BlackBerry’s QNX system in 60% of new connected cars

Machine-to-machine communications will become more important in the mobile wireless sector as the QNX operating system, the foundation of BlackBerry’s new BB10 operating system, is in 60 per cent of new, connected smart cars, said Alec Saunders, the company’s vice-president of developer relations.

Saunders appeared on a panel at the Canadian Telecom Summit in Toronto where he said mobile companies are planning for the rise of automated machine-to-machine communications that support technologies like mobile banking or smart, wirelessly connected cars.

Q10 sells out in first week

Toronto-area and U.K. retailers have seen “broad sell-outs” and “generally limited stock” of BlackBerry’s new Q10 smartphone, Jefferies Group LLC analyst Peter Misek said.

“Based on our store checks, the BlackBerry Q10 has been selling extremely well and has been sold out or seeing limited availability in Toronto and across the U.K.,” Misek said in a research note Thursday.

Canadian Tire orders 3,000 BB10 devices

Canadian Tire Corp. Ltd. ordered 3,000 BlackBerry 10 smartphones for its corporate employees across Canada, marking the largest corporate order yet of BlackBerry’s new line of phones, the Canadian Press reported Friday.

BlackBerry says report on Z10 return rates false, misleading

BlackBerry said it plans to ask the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Ontario Securities Commission for reviews of a “false and misleading report” about the return rates of the company's new Z10 smartphone.

"Sales of the BlackBerry Z10 are meeting expectations and the data we have collected from our retail and carrier partners demonstrates that customers are satisfied with their devices," BlackBerry chief executive Thorsten Heins said in a statement Friday.

BlackBerry Q10 available this month

BlackBerry’s second new BB10 smartphone, the keyboard-enabled Q10, will be available in Canada at the end of April, Canadian wireless carriers said.

Rogers Communications Inc., BCE Inc. and Telus Corp. will be the first to offer the device, which is available in black or white and has both a physical keyboard and a touch screen.

Lazaridis launches quantum tech fund

BlackBerry co-founder Mike Lazaridis launched a new $100-million investment fund to foster innovation in quantum technologies.

The fund, called Quantum Valley Investments, said in a release Tuesday that it “will provide financial and intellectual capital for the further development and commercialization of breakthroughs in Quantum Information Science,” such as those of Waterloo, Ont. labs the Institute for Quantum Computing, the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, and the Waterloo Institute for Nano Technology.

National security rules could apply in a bid for BlackBerry: Paradis

Industry Minister Christian Paradis said he wants BlackBerry to remain a “Canadian champion” and that national security interests could prevent a foreign takeover of the company, Reuters reported Monday.

“We never know what can happen but I've said—and I truly believe this—I hope BlackBerry will continue to be a Canadian champion in the world, that it grows organically,” Paradis told Reuters.

Z10 sales beat expectations, analyst says

Early sales of BlackBerry’s new Z10 smartphone appear to have beat investor expectations in three countries though early indications suggest lower presale levels in the United States, RBC Capital Markets analyst Mark Sue said in a research note.

BlackBerry reports 1M unit sale

BlackBerry received a single order for one million BlackBerry 10 smartphones, “the largest ever single purchase order in BlackBerry's history,” the company said in a release Wednesday.

Canaccord drops BB10 shipment estimate

Canaccord Genuity analyst Mike Walkley dropped his February shipment estimate for BB10 smartphones from 1.75 million to 300,000.

BB10 phones won’t be released in Japan: Report

RIM holds ‘white glove’ marketing events to demo new BB10 devices

OTTAWA--BlackBerry, formerly RIM Ltd., is holding a series of “white glove” events around the world to showcase its new BB10 devices to government and business customers and generate word of mouth discussion about them.

The company plans 14 “Enterprise Experience Forums” in major cities across the globe, which are being supplemented by smaller, lower-key regional events, Paul Lucier, vice-president of government solutions at BlackBerry, said in a phone interview.

BlackBerry appoints two new board members

BlackBerry has appointed Richard Lynch and Bert Nordberg to its board of directors, the company said Thursday.

In a release, BlackBerry said Lynch previously held the position of executive vice-president of Verizon Communications Inc. and Nordberg is the former CEO of Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications.

BB10 launch best ever in Canadian sales, RIM says

Thornsten Heins, president and CEO of RIM Ltd., said Feb. 5 was the “best day ever” in sales for the launch of a new BlackBerry smartphone in Canada.

“In fact, it was more than 50% better than any other launch day in our history in Canada,” Heins said in a statement released Wednesday. “In the U.K., we have seen close to three times our best performance ever for the first week of sales for a BlackBerry smartphone.”

‘RIM’ becomes ‘BlackBerry’ as new Z10 devices launched

Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM) changed its name to BlackBerry and launched its new BlackBerry 10 mobile operating system Wednesday.

“As we launch BlackBerry 10 around the world, now is the right time to adopt the iconic BlackBerry name,” Thorsten Heins, president and CEO of the company, said in a statement. In a release, the Waterloo-based company said its name change was effective “immediately.” 

RIM app store to sell music, videos

Research In Motion Ltd.’s updated mobile application store will allow BlackBerry users to rent and download popular songs, movies and TV shows, the company said.

In a release Monday, RIM said phones running on its new BlackBerry 10 operating system will be able to access music, movies and shows from major record labels, studios and broadcasters.

It added that “most” movies will be available “the same day they are released on DVD,” while new episodes of some popular TV shows will be available the day after they air.

