For years, the iPhone has carried a small etching on the back that says ‘Designed by Apple in California. Assembled in China.’

It’s fueled the stereotype that China is the world’s factory, but hasn’t had a flexible enough education system to produce R&D talent that can also design world-class products for a global audience.

But that’s a stereotype that isn’t exactly true anymore.

A small group of companies — both small, bootstrapped app startups and multi-billion dollar giants like Tencent — are showing that they can design apps or higher-end hardware with international appeal.

Tencent, one of the country’s gargantuan Internet powers with a market cap of $72 billion dollars, often likes to point out the international reach of its messaging app Weixin or WeChat. That app has blossomed to more than 190 million monthly active users over the past year and with about 40 million of registered users outside of China.

“I’m very glad to see the internationalization of Tencent,” said the company’s CEO Pony Ma this month at the GMIC conference in Beijing. He later added, “The manufacturing sector in China went globalized and the service industry can be internationalized as well…. It’s difficult, but if we can make it, it would be a revolution.”

Interestingly enough, WeChat’s growth abroad is being fueled by the Chinese diaspora — immigrants are taking WeChat with them to stay in touch with their families back home, according to app-tracking services like Onavo. They base this hypothesis on the correlation of WeChat active usage with that of other Chinese-language apps.

Younger Chinese startups are also building internationally as well. I met a Shanghai-based startup called Intsig two weeks ago that has a business card scanning app called Camcard with 50 million registered users and 10 million monthly actives, with half of them outside of China.

“A lot of people are surprised when they find out we’re a Chinese company,” said Louisa Cao, who heads marketing for the company. It helps that exchanging business cards is much more ritualized and formal in China and Japan than it is in the West, so that gives startups in Asia a competitive edge on understanding what consumers want in a product in this area. Similarly, messaging apps out of Asia like Line, Kakao and WeChat are leading the way, with Western startups like Path arguably borrowing some of their strategies like stickers.

Blux, another company out of Xian, the second-tier Chinese city that’s home to the famous army of Terra Cotta warriors, has built a higher-end photo app called Blux Camera that’s been featured by Apple more than 100 times on the iTunes homepage for global audiences. As the cost advantages that China has over Western markets narrows, the co-founder Jo Yin told me that it now can make economic sense to run global market-facing startups outside of the traditional hubs of Beijing and Shanghai (as they’ve become too expensive).

One of the reasons that all of these startups can built products for foreign audiences is because they’ve been trained either at Western universities or through working for multi-nationals. Some are run by “sea turtles” or Chinese who have returned home after years of working or studying abroad. Intsig’s CEO Michael Zhen spent years at Motorola where he picked up ideas on how to manage teams and think globally.

It’s also helped that the Chinese government has gone far in protecting and nurturing domestic technology companies and startups, a trend which continues with the government’s recent investment into a GPS alternative called Beidou and an Ubuntu-based OS that would help Chinese firms move off Western software platforms. Now that companies like Tencent have reached a certain prowess in domestic markets, they can look outwards.

To be fair, achieving global reach is something only a small fraction of local Chinese startups can do. It requires an international fluency; founders have to understand what kind of design and marketing attracts foreigners. Chinese web services can seem noisy and busy; they can be filled with more links and text as Mandarin characters are complicated to create on QWERTY keyboards.

There are even a few U.S. growth-stage companies that haven’t been dissuaded by Google’s very public about-face on the Chinese market and are hiring design and developer talent locally. Evernote recently launched a China-focused version of its enterprise service and they very intentionally took on local hires to develop product.

“It’s easy to sell your products everywhere. But when we say we want to be a global company, it’s because we want to make our products everywhere,” said Evernote CEO Phil Libin, when he launched Evernote for Business locally in China.

He went on to say that China’s copycat reputation is unfair.

“Chinese companies don’t have a good reputation for innovation in the West. The reputation that Chinese companies have is that they don’t really innovate. They just copy and I don’t think this reputation is right. It’s not a problem that Chinese companies copy. It’s that everyone copies. Chinese companies don’t just copy. They copy and improve. Copy and improve is what everyone does everywhere. That’s what Apple does. That’s what Microsoft does. That’s what Facebook does. Very few companies start with a first-of-a-kind idea.”

