. Plus, there are two sim cards, a wildly loud speaker, a 5 megapixel camera with a very small focal length, which allows you to shoot literally 2-3 centimeters from the subject. In short, a very strong simple-smartphone, games on which work no slower than on Nexus 7, for example.
Lenovo is able to collect glands no worse than others, this fact hardly needs additional arguments. But most importantly, the degree of optimization of the software, conciseness and ease of proprietary shell. This frankly highlights Lenovo from a number of other manufacturers. An illustration of the company's capabilities can also be represented by the flagship K900 smartphone and the IdeaCentre Horizon home mega-tablet presented at CES this year.
But with all this, Lenovo, as a Chinese company, and even with a controlling stake in the Chinese Academy of Sciences, does not shine, for example, to become a manufacturer of the next Nexus device. And this is despite the extremely positive image of the company in the international market and friendly relations with various countries. Although, in fact, if you look closely, Lenovo is the same Chinese company as Microsoft, for example, an American. Lenovo is registered in Singapore, has headquarters in both China and the United States, Lenovo’s research centers and factories are located literally around the world, and the company's top management is so multicultural that Lenovo’s transnational nature becomes apparent.
Mutual benefits and prospects
I think it is clear from the above that the alliance may turn out to be much more powerful than Microsoft and Nokia. Much really related to Lenovo and RIM. RIM has traditionally been a manufacturer of business devices, and the company's positions in the corporate sector have been very strong (and remain). At the same time, Lenovo's main line of ThinkPad notebooks is corporate. So, in this area, the interests and achievements of companies converge.
Of course, Lenovo and independently could make a mobile operating system, but to make a mobile OSes - this is not even half the battle. The main thing is the community of developers supporting the platform. And here RIM tries its best. Integration of Qt into BB10 attracted abandoned Nokia developers MeeGo. QNX professional developers, in view of the prevalence of this operating system in various areas of industry and production, are also abound. For them, trying to make an application for custom mobile devices is a task, at least interesting, besides promising profit. RIM itself has also never had problems with developers, so there is reason to believe that many supporters of previous BlackBerry software platforms will remain loyal to the company. To facilitate their retraining in BB10 all the conditions are created. Thus, RIM is able to bring into the joint alliance an absolutely full-fledged software component supported by an impressive developer community.
Lenovo certainly understands that the era of post-PCs comes every year more thoroughly. On the sales of stationary computers and laptops in 5 years will not live. At the same time, Android is not at all the system that is able to provide a full replacement for a traditional laptop with a device from the post-PC era. Windows 8? - it can. But QNX is just that option, which in this situation can be the most effective program basis for creating your ecosystem. QNX is a microkernel, and accordingly, easily scalable depending on the tasks and devices for installation, is the operating system. In fact, QNX opens before Lenovo boundless horizons of production of professional computers and control systems for a wide variety of applications, from household, user, to industry.
As for the mobile segment itself, then “strung” the BB10 on Lenovo’s existing smartphones and tablets is a matter of one year’s strength. As a result, it turns out that RIM, with the help of Lenovo, will expand its product line in a year in a way that he would never have dreamed of. In turn, the Lenovo BB10 will be an excellent business card for entering mobile markets to international markets, where, as a manufacturer of smartphones and tablets, it is not very well known.
If the RIM and Lenovo alliance takes place, then the changes in the alignment of forces in the market of mobile devices and platforms will not be long in coming. The RIM and Lenovo alliance will have serious competition not only for Android and device manufacturers on it, but also Windows 8 RT and Windows Phone for devices that also tag into the corporate and business segment. Whether or not Lenovo decides to confront Microsoft, this is already a question whose answer is difficult to predict.
Summing up, it can be said that the RIM and Lenovo alliance can lead to absolutely ticcanic shifts in the it-market, shifts which, there is every reason to believe, will only change the industry for the better. However, strictly speaking, all this is just fantasy. Can they come true? - we'll see. In the meantime, we are waiting for the presentation of the BlackBerry Z10.