Research in Motion launched the new BlackBerry Bold 9000 phone just over a month ago on Rogers Wireless, which brought GSM consumers into the new age of HSPA and UMTS technology. What most people don't know, is that companies like Bell have BlackBerrys which run on 1xEV-DO, which is the data equivalent of HSPA on UMTS. Setting aside the ancient debate of GSM vs. CDMA, the Bold brought a new era to BlackBerry owners. With the 9000, we have a phone which can compete against the all mighty iPhone 3G in the smartphone wars.

Along with the Bold, we now have seen the new BlackBerry Pearl 8220, the first flip phone from RIM. The design of this new phone is nothing new compared to what we've seen over the last 20 years or so, however it does pack more of a punch than most other phones. We'll be getting the same great features we expect from a BlackBerry, just in a smaller package. The technology used is the same as the older pearls, Wi-Fi, EDGE, SureType keypad, and we also get OS 4.6 and dual screens.

There won't be a real way to determine if this new phone will be a success until it is released on major phone carriers. There are many who feel the new flip pearl is going to be a disaster, but there are some like me, who have hope for this phone. It will give customers who prefer flip phones a chance to experience a BlackBerry if they haven't already. RIM has 3 new types of phones which could be used to further enhance the all around BlackBerry Experience.

We have the Bold, Thunder and 8220, giving us a 3G UMTS phone, a new all touch screen device, and a flip pearl. As most information regarding the Thunder touch phone is speculation at this point, we're not sure how it will be integrated into the BlackBerry family. I would predict it will have the same reaction as the Bold, having a new type of technology is nice for most people, but RIM won't plan to incorporate it into further models at this point.

RIM has no intention on continuing making HSPA BlackBerrys, which means the same fate could come for touch and flip phones. Eventually they will have to switch over technology to work on 3G networks as the begin to take over older 2G networks. Touch phones on the other hand aren't catching on as quickly as phone companies had hoped (iPhone aside). I feel that any touch screen BlackBerrys are going to be met with resistance from the consumer market.

We're going to see a major change in the BlackBerry market over the next year. We have 2 major phones being released over the next few months, and the technology to build on to. Eventually consumers will demand all devices run on UMTS in order to access data much quicker. Things will be changing in the Berry market once the public gets their hands on the new devices, and feedback starts flowing in.

L’ho preso con grande entusiasmo, che però si è abbastanza affievolito dopo poche ore. Intendiamoci, il prodotto è bellissimo...

clicca qui per continuare

Fonte:LucaViscardi

Watching this presentation of the cool features on the phone, certainly wants me to camp outside my local Verizon Wireless store to be the first one to buy it.

[Via Boy Genius Report]

According to CNet, Ballmer's specific "advice" to Apple was to make the company more like Microsoft, a move that would apparently give Apple a fighting chance in the smartphone market.

Not sure if he noticed, Apple is holding their own in the "smartphone market" while Microsoft missed their sales goals.

He's expecting Apple to do poorly in both the smartphone and notebook markets over the next five years, mostly because the company continues to stand by its rather un-Microsoft-like integration of both proprietary software and proprietary hardware. Ballmer seems to think that the future of the smartphone lies in providing a phone OS to a wide variety of hardware manufacturers.

Again, I am not sure if Ballmer has noticed, but the number of cellphone manufacturers is decreasing! Motorola, Nokia, Sony, Samsung, LG, and Palm are not exactly burning up the charts. RIMM is relatively stable and only HTC is growing (but by taking market share away from the above).

I will wager Ballmer that within the next 3 years, the list above will whittle down to 5: Apple, HTC, RIMM, Samsung, and Sony. I am betting Nokia will sell their hardware unit and Motorola cellphone spin-off will get acquired. This leaves 5 manufacturers with 4 operating systems (Symbian, Windows, Apple, and Android) - I bet Windows loses share and will follow the same strategy a PlaysForSure/Zune in the phone market.

Want to take the bet, Monkey boy?

This just in: Verizon is preparing Blackberry Storm demos for the stores. We are working to confirm this tip, but according to the tip, it appears starting next week, Verizon stores will have Blackberry Storm on hand for users to play with. At that time, users will also be able to place pre-orders with delivery beginning in November. While no dates were confirmed, the tipster thinks that the November 7th date mentioned earlier might be spot on. This also jibes with the October 9th press event by RIM, Verizon Wireless and Vodafone.