Indeed, probably the most interesting company to watch as it expands globally is Xiaomi, which did just that. They took Android and improved upon it.

They’re probably the best example of how China is moving up the value-chain from low-cost manufacturing into high-end design.

Just three years afters being founded, the company is on track to do $4.5 billion in handset and accessory sales. Some have made the metaphor that Xiaomi is the “Apple of Android” in that it’s an integrated hardware and software maker that has built its own special skin of Android and sells high-end hardware at or around the cost of materials. They compete head-to-head against Samsung in mainland China, and according to third-party mobile app analytic services like Umeng, they’re in second place.

Although Xiaomi will only publicly talk about its plans to sell handsets in Hong Kong and Taiwan, a source close to the company says it’s been on the lookout for a general manager that could bring their Android skin, the MIUI, to North American audiences.

They’ve been able to develop a rabid fan base locally in China because they allow people to participate in the designing of the phone by requesting features. Internally, they have small teams of engineers, product managers and designers that work alongside each other on a very fast cycle. They release a new version of the MIUI every week.  

But they don’t know if the model will translate abroad yet. Chinese consumers are very comfortable with paying for the full-cost of the phones upfront and buying devices online instead of through brick-and-mortar stores.

“We don’t know how developed regions like Taiwan and Hong Kong will accept products like Xiaomi,” said co-founder Lin Bin in an interview. “Greater China is just one step beyond mainland China.”

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Google’s big annual developer conference kicks off on Wednesday, and while Android lead Sundar Pichai has downplayed big new announcements at Google I/O this year, we’ve also seen reports that suggest the Nexus line of Google-branded hardware won’t go completely untouched.

Nexus Phones

The rumors suggest that we won’t see a brand new Nexus phone at Google I/O this year, but what we could see instead is a mid-cycle upgrade for the Nexus 4. In fact, the existing version seems tailor-made for a couple quick internal hardware upgrades to inject some fresh life into sales and activate some new buzz around the product, which by most accounts has been selling fairly well, especially when compared to previous Nexus flagship phones.

What we’ve heard indicates that the Google Nexus 4 will appear at I/O boasting a 32GB internal memory upgrade, along with built-in LTE support. There’s an LTE-capable wireless radio built into the current Nexus 4, but it lacks a proper signal amplifier and as such remains officially disabled. Nearer the Nexus 4′s launch, you could activate it with a backdoor hack, but Google quickly shut that down.

Both these spec bumps would be easy enough to accomplish, and are both considered the most noteworthy obvious flaws on an otherwise very impressive device. And a new spy shot making the rounds today backs up earlier claims we might see a white version of the Nexus 4, which so far only ships in black, which could be another factor in convincing new buyers to take the plunge.

It’s not clear how exactly Motorola’s devices will fit into the Nexus line, but it’s also worth mentioning that a new device labeled the “Motorola XT1058″ has just been spotted making its way through the FCC, which suggests it might arrive very soon. What precious little info the filing contains suggests that this could be the fabled XFON we’ve been hearing Motorola is working on for Google, and it could theoretically make an I/O appearance, but this could also be yet another smartphone already on Motorola’s roadmap pre-acquisition, and there’s no guarantee we’ll see it at the show either way.

Nexus Tablets

There’s less buzz around new Nexus tablet hardware making an appearance at I/O, but there are some indications we could see some upgrades there, too. KGI Securities analyst Mingchi Kuo says there’s a brand new Nexus 7 coming, with a high-res, 1920

While there’s a perennial debate on the West Coast about whether and when business cards might become irrelevant, they continue to be at the center of business customs in China and Japan.

It’s just basic etiquette when meeting a new contact to offer your card with two hands and a slight bow.

That’s why it’s natural that a Chinese company — not an American one — might be able to dominate this market and behavior globally. LinkedIn’s Cardmunch had scanned 2 million business cards a year after their 2011 acquisition, and hasn’t released stats since.

