BlackBerry recently announced the arrival of a brand new operating system and design set to compete with Apple’s iPhone 5 and Samsung’s Galaxy S series. The Blackberry Z10 comes with 16 GB of internal storage that can be expanded upon, a 4.2 inch touch display making the Z10 the only phone on the market competing directly in terms of size with the iPhone 5, and an 8 megapixel camera, which is fairly standard for smart phones today.

The device also comes with a default 4G LTE system. The specifications of the newest Blackberry come off as standard for smart phones and are superior to the iPhone in certain places. The Z10 competes with the iPhone’s RAM of which the iPhone 5 lacks 1GB compared to the Z10’s 2GB. The Z10’s front facing camera also is superior with one more megapixel than the iPhone 5’s camera.

On the topic of what Blackberry would need to do in order to assure success and relevance in the current smart phone market, Chair of the Computer Information System program, Dr. Darren Hayes said, “The major key to success [for BlackBerry] is to create a good third party market place for applications.”

Blackberry’s newest operating system, has been able to acquire a deal with popular social media app Instagram to have a ported version for their device.

Professor Hayes said, “Instagram cannot be the only big app, I’ve heard the device comes preloaded with Angry Birds, Star Wars and that is good but there needs to be an exclusive app for the device to make people really take interest in it”.

The new operating system is touting a redone social feed system that is preinstalled into the device and this is meant to be another big selling point for the device, a larger focus for the Z10 during the hype before the devices release is the inclusion of these social networking hubs and apps.

“By apps I mean that as a broad term, not just games but social media applications that work and people like are key to success. BBM and their first party built in applications will not give them the edge over apple and android,” said Dr. Hayes.

The Blackberry Z10 is a major device for BlackBerry and the push of a new operating system is one of the last hopes for BlackBerry to stay relevant in this time ruled by the iPhone and Samsung Galaxy devices, if BlackBerry wants to survive and not end up like another former leader in the cell phone market Palm whose new mobile devices have failed and cause the company to go bankrupt. A strong third party support as Dr. Hayes has said, will be vital to their survival.