Dell May Launch Smartphone

Maker RIM will instead focus on business customers

(AP) - Struggling BlackBerry maker Research in Motion said today it will cede most consumer markets after failing to compete with flashier touch-screen phones such as Apple's iPhone and models that run Google's Android software. Instead, RIM said it will return to its roots and focus on business customers, many of whom prefer BlackBerrys for their security. RIM has had limited success trying to enter consumer markets in recent years, and RIM CEO Thorsten Heins said a turnaround required "substantial change." More»

Changes follow 12% drop in revenue

(NEWSER) - Research In Motion, the company that makes BlackBerry phones and tablets, is deleting about 2,000 names from its employee email list. The company announced it will cut the jobs—about 11% of its workforce—and reorganize its executives in order to better compete with Apple's iPhone and Google's Droid, reports the Los Angeles Times . More»

Passes Symbian; iPhone at No. 3

(NEWSER) - Google’s Android is now the world’s most popular smartphone platform, having edged past Nokia’s Symbian in the fourth quarter of 2010. Vendors shipped 33.3 million Android-based phones that quarter, beating Symbian’s 31 million, a report out today finds. That’s good news for Android phone vendors LG and Acer, who saw sales volume boosts of 4,127% and 709% from Q4 of 2009—and for Samsung and HTC, who together shipped nearly 45% of all Android phones in the period, reports CNET . More»

Problem with IM software at fault, RIM urges upgrade

(AP) - BlackBerry email service in North America was restored this morning following its second outage in less than a week. Research In Motion said the root cause of the 8-hour lapse is still under review, but a flaw in two recently released versions of its BlackBerry Messenger instant messaging software appears to be the culprit. RIM has also provided a new version of BlackBerry Messenger (version 5.0.0.57) and is encouraging anyone who downloaded or upgraded the software since Dec. 14 to upgrade to this latest version, which resolves the issue. More»

RIM dominates in sales, but the iPhone has big advantages

(NEWSER) - The iPhone has become a cultural phenomenon, but RIM sells way more units than Apple does. Why, then, does the BlackBerry have such obvious flaws? Wired lists five improvements RIM needs to make:

1. Browser. The web looks much the same on an iPhone or Palm Pre as it does on a PC. But the BlackBerry presents a bare-bones mobile version of most websites—and is slow, to boot.
2. Touchscreen. The BlackBerry Storm's "clickable" screen was supposed to feel like a real keypad, but it just made typing slower.