But Shanghai’s CamCard boasts 10 million monthly active users, with 50 million registered in total. About half of them are outside of China.

The company is part of a new wave of Chinese startups that are either run by very internationalized Chinese founders or foreigners that are able to build and design consumer products and apps with global appeal.

Intsig, the company behind CamCard, originally launched the app back in 2009 and has quietly grown it since.

They use a freemium model that caters to both consumers and enterprises. On the consumer side, there’s a free version of the app. And then there’s a paid version, which costs about $2.99 in the West or $11.99 in Asia. It feels like price discrimination but Intsig justifies it by saying it’s more technically different to do optical character recognition for Chinese and Japanese and because Asian consumers may be willing to pay more for a business card service.

The paid version has a cloud syncing service that lets people save cards across all of their different devices.

On the enterprise side, companies pay for extra security features to make sure their client and business partner lists stay safe. In China, the vast majority of smartphones are Android devices and Chinese consumers are much more concerned about getting viruses.

As for the parent company itself, Intsig has raised roughly $10 million from investors including Matrix Partners in China and other local investors. The company’s CEO Michael Zhen had a long career at Motorola, where he says he picked up the skills and ideas necessary to start his own company.

I’ve seen one other regional competitor, Japan’s Sansan. They’re an older rival that is transitioning to a smartphone-centric world through a card-scanning app called Eight. Before that, they were actually leasing scanners to local Japanese businesses.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Here’s a little noodle-scratcher for you fellow mobile hardware nerds to ponder this evening. This little Motorola Mobility beauty, brandishing the model number XT1058, recently passed through the FCC and left the customary paper trail in its wake.

Alright, maybe calling it a beauty is a bit of a stretch, but here’s the kicker: the rudimentary sketch included with the listing looks bears a striking resemblance to a slew of earlier leaked images that purportedly showed off Motorola’s secretive X Phone.

Consider the alignment of those three circular elements on the back — those bits match up rather nicely with the camera, LED flash, and Motorola logo/button as seen in images of an unreleased smarpthone originally circulated by the team at Tinhte.vn. Even the seemingly curved section along the top edge where the device’s headphone jack lives and the placement of what appears to be the sleep/wake button are spot on when compared to those leaked photos.

Having a hard time visualizing all that? Here’s a side by side view to give you a sense of the similarities:

Of course, this doesn’t bring us any closer to figuring out what the device is actually capable of — all the FCC’s listing reveals is that this thing sports radios for Bluetooth 4.0, 802.11ac and NFC. It could be that this is the first regulatory appearance of the so-called XFON, a device that noted gadget leaker @EvLeaks posted photos of earlier this month. After all, the XT1058 has been found to support AT&T’s particular LTE bands, and the XFON’s IMEI label clearly calls it out as an AT&T device.

At this point no one (save for the lucky chump who snapped those photos in the first place) can definitively say whether or not the XFON and this curious AT&T device are the same, but it’s distinctly possible. There are a few cosmetic similarities between the two — namely the Motorola logo stamped on the top left corner, the shape of the speaker grille, and the placement of the indicator LED and the front-facing camera. Don’t pay too much attention to the chunky chassis though, as it’s not uncommon for non-final hardware to undergo testing clad in patently ugly shells. You may recall that BlackBerry’s Dev Alpha and Beta devices lived in similarly unflattering boxes before the innards were officially unveiled at a series of simultaneous launch events back in January.

For all of the things that Google is expected to show off next week at its annual I/O developer conference (the refreshed Nexus 7, a unified chat system, redesigned Google Maps, etc.), a brand new smartphone wasn’t expected to be one of them. Of course, that doesn’t mean that the X Phone (or XFON, whatever) won’t make an appearance in San Francisco, but there has been a distinct lack of chatter that leads me to think that such a smartphone isn’t on the agenda. After all, Google’s been downright lousy at keeping things under wraps lately.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Nokia has given its Series 40-based range of touchscreen Asha smartphones another push to try to keep up with the low end reach of Google’s Android platform today. The mobile maker has announced a new addition to the range — the Asha 501 (pictured left & below) — which also ushers in a new version of the Asha touch UI that’s designed to be quicker and slicker, and has a focus on swiping gestures to make it feel more fluid.

