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New Blackberry is just the beginning

Thursday, January 31 12:05:46

"This is not the finish line; this is the starting line," said Thorsten Heins, the chief executive of Research in Motion, makers of the Blackberry.

That optimism comes against a dreary backdrop. The new operating system was delayed by more than two years by technical problems, while the smartphone market became more competitive.

Once the standard corporate smartphone, the BlackBerry has fallen out of favor in the face of the iPhone and phones running Google's Android operating system. Even stalwart users that rely on the phones' security features, such as the departments of Defense and Homeland Security, have allowed some employees to adopt other smartphones.

BlackBerry once dominated the smartphone market, but recent International Data Corp. findings show that its market share dropped from 10.3 percent to 4.6 percent between 2011 and 2012.

To claw its way back, said Ramon Llamas, a mobile researcher for IDC, BlackBerry must leverage those who have stuck by the brand - out of affection for physical keyboards or confidence in the platform's security - as its best marketing tool.