Lenevo looking at opportunities with RIM

Lenovo Group Ltd. could be looking to acquire Research In Motion Ltd. as it considers acquisition targets and strategic alliances to bolster its mobile-device business, Bloomberg reported Thursday.

“We are looking at all opportunities –RIM and many others,” Wong Wai Ming, chief financial officer at Lenovo, told the news agency in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland.

“We’ll have no hesitation if the right opportunity comes along that could benefit us and shareholders.”

RIM releases enterprise software for BB10

The latest iteration of Research In Motion Ltd.’s secure enterprise service is now available for corporate clients to download, the company said Wednesday.

Visa approves RIM’s mobile payment system

RIM Ltd.’s backend mobile payment system has gained the approval of Visa Inc., allowing partnering carriers to support Visa-operated cards from authorized financial institutions, the company said Wednesday.

In a release, RIM said Visa’s approval of its “secure element manager” mobile payment system will allow consumers to make payments with Visa-supported accounts and credit cards using their mobile phones and near-field communications (NFC) technology, which allows “tap” or “swipe” payments with mobile devices.

RIM reports subscriber loss, lower sales

Research In Motion Ltd. reported lower third quarter losses, lower sales of its BlackBerry smartphones and, for the first time, a loss on its subscriber base, the company said in a quarterly earnings report released Thursday.

RIM releases free BBM international calling

BlackBerry users around the world can talk to each other for free over an updated BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) app that includes a new voice service, Research In Motion Ltd. said.

In a release Wednesday, RIM said the new version of its popular instant messaging application includes a feature called BBM Voice, which “will allow customers to make free voice calls to other BBM customers around the world” using WiFi connections.

RIM first in 2011 Canadian R&D spending

Research in Motion Ltd. ranked No. 1 among Canadian companies' spending on research and development in 2011, according to an analysis by firm Research Infosource.

The list, released in October, said RIM spent $1.54 billion on research and development in the 2011 fiscal year, a 10.8 per cent rise from 2010, when the company spent $1.39 billion and also ranked first. RIM's 2011 R&D spending represented 8.5 per cent of its revenues, Research Infosource said.

Samsung, Apple, RIM lead global smartphone shipments in Q3

Samsung Electronics Co. and Apple Inc. led smartphone shipments during the third quarter of 2012 as RIM Ltd. moved up to rank third and Nokia Co. dropped off the list of top five smartphone manufacturers, research firm IDC said Thursday.

Samsung led shipments in the third quarter with 105.4 million units worldwide, IDC said. Apple ranked second with 26.9 million smartphones shipped and RIM third with 7.7 million.

RIM grows subscribers; sales decline

Research In Motion Ltd. reported slowed subscriber growth and the third straight quarter of declining device sales as the company warned of “continued pressure on operating results” for another six months.

In a financial statement released Thursday for the second quarter of 2013, RIM indicated that it is not losing subscribers, which totalled about 80 million at the end of the second quarter of 2013 from 78 million three months earlier.

Android makes gains in Canada

Canadian consumers increasingly use smartphones and tablets running Google Inc.’s Android operating system, a new Ipsos-Reid poll said Tuesday.

Android surged in Q2 despite weakened cell phone sales: Gartner

Worldwide smartphone sales increased year-over-year by 42.7 per cent in the second quarter of 2012 despite a 2.3 per cent decline in overall cell phone sales, research firm Gartner Inc. said in a new report released Tuesday.

In a release, Gartner said its “Market Share: Mobile Devices, Worldwide, 2Q12” report found that 153.7 million smartphones were sold around the globe in the three-month period ending June 30, up from 107.7 million during the same period a year earlier.

Google, Apple share of shipments surge to 85%

Mobile operating systems by Google Inc. and Apple Inc. powered 85 per cent of all smartphones shipped in the second quarter of 2012, the International Data Corporation (IDC) said Wednesday.

IDC cited its Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker report and said Google's Android platform held a 68.1 per cent market share of all smartphones shipped during the quarter. That represents a year-over-year rise of 106.5 per cent compared to the second quarter of 2011, IDC said.

Heins defends RIM against pundits, market watchers

Thorsten Heins, CEO of Research In Motion Ltd., said Tuesday that the Waterloo, Ont., company is not nearing “the end.”

Zipperstein to replace Bawa at RIM

Research in Motion Ltd. has appointed former Verizon Wireless lawyer Steve Zipperstein as the company’s new chief legal officer, the company said in a release Thursday.

RIM delays BB10, reports loss

Research In Motion Ltd. will delay the launch of its Blackberry 10 operating system until 2013, the company said Thursday as it reported a loss in its first quarter results.

"Our top priority going forward is the successful launch of our first BlackBerry 10 device, which we now anticipate will occur in the first quarter of calendar 2013,” Thorsten Heins, RIM’s president and CEO, said in a statement.

No plan to separate into two businesses: RIM

Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM) will not separate itself into two businesses and remains committed to its restructuring plan, the company said Monday.

The company on Monday reacted to a story published in London’s The Sunday Times that said RIM had “hatched a plan to break itself in two after falling to its first operating loss in a decade.”

Balsillie and Lazaridis payouts total $12M: RIM

Former Research In Motion Ltd. executives and founders Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie will receive nearly $12-million in a pair of post-employment payouts, the Canadian Press reported on Thursday.

RIM’s use of BBM not a trademark infringement: Court

Research In Motion Ltd.’s use of the BBM moniker for its popular BlackBerry Messenger service does not infringe BBM Canada’s trademark on the three-letter name, a Federal Court ruled Wednesday.