The three-inch capacitive screen Asha 501, which has Wi-Fi but no 3G and costs $99 before taxes & subsidies, is expected to start shipping in June, via some 60 carriers in more than 90 countries worldwide. Nokia’s Asha range typically targets emerging markets in Africa, Asia and South America but Asha devices have also been ranged in Europe.

Although Nokia has retired its other in-house platform Symbian, to concentrate its smartphone efforts on Microsoft’s Windows Phone OS, it has continued to expand its portfolio of low end Android alternative S40-based devices — adding in a variety of new hardware and software features to devices in the range, including full Qwerty keyboards; dedicated keys for Facebook/WhatsApp; refreshed industrial design; its Bluetooth sharing technology Slam; its Xpress browser to lighten the data consumption load; preloaded social networking apps; free games downloads; and a focus on long battery life.

But keeping up with low end Androids also means improving Asha’s usability — and that’s what its latest platform refresh is all about.  The Asha 501 is in fact the first fruit of Nokia’s 2012 acquisition of Smarterphone, a Norwegian company that made mobile OSes for feature phones designed to give them smartphone looks and capabilities.

Nokia said the new Asha platform is faster and more responsive. It also introduces a touchscreen UI refresh — with a dual homescreen view: the Home screen is a “traditional icon-based view for launching individual apps or accessing a specific feature”, while the new Fastlane view changes based on device usage, showing things like “recently accessed contacts, social networks and apps”.

Fastlane “provides a record of how the phone is used, giving people a glimpse of their past, present and future activity, and helping them multi-task by providing easy access to their favorite features”, according to Nokia’s press release. The feature sounds a lot like certain portions of Motorola’s Android skinning software — such as the widgets deployed on 2012 devices like the Motorola Motosmart.

The overall idea of the design refresh is to make it easier for Asha users to get to the apps and features they’re after, according to Nokia – with the two main screens accessible by a “simple swipe”. ”Fastlane is integral to the whole Nokia Asha 501 experience, but so is the ‘swipe’ motion,” a spokeswoman told TechCrunch. “With swipe as you experience it on the device, we were able to make optimal use of screen space, so you see just what you need. You swipe to everything else, including pull-down menus and of course, Fastlane. The whole user experience is faster and more responsive.”

New Asha, New Apps

So what about apps? The new Asha platform does require developers to rework apps for it — either by writing them afresh or porting them over. Which does mean Nokia is pushing the reset button yet again, but the company would probably argue that at this price point with these price-conscious consumers, users aren’t expecting hoards of apps — just select key apps. It’s also added in-app purchases to the new Asha platform, offering developers a new way to monetise Asha apps, along with its Nokia Advertising Exchange and carrier billing network.

“A good percentage of existing apps can be ported to the new platform,” said Nokia’s spokeswoman. “We already have many developers working on this. Going forward and with the new Nokia Asha Software Development Kit, developers can write an app once, and it will be compatible with future devices also built on the new Asha platform, with no need to re-write code.”

Apps that are already available for the new Nokia Asha platform include CNN, eBuddy, ESPN, Facebook, Foursquare, Line, LinkedIn, Nimbuzz, Pictelligent, The Weather Channel, Twitter, WeChat, World of Red Bull and games from Electronic Arts, Gameloft, Indiagames, Namco Bandai and Reliance Games. Nokia said its HERE location software will also be available as a download, starting in Q3 this year — and will “initially include basic mapping services”.

Messaging giant WhatsApp is noticeably absent from the list but Nokia’s spokeswoman suggested that may change in future, noting: “WhatsApp and other key partners continue to explore new Asha.”

In select markets, certain carriers are also offering data-free access to apps including the Facebook app and mobile website on the 501 for a limited time, offering another hook for the target cost-conscious consumers.

