BlackBerry wants bite out of Apple

The BlackBerry is trying to shake off its image as a fusty business device but local users face a long wait before cooler versions of the smartphone arrive in New Zealand.

BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) said yesterday that it was close to introducing a new operating system for its phones which will give them a more swept-up appearance, with new features designed to appeal to social networkers as well as corporate high-flyers.

The new operating system, BlackBerry 6, will be released within the next few months and is an attempt by RIM to emulate some of the user-friendly features found in more consumer-focused smartphones, especially Apple's iPhone.

Delegates at RIM's annual Wireless Enterprise Symposium, being held in Orlando, Florida, this week, were given a first look at BlackBerry 6 in the form of a music video the company also posted on YouTube.

The new operating system includes an animated graphical display, an improved web browser, a redesigned home page and a new application that pulls together users' news and social networking feeds.

BlackBerry 6 seems designed with a particular focus on touch-screen phones, although RIM remains silent on whether it plans to update or replace its only touch-enabled model, the BlackBerry Storm.

The popularity of the easy-to-use touch-screen iPhone has enabled it to edge its way into the corporate smartphone market, an area that was previously the domain of BlackBerry.

As a result, an RIM-organised event such as the symposium is probably the only time the iPhone becomes conspicuous by its absence in a gathering of several thousand business people.

RIM knows it needs to make its phones more attractive for personal and business use if it is to reclaim ground lost to Apple in the lucrative corporate market.

In another bid to win back style-conscious iPad defectors in the executive classes, Rim also announced yesterday that its flagship top-end Bold 9700 handset would soon be available in white as well as the traditional black.

But WhiteBerries and grafted AppleBerries are likely to take some time to arrive in New Zealand. BlackBerry 6 will be released within the next few months, and while existing users of late-model BlackBerries are likely to be able to download a software upgrade, new phones with the updated operating system may take several more months to arrive in NZ.

New model BlackBerries have been slow to arrive in New Zealand recently.

Handset makers such as RIM need to forge deals with local mobile network operators Telecom, Vodafone and 2degrees before their phones are offered to customers.

2degrees does not currently stock any BlackBerries, Telecom has one model and Vodafone sells two.

Vodafone said last month that it would begin selling new BlackBerry models this year but it did not plan to stock the touch-screen Storm.

RIM president Mike Lazaridis said yesterday that the 11-year-old company had a record year in 2009 and gained market share.

There are now more than 41 million BlackBerry users around the world but he believed the number could "soon" rise to 100 million as the popularity of smartphones continued to grow.

Asked if the company had plans to be more aggressive against Apple in the touch-screen smartphone market, Alan Brenner, RIM's senior vice-president responsible for the BlackBerry platform, said RIM did not disclose plans for future products.

* Simon Hendery is attending the Wireless Enterprise Symposium as a guest of Research In Motion.