New platforms like BlackBerry 10 and Ubuntu for mobiles will struggle to make an impact in the highly competitive phone market, says John Lewis.
Talking to TrustedReviews, John Lewis’s Head of Buying for Communication Technology Matt Leeser said, “The market will increasingly become complex, but the majority of the consumer market will consider a Google operating system, an Apple operating system and a Microsoft operating system complex enough.”
Leeser said that “I think to get any real traction in the market will be difficult for other operating systems,” when asked about whether upcoming OSs like BlackBerry 10, Ubuntu and Tizen have much of a chance of success. He predicts they will “remain relatively niche.”
But “niche” is not a term RIM is likely to be happy with, having piled $1bn into the launch of BlackBerry 10. This version of the BlackBerry OS is set to launch later this week, on 30 January, with the aim of reversing RIM’s BlackBerry fortunes and making it serious competition for iOS and Android once more.
Leeser suggests that at present, new smartphone system offerings aren’t doing enough to break into the big leagues, commenting on these ‘new’ systems, “I don’t think [they’re] going to be sizeable enough to say “that’s the complete end-to-end proposition” from, say, BlackBerry or Ubuntu, that I can get from the other three.”
He does offer a solution, though, saying that “we need to see some fundamental shift in the content creation market, as well as adoption in the smartphone market for [BlackBerry 10] to gain traction.” The question is – does RIM have the time to wait for this to happen?
What is BlackBerry 10?
RIM is expected to launch the BlackBerry Z10 alongside the new BlackBerry 10 system, on 30 January. Reportedly set to sell for £480 SIM-free, it’s a top-end phone.
Consistent with today’s mobile standards, both BlackBerry 10 and the Z10 are geared-up for touchscreen control. However, the traditional physical keyboard of the BlackBerry Bold series will live on in the leaked Bold-style BlackBerry X10.
Fewer details are known about this Bold handset, but the BlackBerry Z10 is expected to feature a 4.2-inch 1,280 x 768 pixel screen, 16GB internal memory and a dual-core 1.5GHz processor.
We’ll be back with more on BlackBerry 10 on Wednesday 30 January. Do you think BlackBerry has a chance at winning back market share with these phones? Or are its days as a smartphone king long over?
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