The 501 comes preloaded with Nokia’s cloud-based data compressing Xpress browser. Nokia has also created a new web app, called Nokia Xpress Now, which ”recommends content based on location, preferences and trending topics”. It said this will be available via the Browser homepage or as a download from the Nokia Store.

“Nokia has surpassed expectations of what’s achievable in the sub-100 USD phone category with a new Asha handset that is unlike any other, with design cues from Lumia and a mix of features, services and affordability that is valued by price-conscious buyers,” said Neil Mawston, executive director, Global Wireless Practice, Strategy Analytics, in a supporting statement.

Commenting on the launch via Twitter, Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi added: “Asha 501 shows what you can achieve when you design bottom up rather than strip down features to hit the right price point.

“Asha 501 Dual SIM with hot swap very important to users but what is most striking on this device is the user interface.”

The full device specifications for the Asha 501 are as follows:

• Dimensions:  99.2 x 58 x 12.1 mm; 98 grams

• Camera: 3.2 MP

• Single SIM standby time: up to 48 days

• Dual SIM standby time: up to 26 days

• Talk time: up to 17 hours

• Additional memory of 4GB (card included in box), expandable up to 32GB

• Forty free EA Games worth €75 downloadable from Nokia Store

• Available colours: Bright Red, Bright Green, Cyan, Yellow, White and Black

• Suggested pricing is 99 USD before taxes and subsidies.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Samsung is working on a dust-proof and water-proof Galaxy S4, which will essentially resemble the S4 but with environmental superpowers, says the Wall Street Journal. The paper also reported that Samsung is launching its next-generation Galaxy tablet in June, as well as a compact S4 at “just” 4.3-inches in size (this still seems large to me, but maybe I’m just old). Samsung has always been keen on capitalizing on flagship branding by diversifying its line with a variety of offshoot devices, so the news should come as no surprise.

The ruggedized S4 will take the flagship phone in a brand new direction, however, and one that might actually cut off a key competitor at the knees – Google’s own Motorola. Google CEO Larry Page and Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt have referenced Motorola’s upcoming hardware work, referring to how phones should not break when dropped, or die when submerged in water, suggesting that one of the key features of any Android hardware coming out of Motorola once its existing pre-Google product timeline runs out will be somewhat rugged, too.

Samsung and Google have a complex relationship, and much has been made about how the Korean smartphone OEM might make Google a little nervous, given how much control it has over the Android smartphone market. It’s a theory that Google itself has repeatedly and roundly denied, but Samsung recently went out of its way to highlight its own software and pretty much leave out any discussion of Android itself.

The Wall Street Journal also notes that a rugged version of the Galaxy S4 will help Samsung attract lucrative military and government contracts, something the OEM is trying to accomplish in order to steal share from Apple and BlackBerry. That would definitely be an advantage, but there’s also just a general trend towards building more rugged devices, thanks to smartphones like the Sony Xperia Z. Startups like Liquipel and HzO are also trying to make water-resistant consumer electronics common-place, both before- and after-market. At this point, it’s just a matter of who can do it first.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Google felt it appropriate to highlight some of Glass’ specs earlier this week, but there’s much more to the company’s wearable display than just the 5 megapixel camera and its 16GB of internal storage. In case you were hankering for a taste of what else makes Google Glass tick, Android developer (and Glass Explorer) Jay Lee spent some time tinkering with his preview unit and managed to figure out what kind of hardware it has under the hood.

Lee managed to confirm that Glass runs Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich (CEO Larry Page noted during Google’s most recent earnings call that Glass “obviously” runs on Android), and also determined that it has a Texas Instruments OMAP 4430 chipset. In case you haven’t been keeping abreast of developments in the mobile chipset market, the OMAP 4430 was used in devices like the original Motorola Droid RAZR and Samsung’s 7-inch Galaxy Tab 2.0 — solid devices during their prime, but the chipset that powered them is far from new.

