The latest Canadian connection
After reporting shipments of over one million Z10 devices, an order for 3,000 BlackBerry 10 units from Canadian sporting goods and auto parts retailer Canadian Tire might not seem like a very big deal, but it is, actually. The retailer has decided to make the Z10 and the Q10 the chosen business devices for its corporate teams across the country, and across its different business units, which includes Canadian Tire Retails, Canadian Tire Financial Services, Sport Chek, Sports Experts, National Sports, and Atmosphere. While adding corporate connections is definitely not new for Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY), this exact event is of great importance.
For BB10, the biggest corporate figure so far
Recently, BlackBerry successfully introduced the latest BB10 devices to the world. While the BB10 device got huge acceptance from consumers, before Canadian Tire, no corporate entity placed an order for these latest devices that equals or exceeds the 3,000 units ordered, and that’s what makes this deal special. The Ontario-based company launched the Z10 in Canada and the UK in its previous fiscal year, and experienced strong demands. Following this, the company made the device available in the U.S. almost six weeks after it was made available in UK and Canada, and as a result, the impact of U.S. sales was not felt in the Q4 financial release.
While, on account of robust BB10 demand, shares of Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) had surged significantly, soon Wall Street started doubting the true potential of the stock. Analysts started to feel that the promotions conducted by the phone maker were insufficient to generate awareness and demand. Automatically, analysts started expecting less from Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY). So far this year, the stock reported the highest closing of $17.90 on January 22, and since then it has plunged 23%. However, after the Canadian Tire news, the prices finally witnessed some upward movement and rose by 2.5% to $13.84. And why was this so? That’s because the deal gave a positive ray of hope to shareholders and showed that there is great demand for the devices.
Another reason why this point is important is that it signifies a strengthening relationship between BlackBerry and its corporate partners. Canadian Tire and the Z10 maker are old acquaintances. Three years back, the retailer had developed an app for the BlackBerry platform and very quickly the app turned out to be one of the most popular apps in Canada. Canadian Tire’s association with BlackBerry has grown stronger with time, and this might very well be the situation between Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) and many of its other corporate partners.
So, this was the first development. Now, let’s take a look at the second one.
If Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has Siri, BlackBerry has Viki
Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) has always been well-known for its superb email-on-handheld concept, and also provides the market’s best security features. The BB10 platform also looks into the issues of old and stale operating systems, and offers a fresh and interesting interface for socially-inclined-gadget-oriented smartphone users. What else do you need? A personal assistant? Well, wish granted.
I’m guessing the sub-head has already given you some idea about the second point, and you are correct if you’re assuming that the latest BB10 platform will have a walking, talking (well, not walking) character named Viki. It’s needless to say what a huge success Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s Siri has been, plus it’s been a contributing factor toward the success of the iPhone 4S. Maybe, with Viki now on board, BlackBerry will be able to pull off this difficult, but interesting, stunt. Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) has managed to get support from an Indian start-up to develop an app for its latest platform, which would act like a personal assistant and compete with Siri. Viki comes with nine touch point options, and also has voice-based input recognition. Arun Ravi, VP of Agrima Infotech, the Viki-maker, believes Viki to be better than Siri.
“What makes Viki different from Siri is its ability to update database constantly by learning the user’s behavior. For example, if the user loves classical music, and when he asks for music, it plays him classical music. It would also pick a vegetarian restaurant if the user is a vegetarian,”
– Arun Ravi
When Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) introduced Siri, it was able to attract a huge number of old iPhone users and tempt them to migrate to the latest iPhone. Apple innovated and peers followed. Soon (though not very soon) after Siri, Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) came out with Google Now, which aimed to offer what Siri was offering, and this new feature got incorporated in the latest Android Jelly Bean OS. Now, BlackBerry can adopt this strategy to get its old BB7 users to move to the BB10 platform. The users will be able to post on social forums, send emails and texts, call up a contact, manage meetings and reminders, and stay updated with the latest news and events information. The Viki app was initially planned to be launched for the BB10 platform on April 23 with a price tag of $3 per year, which seems to be pretty tempting for anyone to ignore. However, upgradations and algorithm checks conducted for the app before it was made available for use resulted in the launch delay.
Concluding thoughts
The Canadian phone-maker is banking on the Z10 and the Q10 to make a sales recovery and to bite off a substantial share of the smartphone market from its peers, Apple and Samsung. The company is on its toes to incorporate the necessary changes. Now, one can basically say that Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) now has all the correct ingredients. It has security, it has an easy and interesting operating system, it has apps that can make users’ lives easier, and now it also has a voice-enabled artificially intelligent input system. Plus, let’s not forget the millions of users or the increasing demand for its offerings. All these features combined together paints a pretty nice picture of BlackBerry’s possible future.
The article This Will Aid BlackBerry’s Growth originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Rita C.
Copyright © 1995 – 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
