RIM’s upcoming BlackBerry 10 operating system is creating a tremendous amount of buzz as its expected early 2013 release date approaches. With the introduction still some time away, RIM has been building-up the hype for BlackBerry 10 by highlighting new specs, which include a fresh user interface, a variety of applications, fast processing, the latest camera features and much more.
All these new attributes BB10 is expected to posses sound pretty striking and together these features will give a whole new experience to users, many of whom have been patiently waiting for the Waterloo company to re-find its innovative beginnings. The expectation remains however that the thing that is really going to lift this new device above competitors is its new BBM (BlackBerry Messenger) service.
In his recent visit to Jakarta, RIM’s CEO Thorsten Heins mentioned their future plans regarding BBM by saying that it is “a very strong platform not just for communication, but also to make it a strong platform for [e-commerce]… Think about transacting money. This is one element in which you could have a huge BBM population in Indonesia transferring money from one partner to another.”
This means that now this iconic encrypted service of BlackBerry 10 will not only feature a slew of new emoticons, predictive keyboard functions and a new feature known as “BBM Video”, but a whole new product offering that should make waves in the smart phone industry.
RIM already boasts 60 million BBM service users in the world and with the introduction of this new service it will grasp more customers and may become a serious threat for other devices such Apple’s iPhone, Samsung’s Galaxy S III and HTC’s One X. Both of the former companies have been looking at developing mobile payment functionality, with Apple introducing Passbook for their iPhone 5 and Samsung investing heavily in NFC technology for their latest devices.
The catch in the RIM announcement by Heins was that this new innovation will only focus on the Indonesian market, as he did not mention introducing this service in other parts of the world. However, this does not mean that RIM is not going to introduce this service in financial hubs of Europe, Asia and North America eventually after testing its wares in the BlackBerry friendly South Asian nation.
Source: Mobilesyrup