Sadly, some of the particulars are still shrouded in mystery — Lee wasn’t able to figure out the processor’s clock speed (the 4430 CPU can be clocked between 1 and 1.2 GHz), and the device only reports that it has 682MB of RAM, but Lee suspects the total is actually 1GB. Still, that’s not too shabby a spec sheet for a device that essentially lives on your face, and some recent reports reveal that the ambitious headset may be surprisingly too simple to root to. Liam McLoughin, an intern for Google’s Chrome team, recently tweeted to note that gaining root access to the search giant’s curious head-mounted display seemed simple in theory, a development that prompted Lee to go digging in the first place.

Meanwhile, Cydia founder and administrator Jay Freeman revealed on Twitter that he too had made progress in gaining access to the device, and even posted a picture to show off how far he’d managed to go. At this point we’ve already seen some companies embrace the Glass platform (Path and the New York Times immediately spring to mind) and others like Evernote are known to be crafting experiences for Glass, but some moderately powerful hardware and seemingly easy rootability could make Glass an even bigger hit for Android tinkerers.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Google last two earnings releases were made even more notable than usual because of the unexpected events that preceded them, but today’s release of the company’s fiscal Q1 2013 financials was as almost as straightforward as it used to be.

For this past quarter, the search giant reported revenues of $14 billion (that’s up 31% from Q1 2012), non-GAAP earnings of $11.58 per share, and net income of $3.35 billion.

That means that this quarter, while mostly strong, was a mixed bag in terms of beating expectations. According to the slew of analysts polled by Bloomberg Businessweek, Google was expected to report earnings of $10.70 per share on $14.3 billion in revenues — Google handily came out ahead on earnings, but didn’t quite meet the Street’s revenue forecasts.

In the days and hours leading up to the earnings release, many a pundit implored shareholders to keep tabs on Google’s cost-per-click (simply put, the amount advertisers shell out every time a Google user clicks on an ad), with some noting that one metric would determine whether or not Google’s stock price would rebound from a week that saw its share of dips. Last time Google released its earnings, it pointed out a 6% year-over-year dip in its average cost-per-click — this time though, Google reported that average CPC dipped 4% from its position both in the year-ago quarter and back in Q4 2012. That’s not to say it’s all bad news on the ad front, as Google’s paid clicks grew some 20% year-over-year, or 3% over the last quarter.

Meanwhile, there hasn’t been much additional light shed on the Motorola Mobility which Google moved to acquire for $12.5 billion in August 2012. Back in Q4 the pricey hardware company generated $1.51 billion in revenue (accounting for about 11% of Google’s consolidated revenues), and that number has sunk from there. This time, Motorola Mobility only managed to rake in $1.02 billion in revenue, though that isn’t much of a surprise considering that it’s mobile phone output has been noticeably low these past few months.

That said, Google executive chairman did we he could to cheerlead for Motorola earlier this week when he revealed at the D: Dive Into Mobile conference that its next line of phones were “phenomenal.” Surely a little more detail wouldn’t have hurt (especially ahead of earnings time), but for now Google and Motorola’s hardware plans remain shrouded in secrecy. CFO Patrick Pichette noted in the last earnings call that Motorola Mobility still has 12 to 18 months of products in the pipeline that need to be worked through, though that revelation has done little to dampen rumors of an incoming Motorola X Phone.

As always, Google’s brass will weigh in on the company’s quarterly financials during an earnings call that will kick off at 4:30 PM Eastern/1:30 PM Pacific. Here’s hoping that everyone is feeling chatty, as this release has inspired more than a few questions.

This is a developing story, please refresh for updates.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Another key chapter in Google’s $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola is getting concluded. Today Arris announced that it has received approval from the U.S. Department of Justice for its acquisition of Motorola Home broadband unit from Google — a deal valued at $2.35 billion when it was announced in December 2012 — $2.05 billion in cash and approximately $300 million in newly issues Arris shares. With this, Arris now has all regulatory approvals and will close the transaction on or about April 17, it says.

After the deal closes, Google would have owned about 15.7% of Arris. However, after the Google sale was announced, Comcast also agreed to take a stake in Arris. Arris said the cable company would pay $150 million to take a 7.85% share of the company, and that will reduce Google’s stake to the same amount.

