BlackBerry 10 to feature deep integration of Evernote
Developer documentation for RIM's upcoming operating system shows signs of deep integration with the online notes service. — It appears that BlackBerry 10 — Research in Motion's next operating system — will support deep integration of the online notes service Evernote.
Context & Ripple Effects
RIM has staked everything on the first-quarter 2013 launch of BlackBerry 10 — the company confirmed in October that the phones remain on track and said last month that most of its energy is going into that launch. Developer documentation now suggests, though this is still unconfirmed by either side, that the new OS will deeply integrate Evernote, giving RIM's productivity-focused brand a marquee third-party service at the system level.
The timing lines up with Evernote's own push to be everywhere users work: the company raised $85 million led by London's AGC Equity at the end of November 2012, crossed 45 million users, redesigned its iPhone and iPad apps, and has spent two years broadening beyond notes through moves like the Penultimate acquisition for handwriting recognition and its stated ambition, laid out in a July TechCrunch interview, to be the automatic, trusted place to store your life. A carrier-grade slot inside a major smartphone OS is exactly the kind of distribution that ambition points toward.
First-order effects
- Evernote gains system-level distribution on a fourth major mobile platform at launch, putting its notes service in front of every BlackBerry 10 buyer without requiring an app-store download decision.
- RIM gets a credible productivity differentiator for a launch where it confirmed all attention is on BlackBerry 10 — useful ammunition against iOS and Android's mature app ecosystems.
Second-order effects
- Other note-taking and capture apps competing on BlackBerry 10 face a platform-favored incumbent, pushing them toward deeper carrier or OEM deals elsewhere rather than organic downloads alone.
- If the integration performs, Evernote's playbook of OS-embedding strengthens its hand with other handset makers — and raises the price rivals like Microsoft would pay to keep OneNote similarly positioned.
Third-order effects
- Mobile operating systems are shifting from competing on bundled apps to competing on which cloud services they bake in at launch — a pattern that makes cross-platform services like Evernote strategic assets rather than mere store listings.
- For a struggling platform like BlackBerry, deep third-party integrations become a substitute for ecosystem scale: if you cannot match the rival app catalog, you differentiate on how natively your OS weaves in services users already trust.
The trend: Smartphone platforms are increasingly differentiated by which cloud services they integrate at the OS level, turning trusted cross-platform services into launch-critical partners.