Highlights of BlackBerry 10

Just like Nokia, BlackBerry has seen its smartphone market share gobbled up by iOS and Android, but unlike Nokia who adopted Microsoft’s Windows Phone OS, the firm is gambling on its proprietary BlackBerry 10 platform to boost device sales.

After a bit of hands-on time with this innovative new OS, we can report that it is smooth, really responsive, and incredibly intuitive once you get to learn its ins and outs. The platform is entirely based around gestures with the star of the show being BlackBerry Hub (check the video posted below), which is a central location to manage all your conversations, social networking updates and notifications, email, and BBM messages.

The fact that you can check your messages without having to close applications is a treat, since the Hub is accessible from anywhere in the OS. When your LED indicator starts blinking for instance, you simply swipe up from within any app to reveal the type of message or notification received (peek) and then swipe right to get more detail on the message.

It’s very quick, works well, and much less intrusive than having jumping from the one app to the next.  

Superb typing experience & balancing work and play

We simply love the new onscreen keyboard that learns what words you use and how you use them. It offers suggestions above the letters on the keyboard so that users can just flick them onto the message, helping to drastically speed up typing. An Afrikaans language pack will apparently also become available for predictions in Afrikaans.

Corporate users will appreciate BlackBerry Balance technology, which elegantly separates and secures work applications and data from personal content on BlackBerry devices. You simply swipe down, which reveals two onscreen buttons to quickly switch in between the two profiles.

BlackBerry stated that its BlackBerry World storefront now boasts 70 000 BlackBerry 10 apps, which might be a far cry from the 800 000 apps available in Apple’s App Store but remains a very robust selection for a totally new platform. A lot will depend on BlackBerry’s ability to draw in app developers to enhance the expand the new ecosystem.

Worldwide, several key markets have revealed pricing and availability for the Z10, but unfortunately this does not include South Africa. All the local operators will be offering the new BlackBerry 10 devices, and we should get the pricing info within the next two weeks. BlackBerry expects the first global carriers to launch the Q10 in April, with pricing and availability info to follow around that timeframe.

To the point

BlackBerry 10 and the new phones have us excited about the Canadian firm’s devices once more, and we’re looking forward to more personal time with the devices. At the very least, it appears that BlackBerry fanboys will have a device able to compete with the iPhone and Galaxy S3 once again. But, with the next generation of smartphones, the likes of the Galaxy S4 and Sony Xperia Z, hitting the market soon, BlackBerry needs to come up with even better devices sooner rather than later.

What do you think about the new platform and smartphones? Let us know by posting a comment below.  

In related news, RIM also recently revealed that the music section within BlackBerry World will be locally available. It will bring DRM-free music from all major and independent labels including Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group.