“We share a similar vision and strategy with Arris for the industry’s migration to IP. The combination of our solutions, expert technologists and roadmaps promises to transform how service providers deliver the smart, simple connected home to consumers throughout the world,” said Marwan Fawaz, executive vice president of Motorola Mobility who leads Motorola Home, at the time of the announcement in December.

The deal is a further sharpening of Google’s Motorla assets as a mobile-only play, transferring some 7,000 employees over to Arris in the process. It also takes off of the search giant’s hands a rather large patent suit, brought by TiVo.

That case sought damages in the “billions of dollars” over patent violations, while Motorola was also counterclaiming that TiVo was violating patents of Morotola’s.

When Arris’ acquisition was announced in December, CEO Bob Stanzione suggested that one of the sweeteners for the purchase of Motorola Home was that Arris’ liability in that case, were TiVo to win it, would be capped.

“It’s not something you have to worry about in terms of the financial impact on Arris,” he said. “Google has taken that risk off the table for Arris.”

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins recently confirmed with CNET that the company would launch a midtier device yet this year and an “exciting” new flagship device could launch around the holidays. “It [the new flagship] takes BlackBerry 10 to another level in terms of the user experience,” he said.

Great! There’s a new BB10 device launching by the end of the year. How’s the Z10 doing, Mr. Heins?

The Z10, the current standard-bearer in BlackBerry’s army, launched in Europe and Canada in early February. Rogers said it was the most successful BlackBerry launch ever. But then, just over a month later, Rogers, along with Bell and Virgin, cut $40 off the Z10′s price, making it just $99 — the same price as the iPhone 5.

The phone just hit AT&T in the States. It launches on Verizon and T-Mobile this week. It’s $199 from all three providers.

But wait. Don’t buy the Z10. Didn’t you hear the CEO? There’s an exciting new one a few months away!

I want to believe in you, BlackBerry. One year ago Friday, I wrote “It’s Time To Believe In RIM And The BlackBerry Again.” People said I was crazy. Gruber filed the post away for claim chowder. But here you are, a year later, the Z10 actually made it to market and it’s a quality device. There are 100,000 apps in BB10′s App World with more additions each week. But you’re killing me, Smalls.

Talk about your current devices, Heins. Keep the focus on the Z10 and not-yet-launched Q10. They’re actually quality handsets and BlackBerry should be very proud.

Upon reading CNET’s article, our Canada-based reporter, Darrell Etherington, said today that his Canadian rage and sadness are all mixed together in a confusing yet delicious soup (I think that means he’s disappointed).

The first rule they teach you in Consumer Electronics 101 is “Don’t talk about a future product until your current device is available.” The Z10 isn’t fully available until tomorrow! The QWERTY-packing Q10 won’t hit U.S. carriers for a couple of months! And you’re already talking about future flagship devices? Settle down and concentrate on the present.

At this point, consumers understand that their cell phones will be outdated within a few months. This is especially true in the Android world where HTC, Samsung and Motorola constantly trump one another. But the accepted churn is slower, more methodical when there’s one only manufacturer involved. Like with Apple.

There is one iPhone a year. When you buy an iPhone on Day One, it’s pretty well accepted that you’ll have the best iPhone for a year. That’s a superficial but valuable feeling and an advantage of the Z10 until this CNET interview.

Now, BlackBerry is asking its remaining fans to not only take a chance on an unproven platform but do so knowing that their device, which they likely purchased with a 2- or 3-year contract, will likely be outdated by the end of the year.

And while we’re on the subject of doing things wrong, this Forbes report, the one about full screen takeovers, better not be accurate. You’re not going to renew any friendships by annoying people with full-screen adverts. You’re going to piss people off.

The BlackBerry of 2013 is very different from the Research in Motion of 2012. There’s life in the system. BlackBerry feels like a scrappy, young fighter instead of a former champion now overweight and out-of-shape. Research in Motion is dead and the young, and seemingly inexperienced BlackBerry has taken its place. I still believe the company can recover and find some level of success. But only if they throw all their weight behind the Z10 and stay quiet about future devices.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch