Instead, BlackBerry, which stars Jay Baruchel as RIM co-founder Mike Lazaridis and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia‘s Glenn Howerton as co-CEO Jim Balsillie, focuses on the origins of RIM to explore how the iconoclastic Blackberry phone, with its physical keyboards, became a status symbol of the early-2000s among top business people and politicians, only to see its Waterloo, Ontario-based creator face fatal execution issues just as Apple’s Steve Jobs launched the first-generation iPhone.

“We show the entire culture of the company as news of the iPhone breaks, and what happens in the months after that, but we don’t go into the moment when stockholders realize that they are going to zero and this company is going to be destroyed,” Johnson explains about his narrative focus in BlackBerry.

That’s because mutual pride shown by Lazaradis and Balsalli typical of Greek tragedies allowed Johnson to foretell the company’s eventual collapse by underscoring the Canadian start-up company’s fatal flaw: character traits in the company founders that helped them succeed, but ultimately became a liability.  

“To me, all of the central flaws that led to the destruction of the company were bred in the bone,” Johnson tells THR.

BlackBerry, which was mostly shot in an old turbine plant in Hamilton, Ontario that allowed for extensive use of conference rooms and manufacturing facilities with a late 1990s vibe, reaches its dramatic climax just as Lazaradis and Balsillie are at the top of their game, only to be blindsided as Apple and Samsung swoop in and snap up the global smartphone market they invented out from under their noses.

“They are becoming one of the most valuable companies in the world. And this Blackberry now represents around 50 percent of the global cell phone market,” Johnson recounts in his film as it ends with top RIM execs viewing TV coverage of Apple’s Steve Job famously unveiling his first-generation cell phone.  

In Johnson’s telling, BlackBerry boils down to Lazaradis and Balsallie, not a sophisticated tech play.

Their business philosophy on the way to the top is apparently built into every smartphone sold and used today by consumers prizing self-reliance due to an expanding array of apps and services and not having to depend on others to complete everyday tasks, the director adds.  

“That worldview was something Jim (Balsallie) was passionate about and Mike (Lazaradis) shared… Even looking at an iPhone, you’ll see the same things, the way the world is built into these devices. And we’ll never be rid of them,” Johnson says of the Blackberry and its legacy.

BlackBerry also has director Johnson playing Doug Fregin, RIM’s third founder and as a character in the film serving as a foil to Balsillie.

But as the company was launched into the telecom stratosphere, BlackBerry portrays amid executive suite celebrations top execs fumbling out of sheer stubbornness their market success as they prove far too slow in adapting to new technology – especially new touchscreen devices.

Lazaradis and Balsallie, who eventually got bogged down with personal grievances and questionable business dealings, ominously discounted tech issues and customer complaints for new product launches, until it was too late.

Lazaradis thought it was “absurd,” according to Johnson, to sell a smartphone without a physical keyboard, which is what Apple and Samsung did with their category-killer touch

screen devices. And even when Steve Jobs famously unveiled his iPhone, with real-time GPS, streaming video and music, BlackBerry has Lazaradis seeming to laugh off the competitive threat, with fatal consequences.

“He thinks this guy (Jobs) has no idea how phone carriers work, and he has no idea how this market works,” Johnson explains. Lazaradis and his team of engineers ultimately failed to grasp the surging consumer interest precisely in those smartphone features from Apple and Samsung, which would force phone carriers to rebuild their infrastructures.

Johnson adds he didn’t need to focus on RIM’s fall because the film’s audience will already know where the Canadian company and its iconic Blackberry device ended up – as a bit player in a global smartphone market.

In the film’s final scenes, as Apple’s iPhone is launched, with its touch screen and access to iPod music, Lazardis and Balsallie unveil Storm, their first touchscreen phone. That innovation in real life sparked mounting customer complaints and investors and Wall Street analysts questioning for the first time the company’s future.

