I’m hoping I grabbed your attention with part one. I’ll continue with the software aspect of defining BlackBerry 6. Hardware is always important, but, that was never truly RIM’s downfall when it came down to how well they would do as far as selling mobile devices.
The key to BlackBerry 6 is ease of operation. The accessibility is key. We have multiple screens in which to easily access application shortcuts and we can easily send information with even better integration and message sending options.
For instance, Social Feeds allows quick status update sharing for social networking apps such as Facebook and Twitter. This type of access is also integrated with the Messages application which most BlackBerry users find to be a very productive asset to the OS. With the universal inbox at my finger tips, I can access any of my messaging applications with ease and switch between them with a press of the ‘back’ button. These features have always been present in the OS but with BlackBerry 6 you have more integration and more options within each separate application to allow a fully personalized experience.
Homescreen
We have 5 ‘tabs’ and they are All, Frequent, Downloads, Media and Favorites. With the All screen you can access every application and shortcut set for things like bookmarks and contacts. You can access the normal folders and icons that you normally would if this was any previous OS i.e OS 5 or 4.6. With frequent, you get a row or two of the most used applications on your device for quick access to what you know and love. With downloads, you’ll see every application that you’ve downloaded via App World or a third party source through the browser.
Media shows the picture, video, podcasts & other applications dealing with media consumption. You can set downloaded apps like Pandora to be in the media screen. Finally, we have the favorites tab which is fully personal. No two people should have the same favorites screen. You can add shortcuts to everything by highlighting bookmarks, contacts or applications and marking them as favorites. I use my favorites tab very often and it pays off.
On the surface, BlackBerry 6 offers just as much as the next platform if we’re speaking on the OS itself. As a professional and consumer I can attest to BlackBerry 6 being better than the iOS because it offers full functionality without applications. It is very comparable to android with different screen access and app shortcuts but it’s still unique by not allowing multiple homescreen images. Windows Phone 7 is still fresh but they cannot beat out BlackBerry 6 on a large scale. Their OS is clean and functional but it doesn’t present a threat. Nokia is the top smartphone manufacturer in the world so we’ll have to do more to grab that share.
Just on the surface, BlackBerry 6 is the answer that we’ve been waiting for, the only issue is, people not knowing what you can do with it. Everyone thinks it’s just another OS 5 but it isn’t. When I’m done, you’ll know BlackBerry 6 and you’ll know it well.
Don’t forget to share!