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Saudi executives await BlackBerry 10 magicDUBAI, Feb 01, 2013 (Arab News - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- BlackBerry has launched its re-designed, re-engineered, and re-invented BlackBerry platform that creates a new and unique mobile computing experience. BlackBerry 10, available on two new smartphones, the BlackBerry Z10 (all-touch) and BlackBerry Q10 (touch with physical keyboard) smartphones powered by BlackBerry 10 offers a faster, smarter and smoother experience than any other previous edition of BlackBerry. BlackBerry unveiled the new BlackBerry Z10 and BlackBerry Q10 smartphones at events held simultaneously in New York, Toronto, London, Paris, Dubai, and Johannesburg. Khalid Kefel, managing director of BB for Middle East, told Arab News that the new products will be available in the UAE from Feb.10 and the company will announce a subsequent date for the Kingdom in consultation with the local mobile operators in Saudi Arabia. STC, Mobily and Zain are the three operators tied up with BB in the Kingdom. Kefel said 56 percent of mobile phones sold in the Kingdom are smartphones. In December, Saudi-based Luxury Events and Canadian company Research in Motion (RIM), makers of BlackBerry, signed an agreement in Riyadh that allowed them to tap into a wider market in the Kingdom "Today sees a re-invented BlackBerry launching an entirely new mobile experience," said Thorsten Heins, President and CEO of BlackBerry. "We are thrilled to be introducing BlackBerry 10 on the new BlackBerry Z10 smartphones, to deliver a faster, smarter experience that continuously adapts to your needs. Every feature, every gesture, and every detail in BlackBerry 10 is designed to keep you moving." Heins'speeech was relayed live on a panoramic screen at the launch held in Dubai, where more than 1,000 guests from all walks of life present at the Armani Hotel in Burj Khalifa, the tallest freestanding structure in the world. Robert Bose, regional managing director of BB for Middle East and Africa, launched the program in Dubai. A simultaneous launch took place in other four other countries. "There are 79 million customers of BB in the globe and many of whom are from the Middle East," Bose said, adding that the region is important to BB's overall business. He also announced that RIM has been renamed as Blackberry from Wednesday. "BB is a robust and reliable platform that is smooth and responsive. It has a modern design and a gesture-based interface that is highly discoverable. It is designed to support, learn, and adapt to the way you work and share with features like." The ever present BlackBerry Hub, which is a single place to manage all conversations whether personal or work e-mail, BBM messages, social media updates or notifications, and the ability to "peek" into the BlackBerry Hub from anywhere in the globe."Bose said BlackBerry Flow, where the BlackBerry 10 experience excels by enabling features and apps to flow seamlessly together, helping you complete the task at hand effortlessly and efficiently. For example, he said "One can tap on an attendee listed for a meeting to see one's latest tweet or LinkedIn profile. Or tap the thumbnail of a picture you just took to launch the Picture editor and quickly apply a transformation or filter, then instantly share it with your contacts. Its keyboard that understands and adapts to one, that learns what words one use and how one use them, then offers them up to so one can type faster and more accurately." BBM (BlackBerry Messenger), which allows users to share things with the people that matter to you in an instant. BBM in BlackBerry 10 introduces the ability to share your screen with another BlackBerry 10 contact. BlackBerry Balance technology, which elegantly separates and secures work applications and data from personal content on BlackBerry devices. Time Shift, an astonishing camera feature that lets you capture a group shot where everyone is smiling with their eyes wide open. Story Maker, which lets people bring a collection of photos and videos together, along with music and effects, to produce an HD movie that you can instantly share. The new BlackBerry 10 browser, which sets the industry benchmark for HTML5 support on smartphones, is incredibly fast. Scrolling or zooming is fluid and responsive. The browser includes many advanced features, supports multiple tabs, lets you browse sites privately, includes a reader mode, and integrates with the platform for easily sharing content. BlackBerry Remember, which combines memos, tasks and much more into a single experience. It helps you organize and manage information you have on your smartphone around projects or ideas, letting you collect content such as websites, e-mails, photos, documents, and other files, and then like a To-Do list, lets you create tasks, assign due dates, and track your progress. If the BlackBerry 10 smartphone is set up with a work account, your Microsoft Outlook Tasks will automatically be wirelessly synced with BlackBerry Remember. If users have configured an Evernote account with their smartphone, BlackBerry Remember will sync Evernote workbooks as well. ___ (c)2013 the Arab News (Jeddah, Saudi Arabia) Visit the Arab News (Jeddah, Saudi Arabia) at www.arabnews.com Distributed by MCT Information Services |