Johnson insists Lazaradis had fatally fallen in love with his own product: “When you do that, you become so resistant to feedback, to outside change.” In one scene in BlackBerry, Lazaradis is arguing with the CEO of Verizon, insisting he and RIM had invented the smartphone market. “How dare he assume that Mike (Lazaradis) doesn’t know what he’s talking about. And that’s the definition of pride before the fall,” Johnson says of the hubris that eventually hobbled RIM and its founders.

The BlackBerry director insists the humble origins of corporate titans, how they scramble to the top, is always more interesting than after they reach the summit. “Mostly because that’s when you’re willing to do the impossible. And then when you have success, you get comfortable,” Johnson says.

He insists few movies are made about wealthy kings doing little more than presiding over a kingdom. “There’s no story there. The story is in a desperate situation where you need to do something you probably never had the gumption to do,” he adds.

In the end, BlackBerry, as its launches in Berlin, becomes a cautionary tale for Silicon Valley and the tech sector overall, where failure after creative disruption by rivals is part of the natural order of things.

“You can literally be the best in the world. But if you’re not willing to change, that crown will be taken by somebody younger, every single time,” Johnson insists.

This November will mark 10 years since John Chen was named interim, and then later on the permanent, CEO of BlackBerry (NYSE:BB). At that time, the company's phone business was faltering as larger competitors started to dominate the space, leading to large losses and cash burn. Since then, Chen has stabilized the business, eventually pivoting the company to one based on software and services, but the process has taken much longer than expected and shares have suffered tremendously as a result. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like things will be getting that much better anytime soon.

At the end of December, the company announced fiscal Q3 results for its November 2022 ending period. While the headlines showed top and bottom line beats, this wasn't really a surprise. Management's weak guidance over the past few years usually drives down revenue estimates quite a bit, and the company hasn't missed analyst expectations on the adjusted bottom line in over five years. The non-GAAP bottom line always looks a lot better than the GAAP one, as management adjusts away key expenses like stock-based compensation.

When we look at segment results, the revenue picture was certainly mixed. Cybersecurity, which makes up more than 60% of the business, reported a $22 million year-over-year decrease in revenues, or more than 17%. The IoT business, highlighted by BlackBerry's auto gem QNX, showed an $8 million increase to $51 million, continuing its accurate growth pattern. Like we've seen in many past quarters, licensing revenues of $12 million came in much stronger than expected, which helped drive the $2 million overall beat of Street estimates. Total revenues were down 8% over the prior year period while showing just $1 million of sequential growth from Q2.

While many names in the software and services space are showing massive growth right now, BlackBerry continues to see its overall revenue base decline. As the graphic below shows, Cybersecurity annual recurring revenue ("ARR") dropped another $8 million sequentially in Q3, with its dollar-based net retention rate down another percentage point as well. On the conference call, CEO John Chen stated that they expect a return to ARR growth here in the second half of the next fiscal year. Unfortunately, that's another two-quarter or so delay, because at the previous earnings report the growth return was forecast to be early in fiscal 2024. That means we could see another three quarters or so before results here start to materially improve.

With the Cybersecurity business continuing to struggle, analysts have pushed back their timeline for a return to overall revenue growth. The company is not expected to see a year-over-year increase until the back half of fiscal 2024, with the current Q3 2024 estimate calling for growth of just 0.51%. Since the Q2 earnings report was delivered back in September 2022, the average revenue estimate for the final quarter of the current fiscal year and the four quarters next year has dropped by about $17 million per quarter, or about 9%. While this once prominent business at one point was doing around $20 billion in yearly revenue, the current software and services company isn't even expected to do $680 million in the current year.

BlackBerry doesn't have a ton of financial flexibility either to make any big moves in the near term without a major capital raise. The company finished Q3 with $505 million of cash and equivalents, but a little more than 70% of that will be needed to pay back the company's maturing debt later this year. That's unless shares skyrocket from here, which then means that the debt could be converted to stock, but that would result in a bit of dilution. BlackBerry does have a pending deal to sell some of its patents, which could bring in $400 million or so initially and more over time, but this deal has dragged on much longer than expected and investors are still waiting.

