Web Design Blog

Blackberry has been in trouble in the ultra-competitive and fast moving world of mobile phones. The last time Research In Motion, the owners of the brand, really hit the headlines was when its instant messaging system happened to be the favourite of the rioters who tried to burn our cities down in summer 2011. The Z10 hopes to change that, a lot is a stake; this phone could save the company.

Blackberry wasn’t a winner when the world went crazy for smartphones. Its strengths had been based around email, and now the world wanted to share on Facebook and Twitter. Its smart little phones were out of date in the world of the iPhone and ever-growing touch screens.

Now, Blackberry is entering the touch screen world, and you can see straight away that the iPhone 5 has been a big inspiration for them. There is talk of 100,000 apps being ready and waiting when customers first get their hands on the Z10.

The hub of the Z10 is, well, the Hub. It’s Blackberry’s attempt at a single point of access for all your messages, updates and notifications. The design means it’s a single thumb operation to use it, it is very clever, though could do with some fine-tuning.

While the phone looks a little Appley, the design of the user interface will be most familiar to users of the Android Samsung phones.

As this is Blackberry’s first attempt at a smartphone interface it will take time to get used to it, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t.

The apps are the result of some heavy marketing spending from the Canadian company. They have their 100,000, but they’re not necessarily the ones that people want or need. Some big names are missing – Google, after all, has its own phones to flog.

Anyone who’s used a Blackberry in the past will know that the keyboard is still a real strength, even when it’s virtual and on screen. Those claims of the fasting texting on the market are probably not all hot water.

The camera is good, but that’s not really what the phone is about, and has the obligatory gimmick – a feature called Time Shift that takes multiple exposures when you shoot and allows to pick your favourite.

Under the smart exterior is a dual-core ARM processor running at 1.5GHz, and with 2GB of RAM and 16GB of storage (you can add more with a card).

Blackberry’s journey into the world of the smartphone only confirms that this is where the future of the internet lies – Google has gone ‘mobile first’, pads are selling like hotcakes and mobile browsing is predicted to over take fixed internet access by 2014.

To survive in this world, you need a website that these new devices can understand, if they can’t their users will simply click on to one that does. Toolkit can produce a version of your site that will be a pleasure to use on mobile devices - all mobile devices. To find out more call our team on 02380 633 644 to find out how we can help.