BlackBerry Milan and Colt canceled

RIM may be trying to get us all excited about BlackBerry OS 10, but when reports appear that the company is canceling smartphones set to run it, it doesn’t exactly fill us with confidence regarding an expedited arrival.

According to BGR.com, “not only has the Colt been canned, but the Milan has too”.

The Colt was all set to be the first phone to use the next generation of BlackBerry software, OS 10, and actually initially appeared when that software was still expected to be named after the QNX platform found on the PlayBook. With a single-core 1Ghz processor rumored, and presumably yet another Curve/Bold lookalike design, it never sounded the most inspirational phone on which to launch a new platform.

The Milan, on the other hand, has been revealed as a BlackBerry OS 7 phone rather than one waiting for BlackBerry OS 10. Apparently, it was too close in design to the existing BlackBerry Torch.

The cull leaves the London as the only phone we currently have any knowledge of that’s set to run BlackBerry OS 10. Revealed in November, the London shares some design similarities with the Porsche Design BlackBerry P’9981, but shuns the QWERTY in favor of a full touchscreen. Rumored specs include a dual-core 1Ghz processor, an 8-megapixel camera and a screen measuring 4-inches.

BlackBerry OS 10 is set to make an appearance at Mobile World Congress at the end of February.

BBM Canada sues RIM for BBM trademark

Research In Motion, the BlackBerry maker has received more bad news - this time on the legal front. RIM may have to spend more money trying to ward off yet another trademark dispute.

Indeed, even as RIM is reeling from the forced name change of its next-generation operating system from BBX to BlackBerry 10, a Canadian company has taken issue with the name of its long-popular instant-messaging platform.

BlackBerry Messenger has been a RIM favorite, allowing BlackBerry users to send each other text messages and pictures through the RIM network and get delivery and read confirmation. Many users just call the service BBM for short, but BBM Canada is looking to Canadian federal court for a remedy.

BBM Canada Willing to Deal:
BBM Canada, a company somewhat like Nielsen in that it measures radio and television audiences, plans to argue its case against RIM in February. Jim MacLeod, BBM's CEO, said he wants RIM to stop advertising the BBM name. But MacLeod also suggested he would be willing to change BBM Canada name - for a price.

"We have to be practical, they operate worldwide, we don't. But we're not prepared to just walk from our name," said MacLeod. "I'm sure to a really big company this looks like relatively small numbers, but to us it's a big deal. It's a trademark they don't even own, it's ours."

The timing is noteworthy. BlackBerry has been offering BBM for many years, but recently made a big splash in the RIM world when it rolled out BBM Music. BBM Music is a cloud-based music service for BlackBerry users.

US court bars RIM from using BBX trademark

Software company Basis International Ltd said a U.S. federal court in Albuquerque has granted a temporary restraining order against Research in Motion, barring the BlackBerry maker from using Basis' BBX trademark.

The court decision bars RIM from using the BBX trademark at its Asian DevCon conference on December 7-8 in Singapore.

However, RIM appeared to backtrack on using the trademark.

"RIM doesn't typically comment on pending litigation, however RIM has already unveiled a new brand name for its next generation mobile platform. As announced at DevCon Asia, RIM plans to use the 'BlackBerry 10' brand name for its next generation mobile platform," RIM said in a statement.

BBX, the operating system that Research In Motion is counting on to revive its BlackBerry franchise, has run into trouble even before the company could install the system in its smartphone line.

Albuquerque-based Basis International claims the "BBX" name is protected by trademarks it holds and had earlier threatened to take legal action against RIM unless it stopped using the moniker.

Basis said RIM had refused requests to stop using the moniker at the DevCon conference, which resulted in the company filing for the temporary restraining order.

RIM devalues Playbook Inventory by $485 Million

Research In Motion said that it will record a $485 million charge on the inventory valuation of the company's BlackBerry PlayBook tablets when it reports results for its third business quarter later this month. "A number of factors have led to the need for an inventory provision in the third quarter," said RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis.

However, RIM has no intention of emulating HP, which quickly sold off its remaining TouchPad tablet inventory and abandoned the market last August. The BlackBerry maker's goal is to dramatically increase the number of PlayBooks in the hands of more customers by cutting prices.