Like many names out there, the street does have an overall favorable view of the stock in terms of valuation, but there is a catch. The average price target of $5.07 implies about 13% of upside from Wednesday's close, but that valuation figure was over $8 a year ago and has been cut significantly over time. Another poor report or two and the average target will likely be close to where we are now, or perhaps even lower. Right now, the street's upside is based on the notion that QNX and IVY will drive meaningful revenue growth in the coming years for BlackBerry's automotive business.

Since John Chen took over at BlackBerry, the net result is that shares are down about 30%. That's dramatic underperformance when you consider a tech-heavy ETF like the Invesco QQQ ETF (QQQ) is up about 294% over that time. The problem for this once major hardware name is that the transition to software and services has not progressed as hoped, leading to lower and lower overall revenue numbers. With management again pushing back on a return to growth for the key Cybersecurity ARR metric, analysts have continued to cut their estimates and price targets. It's hard to recommend buying until we see some decent revenue traction start to occur, and when that is expected to happen keeps getting pushed back.

Happy New Year, though it may not be for Blackberry fans. The company that has so often had their products compared to a certain addictive substance recently announced that they are ending support for Blackberry OS and Blackberry 10 devices.

What does this mean? While they won’t be bricking phones outright, they might as well be. On January 4th, Blackberry will be shutting off all the key services — data, SMS, phone calls, and 911 support. In official terms, they are ending network provisioning for these older devices, meaning that they won’t be able to join any cellular or WiFi networks.

Unless you’re old enough to remember, it may seem strange that these half-screen, half-keyboard machines once dominated the mobile market. But back then, the people who used them were texting wizards who had broken free from the chains of the T9 keyboard.

Though this news may not mean much except to a select few, it’s still sad to see the Blackberry era come to a true end. We never had one ourselves during the heyday, though we did pick up a cheap used model to carry around as a tiny mobile writing device and calendar. We sure do miss phones with real keyboards though, and would love to see them come back. At least the keyboards themselves get love in the hacker community.

[Main and thumbnail images via Digital Trends]

BlackBerry (BB) closed the most accurate trading day at $4.18, moving +1.7% from the previous trading session. This change outpaced the S&P 500's 1.15% gain on the day. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 1.11%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 11.35%.

Coming into today, shares of the cybersecurity software and services company had gained 7.87% in the past month. In that same time, the Computer and Technology sector gained 10.31%, while the S&P 500 gained 4.49%.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from BlackBerry as it approaches its next earnings report date. On that day, BlackBerry is projected to report earnings of -$0.07 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 800%. Our most accurate consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $172.28 million, down 6.88% from the year-ago period.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of -$0.21 per share and revenue of $677.14 million, which would represent changes of -110% and -5.69%, respectively, from the prior year.

Investors might also notice accurate changes to analyst estimates for BlackBerry. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection remained stagnant. BlackBerry is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

The Computer - Software industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 148, putting it in the bottom 42% of all 250+ industries.

Story continues

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.

Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report

BlackBerry Limited (BB) : Free Stock Analysis Report

To read this article on Zacks.com click here.

Zacks Investment Research

In the latest trading session, BlackBerry (BB) closed at $4.41, marking a -1.12% move from the previous day. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.61%. At the same time, the Dow lost 0.1%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.67%.

Heading into today, shares of the cybersecurity software and services company had gained 26.7% over the past month, outpacing the Computer and Technology sector's gain of 17.44% and the S&P 500's gain of 8.32% in that time.

BlackBerry will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. On that day, BlackBerry is projected to report earnings of -$0.07 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 800%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $172.28 million, down 6.88% from the prior-year quarter.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of -$0.21 per share and revenue of $677.14 million. These totals would mark changes of -110% and -5.69%, respectively, from last year.

Any accurate changes to analyst estimates for BlackBerry should also be noted by investors. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant within the past month. BlackBerry currently has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

The Computer - Software industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 106, which puts it in the top 43% of all 250+ industries.

Story continues

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.

Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report

BlackBerry Limited (BB) : Free Stock Analysis Report

To read this article on Zacks.com click here.

Zacks Investment Research

For a hot minute, it looked like BlackBerry might control the smartphone market. They got there first, figuring out how to use the existing data network to put email in users’ hands. Sure, it all came packaged in a device as thick and unwieldy as a slice of French toast — too big for most people’s pockets, not at all comfortable to hold up to one’s ear. Still, Canada-based electronics company Research in Motion revolutionized how mobile phones worked and what they could do, making billionaires of its co-founders. So what happened?

Frantic, irreverent and endearingly scrappy, “BlackBerry” spins comedy from the seat-of-their-pants launch and subsequent flame-out of “that phone that people had before they bought an iPhone,” as one character puts it. Directed by Matt Johnson — the renegade mock-doc helmer responsible for 2013 Slamdance winner “The Dirties” and moon-landing hoax “Project Avalanche” — from a script he co-wrote with longtime collaborator Matthew Miller, this sly tech-world satire freely extrapolates from journalists Jacquie McNish and Sean Silcoff’s book “Losing the Signal,” refashioning that wild ride into something that approximates their favorite movies.

The outrageous, often quotable dialogue draws inspiration from Aaron Sorkin and David Mamet (whose “Glengarry Glen Ross” is actually name-dropped by the characters). “I’ll keep firing until this room is not full of little children playing with their little penises,” Michael Ironside growls at one point, playing the company’s bulldog COO, seemingly the only adult in the room. Later, forced to use a pay phone after BlackBerry overloads the network, Glenn Howerton smashes the receiver to pieces while screaming, “There are three reasons people buy our phones. … They. Fucking. Work!” Lines like that fit well with DP Jared Raab’s grody, handheld style, which suggests a cross between “The Office” and “In the Loop,” shot from across parking lots and the far side of cluttered workspaces.

No one would mistake this for a documentary, and yet, Johnson adopts the voyeuristic cues that deliver audiences a you-are-there feel. If the cast that Johnson has assembled hardly looks old enough to remember the BlackBerry, that perversely winds up working to the film’s advantage. Canadian actor Jay Baruchel still has the soft-chinned face of a teenager, which makes him an odd choice to play BlackBerry superbrain Mike Lazaridis, with his silver-toned, Julian Assange hair. Johnson opts to play RIM co-founder Douglas Fregin as a headband-wearing slob, a brilliant “goof” (and reliably grating comic foil) who seems to care more about getting to work with his friends than becoming a billionaire.

And then there’s “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” star Howerton, the MVP in an all-around terrific ensemble, who shaved the top of his head to play balding, no-nonsense Jim Balsillie. Like a shark in the kiddie pool, Howerton delivers the kind of performance that can make a career, or force audiences to totally reconsider an actor’s potential. Jim’s ruthless business instincts run directly counter to the nerds’ undisciplined approach. He agrees to leave his job (technically, he’s already been fired and has no other options) and steer RIM to delivering on its promise — the one Mike and Doug fumbled to articulate in the film’s haphazard opening pitch session, quoting their high school shop teacher: “The person who puts a computer inside a phone will change the world.”

Cruising around in a beat-up Honda hatchback, the duo — and the rest of the RIM team — come across as overgrown toddlers, incapable of cleaning their own rooms. They’re far too rowdy and immature to focus on the task at hand, wasting valuable time playing Command & Conquer at the office, where stacks of defective modems line the walls and someone stuck a toilet plunger on top of a computer monitor. Rarely has a film captured the spirit of creative chaos that characterizes so much of Silicon Valley — although it’s important to note that RIM’s rise-and-fall trajectory took place half a continent away in Waterloo, Ontario.