Slide 1: Preparing for Successful Content Management STC’s 55th Annual Conference June 3rd 2008, Philadelphia, PA Rob Hanna Knowledge Management Specialist Research in Motion Limited

Slide 2: Why do we need to prepare? • Nature of communication is changing • Corporations face a content crisis – In 2002 alone, 92% of all new content was online representing close to 5 exabytes of date (or 37,000 times the size of the Library of Congress) – Berkley Study • Business requirements regularly change – Companies are acquired – Customer needs change • Managing content is essential to single-sourcing best practices

Slide 3: Dispelling myths about Content Management • A Content Management system is a magic-bullet – There may be other ways to get there • Content Management should be easy – Content Management is efficient – it isn’t easy • Content Management is all about reuse – Reuse is one small benefit of CM • If we stick with what we know, we’ll be fine – “There are things we do not know we don’t know.” • We can save money by building it ourselves – Build now but buy later

Slide 4: Situations and risks • What do you do when? – Your group inherits technology and is expected to make it work for their needs; – Demand for a quick fix forces you to cut corners; – There is a lack of understanding of what is involved in adopting content management; – Restrictive budgets force you to short cut the consulting budget to preserve the procurement budget; or – Inadequate or incomplete information leads to rush in judgement?

Slide 5: Situations and risks • You may well face – Project delays – Cost overruns – Failed implementations – Loss of continued/future support for CM – Failure to ever get the software out of the shrink wrap

Slide 6: Componentized Content Management • Content is complex • Content source is managed like software source • Follow principles of configuration management – Configuration identification – Configuration change control (or change management) – Configuration status accounting – Configuration verification and auditing

Slide 7: The ideal path to success 1. Prepare your team 2. Prepare your content 3. Prepare your prototype 4. Prepare your business case 5. Prepare for vendor selection 6. Prepare for vendor engagement 7. Develop solution 8. Roll out 9. Review

Slide 8: 1) Prepare your team • You will need to develop or acquire new talents • Your team will be required to function as a team • Some will get left behind

Slide 9: Anticipate losses • There is a predictable level of attrition to be associated with any of the following transitions: – linear to modular architecture (regardless of tools) 5-10% – unstructured info to structured info (any DTD) ... 5-10% – manuals to help systems (online info systems) ... 5-10% • Larger teams have more flexibility to move people around

Slide 10: Assess the mix of skills and experience • A mix of talents is a good thing • Range of experience in content management practices – Technical writers – Technical writing leads – Infrastructure support – Project manager – Information architects – Indexer/Taxonomist – Editors • Assign a lead architect to manage the development

Slide 11: Assess the maturity of your business unit • Set your own expectations for success • Several models exist to measure the process maturity of your information development – CIDM: IPMM (Information Process Maturity Model) – Stilo Int’l: CEMM (Content Engineering Maturity Model)

Slide 12: Learn together • Build important collaborative skills • Engage all members of your team • Find the leaders within your team • Regularly attend conferences, workshops, and webinars

Slide 13: Build relationships with your SMEs • If you are not already embedded in your production processes, get started making in roads into development • Your SMEs will be effected by your CM initiative • SME content is a rich source of content for your solution

Slide 14: 2) Prepare your content • Walk through the various aspects of your content 1. Take a complete inventory of all living content 2. Examine naming conventions and version/state conventions 3. Complete metadata analysis 4. Describe the document lifecycle(s) 5. Examine how content is sourced 6. Examine how content is consumed 7. Examine your content • Do you need to move to topic-based writing? • How and when will legacy content be converted?

Slide 15: What is Topic-Based Authoring? “Topic-based authoring is a modular content creation approach…” “A topic is a discrete piece of content that is about a specific subject, has an identifiable purpose, and can stand alone…” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topic-based_authoring

Slide 16: Opportunities for Topic-Based Authoring • Speed to market • Reduced maintenance effort • Better opportunities for reuse • Balancing workload • Finer control over project management • Opportunities for collaboration • Clearer, more concise minimalist content

Slide 17: Challenges for Topic-Based Authoring • Writing process requires greater discipline • Loss of content ownership for authors • Less control over look and feel • Responsibilities redefined • Loss of context for SMEs and authors • More to manage

Slide 18: Topic-Based vs. Book-Based Topic-Based Authoring Book-Based Authoring • Multiple authors per book • One author per book • Topics serve multiple • Books serve a single products and audiences product and audience • Content development is • Content development is iterative linear • Presentation layout can be • Presentation layout template-driven requires manual work • Well suited for modular • Well suited for highly hardware/software technical or one-of-a-kind products with short lifecycle products with a long or long life span. development cycle and/or short life span.

Slide 19: Topic-Based Authoring - Changing how we work • The number of files your team will be working with will increase dramatically. • Over time it will be more difficult to identify and track these files • You may be required to track successive versions of files • To manage your files effectively, you will need to introduce and manage metadata

Slide 20: 3) Prepare your prototype • Select a suitable pilot • Start with tools you already have: – Email applications – Structured authoring editors – Web servers – Spreadsheets and databases – Code management tools • Develop requirements for CMS – Remember that this is only a proof-of-concept

Slide 21: Prototyping with a File System • Controlled access to central repository folders • Consider serving source content through a web server – revisions managed manually through a single point of contact • Serve metadata and access through a database- driven website (SharePoint).

Slide 22: Using Excel to Manage Metadata • Excel allows you to capture and manage metadata about each topic in the repository • Advanced Excel development will allow you to control transactions in the repository and metadata creation • Excel can be used to organize and aggregate content stored in the repository • Excel can be used as a source for database-driven web interface

Slide 23: Using a Source Code-Management Tool • Source-code management tools allow you to manage revisions and releases of content • Working with XML, you can use these tools to show differences between revisions

Slide 24: 4) Prepare your business case • Define the problem(s) CM will solve for your company • Engage your IT department • Establish methods for collection of metrics • Find a champion • Engage outside help to bring your case to the highest levels of your company • Set realistic expectations

Slide 25: 5) Prepare for vendor selection • Have your requirements well defined • Do your homework • Talk to the user community • Invest the time to prepare a focused RFP

Slide 26: 6) Prepare for vendor engagement • Get your IT group on board early • Identify your project team and get their commitments. • Know your security policies • Line up procurement and training for authoring and publishing tools • Book training facilities and commit trainees • Review demos, whitepapers, and tutorials • Sign off on project plan • Clear your schedule

Slide 27: 7) Develop solution • Be careful about including too many customizations • Focus on available functionality • Understand the product roadmap • Coordinate all of your service providers

Slide 28: 8) Roll out • Limit the roll out to the most suitable products or teams • Set criteria for other groups to join in on production

Slide 29: 9) Review • Develop an annual or semi-annual review to compare benchmark data and look for ways to improve • Stay on top of vendor technology • Work with the vendor to deliver optimal performance on your systems

Slide 30: Summary • Prepare • Prepare now • Set reasonable expectations • Critically assess the preparedness of your team and your business • Continuously gather and analyze metrics • Continuously evolve your process and approach to CM • Preparation never ends

Slide 31: Top Ten Secrets of Content Solution Success Courtesy of Joe Gollner © 2008 All Rights Reservied 1. Don’t underestimate your content or your business 2. Don’t underestimate the power of good automation 3. Chose an appropriate tool set and validate your choices 4. Don’t invest in content management technology too early 5. Carefully plan and execute migration activities 6. Take a “customer service” focus in delivering tangible benefits (new products / services) from your investments 7. Be demanding of your suppliers (expect quality) 8. Engage your stakeholders and “take control” of the solution 9. Leverage standards, don’t be enslaved by them 10. Be an active part of the community as a way to learn and as a way to share what you have learned

Slide 32: Content Management at RIM • 2005 BlackBerry device documents 5 formats 11 languages 13 conditions 15 classes 20 variables

Slide 33: Co nte nt Manag e me nt S ys te m pro je c t - Be fo re

Slide 34: Co nte nt Manag e me nt S ys te m pro je c t - Afte r

Slide 35: Ge tting c o nte nt into the CMS • Emphasis on manual analysis and conversion • Goals of manual process include – Increased understanding and adoption of new writing style – Opportunities for early corrections – Continued sense of ownership of content – Improved legacy content – Reduction of redundant or unnecessary content in CMS

Slide 36: Re s ults • 60-75 percent translation cost savings • Reduced translation time • Improved document customization • Process integration and automation

Slide 37: Questions? • Contact – Rob Hanna Knowledge Management Specialist rhanna@rim.com • Presentation Slides • Preparing for Successful Content Management http://www.slideshare.net/rhanna/preparing-for-successful-content-m • Process Re-engineering for Topic-Based Authoring http://www.slideshare.net/rhanna/process-reengineering-for-topic-ba