BlackBerry:The Leaders Must Now Learn To Chase

A decade ago, a BlackBerry phone was a remarkable possession. This sleek device offered features the likes of which no other mobile device at the time could claim. Chief among them was the facility to send and receive emails on the go right from the mobile device, without needing to connect with the mail server through a PC. And unlike PDAs, which did provide email exchange over phone lines, one didn’t need to synchronise and “request” the server for new mails. The transformation was  from pull to push; instead of a user having to pull his emails or other information (for instance, calendar updates) from his mail server, there now existed an interface, the BlackBerry Enterprise Server, which made sure that every new mail and update was instantaneously pushed to the user’s BlackBerry device. This capability alone propelled Research in Motion, or RIM, BlackBerry’s maker, to the top of the enterprise phone market.

A decade down the line, things are no longer as rosy. In fact, they are so far removed from rosy that BlackBerry, and RIM, are left floundering for ways to remain relevant. What has changed? How could the principal phone provider for companies the world over suddenly be facing an existential question-mark?

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FB Launches Facebook Camera – An Instagram-Style Photo Filtering, Sharing, Viewing iOS App

Facebook is dead serious about mobile. Today it begins rolling out Facebook Camera for iOS to English-speaking countries, a standalone photos app where you can shoot, filter, and share single or sets of photos and scroll through a feed of photos uploaded to Facebook by your friends. Developed by Facebook’s photos team without the help of Instagram because the acquisition deal hasn’t closed yet, Facebook Camera is designed for quicker publishing than Facebook’s multi-featured primary mobile app.
Facebook Camera lets you rapidly pick one or more photos, apply filters, tag friends and locations, add a description, and post. While its 14 filters, batch uploads, and streamlined interface are a big step up from Facebook for iOS, the design isn’t as beautiful as Instagram and neither are the photos you’ll see in it. When asked if Facebook Camera would become a direct competitor to the photosharing network it bought last month, a spokesman told  “As Mark asserted, we’re committed to building and growing Instagram independently, so I anticipate some healthy competition.”

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