This is a Canadian story, told by Canadian filmmakers, who treat the whole loony affair as a matter of national pride. Sure, it’s full of hubris, from Mike’s incredulity at the notion that consumers would prefer a keyboard-free device (one of the iPhone’s many design improvements) to Jim’s illegal strategy of backdating stock options to lure engineers from rival companies like Google. But “BlackBerry” is surprisingly charitable to the parties involved, acknowledging that these visionaries, while making it up as they go along, still managed to change the way the world communicates. Taking a page from “The Social Network,” it follows these two altogether-too-polite besties through the ringer, as they try to maintain their friendship amid the financial pressure that running a successful tech company imposes.

Avoiding the pitfalls of getting dry or technical, Johnson juices up moments when the company was under intense pressure to deliver, like the all-night session to develop a prototype it could present to Bell Atlantic. “BlackBerry” shows Mike and his RIM team raiding an electronics store, buying pocket calculators and Speak & Spell toys to mock up a clumsy demo model — which Mike subsequently forgets in the back of the taxi. Saul Rubinek patiently listens to Jim’s pitch and then replies, “You are not a tech guy, are you?” Even more satisfying is the stretch that comes right after Palm honcho Carl Yankowski (Cary Elwes) threatens a hostile takeover, as Jim scrambles to boost the stock price so that can’t happen. The mad-hustle montage feels like something out of “Wall Street,” or better yet, Martin Scorsese’s “The Wolf of Wall Street.”

There are some who look back fondly on the BlackBerry and the way it let them hammer out emails with their thumbs. It’s a wistfulness on par with how Blockbuster has made a minor comeback for those who claim nostalgia for late fees and the obligation of having to rewind VHS tapes. For most, the BlackBerry was a primitive product that served its purpose until something better came along — namely, the Apple iPhone. And though Johnson’s movie suggests other factors may have contributed to its demise, it’s hard to ignore that the company got out-innovated in the end. The film, at least, feels fresh, making geek history more entertaining than it has any right to be.

© Provided by Deadline

Who knew a Canadian biopic of an infamous smartphone could be this entertaining, even poignant and moving? I am here to tell you today’s world premiere Berlin Film Festival competition entry BlackBerry is all that and more.

In the hands of co-writer (with Matthew Miller), director and co-star Matt Johnson (The Dirties), this long and winding tale of the rise and fall of the BlackBerry, the revolutionary device that first combined a computer with a phone all in one, is at once wonderfully funny, suspenseful and ultimately tragic. Here is a business story that has it all, and has much in common with other movies that focus on iconic tales of new-age businesses like The Social Network, Moneyball and The Big Short. Those movies had the likes of Aaron Sorkin and Adam McKay behind them, and this one ought to really put its chief architect Johnson on the cinematic map.

Centering on nerdy and inventive Mike Lazaridis (a terrific and never better Jay Baruchel) and Jim Balsillie (Glenn Howerton — sensational), Johnson’s film starts in 1996 with the emergence of this unheard of idea of a phone that can also send and receive emails with its keyboard built into a magical device no one in the tech world had achieved before these Canadian dreamers actually found a way to make it work.

But first it is Lazaridis and his freewheeling, loopy but tech-smart buddy Douglas Fregin (played endearingly by Johnson), along with their unsophisticated tech-y friends, who are out to convince the world they can deliver on the promise of their then unnamed invention. Once they bring a sharp and uber-aggressive businessman, Balsillie, into their company Research In Motion, an idea from nerd-land turns into a reality — especially when Balsillie manages to convince Bell Atlantic, particularly chief skeptic John Woodman (Saul Rubinek), of its value for their servers.

On its way to market the BlackBerry must overcome all sorts of obstacles and impossible business deals, but by the early aughts it is a superstar, beloved by everyone from U.S. presidents to celebrities to average joes — a life-changing communication device. It is a dream come true until shady business deals, infighting and most damaging Steve Jobs and the iPhone combine to bring it crashing down.