The PlayBook inventory write-down is merely the first page in RIM's new playbook for more effectively competing with lower-priced tablet models such as Amazon's $199 Kindle Fire and the new $249 Nook Tablet from Barnes & Noble. RIM is also aware that delays in the release of the new PlayBook OS 2.0 software featuring more advanced capabilities has hindered the BlackBerry tablet's immediate sales prospects at the old price.

Lazaridis said RIM remained committed to the PlayBook platform and believed the tablet market was still in its infancy.

"We believe the PlayBook, which will be further enhanced with the upcoming PlayBook OS 2.0 software, is a compelling tablet for consumers that also offers unique security and manageability features for the enterprise," Lazaridis said.

By reducing the PlayBook's retail price, RIM hopes to drive the development of a vibrant application ecosystem in advance of the launch of its upgraded BlackBerry smartphones. However, the PlayBook's sales prospects - even at sharply reduced prices - are limited because of the relatively few applications and multimedia entertainment options available for the current PlayBook platform.

Even with the special promotions, RIM said that it only sold 150,000 PlayBook units to retailers and distributors during the business quarter which ended on Nov. 26. On the other hand, RIM said its own internal numbers indicate that the actual sell-through to consumers was even higher as distributors presumably moved to clear their store shelves.

Still, it remains unclear whether RIM's new PlayBook strategy will put into play enough units to encourage software developers to create more apps for the company's PlayBook OS 2.0 platform, which is expected to launch in February.

RIM downgraded as $200 PlayBook vanishes

Last week, Research in Motion cut the price on its low-end PlayBook tablet to just $200 for a limited time in an effort to woo Thanksgiving holiday shoppers to the device just as competitors like the Barnes & Noble Nook tablet and Kindle Fire went on sale. However, just as quickly as the $200 PlayBook appeared, it seems to be vanishing: retailers appear to be in the process of removing the $200 PlayBook devices from their online catalogs, and some Best Buy customers have reported their orders for the $200 tablets have been cancelled.

Complaints in Best Buy customer forums were first reported by Electronista. Quick checks of other retailers that had previously been offering the $200 tablets (Staples, Office Depot, Walmart, and RadioShack) finds the only $200 tablets listed as available are refurbished models.

The move could indicate that RIM’s idea of “a limited time only” was indeed just a period of a few days surrounding the Thanksgiving holiday, or that the $200 promotional price proved popular with consumers, even as the Kindle Fire hit the streets. Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu notes the company is facing serious competition from the likes of Samsung, Apple, Amazon, and HTC, and that significant service outages in October have damaged RIM with its bread-and-butter enterprise and government customers.

RIM offers free apps to BlackBerry customers

Canada's Research In Motion Ltd will offer free premium apps worth more than $100 to appease BlackBerry customers frustrated by service disruption last week which ran for days and affected millions.

Research In Motion said the complete selection of premium apps would become available to download at BlackBerry App World for four weeks beginning October 19.

Enterprise customers will also be offered one month of free technical support as an apology for the outage.

The offering, to compensate for a system failure that left tens of millions of Blackberry users on five continents without email, instant messaging and browsing, could be expensive for RIM and it remains to be seen how many customers will see the offer as an acceptable response.

Analysts have said the company faces a wider problem from the damage to its reputation and loss of corporate customers who no longer think they can rely on the device.

"We've worked hard to earn their (customers') trust over the past 12 years and we're committed to providing the high standard of reliability they expect," said RIM Co-CEO Mike Lazaridis.

"We are taking immediate and aggressive steps to help prevent something like this from happening again."

RIM co-CEOs Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie apologized last week to millions of Blackberry customers for the four-day outage which tarnished the company's reputation and set back its drive to catch up with the likes of Apple Inc and its iPhone.

Some mobile operators such as Spanish group Telefonica SA have already said they will compensate customers, although analysts believe they will also be looking at whether they can pass on some of those costs to RIM.

The apps include games such as Bejeweled, a translation service and the music discovery tool Shazam.

Francisco Jeronimo at IDC said the decision was a clever move by RIM because it would help customers to discover the app service. He said the company was likely to have struck a deal with app developers to keep the cost down.

"More important than the offer itself, is that RIM is showing goodwill and being humble. They recognized the problem, apologized and now they are compensating their users."