Johnson tells the whole saga, soup to nuts, in a highly entertaining and fast-moving fashion that keeps you riveted throughout. You really find yourself rooting for these guys, particularly Lazaridis and Fregin and their ragtag team of tech nerds who hold a world-changing device in their hands, until they don’t. At its heart it is an underdog story straight from the heart of the ironically named Waterloo, Ontario, where it all began, but also a cautionary warning that what goes up must come down. In the fast-moving technological age in which we live, the epic tale of the BlackBerry now plays like a period piece, a nostalgic look back for people like me who deeply loved that little Canadian device and didn’t want to, but ultimately had to, succumb, like Adam, to the temptations of the Apple.

Baruchel, silver-haired for the role, is perfectly cast as a guy with an idea but not really the financial or corporate sense to make it reality. Howerton (It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia) however steals the movie with a dynamic turn as a hard-core, cunning business guy who won’t take no for an answer as he wills the success of this smartphone into being; he drives this movie like J.K. Simmons drove Whiplash. Among the supporting cast is fine work from Rubinek, Rich Sommer, Cary Elwes, Sungwon Cho and Michael Ironside, the latter being the hard-nosed fearsome outsider executive brought in to turn this crew into an efficient factory. Johnson also writes himself a juicy role as the likeable Doug who is the reverse of a corporate suit but good-hearted all the way.

Based on the book Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall Of Blackberry by Jacquie McNish and Sean Silcoff, the filmmakers have taken a tech-heavy business book and given it life, soul and sorrow in the most human of terms, and that is no easy undertaking. Producers are Niv Fichman, Matthew Miller, Fraser Ash and Kevin Krikst. IFC has domestic distribution, while Paramount has it worldwide outside of the U.S..

Click here to read the full article.

It is unclear whether Paramount is planning a theatrical bow for BlackBerry or if the film is heading to its online platform Paramount+.

Johnson co-wrote BlackBerry with Matthew Miller, based on the nonfiction best-seller Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry from Jacquie McNish and Sean Silcoff. Miller also produced, alongside Niv Fichman, Fraser Ash and Kevin Krikst.

The book shows how the Canadian startup, launched by Research in Motion (RIM) in Waterloo, Ontario, became a global force in the tech world with its then-groundbreaking smartphone with its distinctive clam shape and thumbs-only mini-keyboard. But the launch of Apple’s iPhone and the rise of touch-screen technology spelled the end for the company, which were unable to compete.

Rhombus Media and Zapruder Films produced the movie, with the participation of Telefilm Canada and Ontario Creates, in association with CBC Films, IPR.VC and XYZ Films, which also acted as an executive producer.

As the new era of browser wars continues to rage on with search giants like Google and Microsoft making their own AI chatbots, Opera is also making a big bet on artificial intelligence with the latest announcement of a new feature called “Shorten,” which uses the power of ChatGPT to generate summaries of webpages and articles.

With the addition of Shorten, Opera users will now have access to a bulleted summary of the webpage they’re looking at by simply tapping an icon located to the right of the address bar. However, Jan Standel, VP of marketing and communications, did not specify when the feature will be available when talking to The Verge. He did mention that the company is working on other ways to enhance the Opera experience with artificial intelligence. But the exact details of these additions have not been disclosed yet.

“We are excited to see the rapid roll-out of developer programs for solutions such as Google Bard, for example, and are starting to build and roll out new experiences in web browsing that not very long ago seemed impossible to achieve,” said Per Wetterdal, Opera’s head of strategic partnerships and AI.

Ever since the launch of AI tools like ChatGPT and Microsoft’s announcement of its integration into its Bing browser, search engine giants like Google, for the first time in decades, are fearing their domination. This move by Opera to incorporate AI into its browser comes in the same week when Microsoft started accepting invitations to preview the redesigned Edge browser with an “AI-powered copilot” that will be able to summarize web pages.

In response to this competition, Google also unveiled its own AI chatbot named Bard, powered by LaMDA (Language Model for Dialogue Applications). However, Bard’s debut was less than ideal as it gave an inaccurate response in the company’s demonstration, resulting in a drop in Alphabet’s stock by over 8% and a loss of $100 billion in market value in a single day.