[smithjohn57]

In my opinion, the key differentiators for RIMM/BB over its competition in the consumer segment have been:

1. Push Email
2. Data Compression
3. BBM

and to a lesser extent
4. detailed profiles and notifications

It seems with BB10, BB is taking major steps backwards in 3 of the 4 key differentiators. The elimination of BIS for the consumer market is the primary driver in this. For BB to essentially say, well a lot of consumers are using Gmail, so we don't need to do anything different with email, is extremely short sighted in my opinion. BIS, while hindering the internet experience on the older OS and handsets, had major positives. The question becomes why would someone switch from an iPhone, Galaxy, Lumia to BB. Its seems on the surface BB is moving away from what makes it different, and in my opinion better than its competition.

Yes, BB10 will staunch some of the bleeding on the enterprise side of the business and give Corporate IT less of a reason to switch away from BB or move to a BYOD program. But long term, to also be successful in the consumer market, you need to stand out from the competition. BB has taken steps forward on the multimedia front to appeal to consumers, but are those features light-years ahead of their competition, probably not. I feel BB10 is actually just conforming to rather than standing out from its competition.

So my question is, do you think BB is actually losing some of the features that made BB stand out from its competition with BB10?

[Gregg Hogg]

Yes. It will die a slow death.

[masterscarhead1]

Please tell me how BIS, apart from data compression, is any different from your normal mobile provider data services?
As for push email, my playbook gets email as soon as it is delivered. I don't think push email will make a difference.
I honestly think the only backtrack was the data compression

[overzeer]

BB is not losing push email. Nor BBM. Notification profiles are there too.

Also, there are more important differentiators you didn't list. Focus on efficiency, for example. Security. Privacy. Top of the line multitasking. With BB10 it actually gained more as well - it is the only platform that is, in fact, two platforms for many purposes - native AND Android.

[momofteme]

BIS is the reason (according to some) that Verizon and ATT seemed to actively push other platforms at BB's expense. That bias has been mentioned many times here since the 7.1 phones came out.

In the US the carriers sell the phones, if the carrier doesn't like you it will not sell your phones.

BB had to ditch it or risk all us market share.

I understand BIS had some features we all preferred, but such is the price of progress, and much better web browsing to boot.

The other issues you mentioned it's hard to get a clear read on the forums, some say push is still there some say not. IDK?

The notifications is an issue, but if you can change it by conact it isn't a total loss to me, because thats the scheme I use now.

[lboogie_1971_]

BB hasn't lost what makes it different from the competition, but it must address its shortcomings in other areas. People don't value security, keyboards, efficiency and productivity as much. With the advent of BYOD more phones are infringing upon BlackBerry's bread and butter. If BlackBerry is to maintain those relationships and grow new relationships they must cater to those people as well.

The purchase of QNX is their biggest differentiator, it will allow BlackBerry to do things more efficiently than their competitors.

Another differentiator is management seems to listen to us more. With that being said, if we raise our voices to say what we like or dislike they are more than likely to listen and bring those changes about in future updates.

Let us not forget that this is the first iteration of BB10 on a mobile phone. There is not one phone ever made that has gotten it right first try nor is there a phone or anything for that matter that will appeal to everyone.

[silversun10]

esp in the US the old Blackberry lost 98% of the market share, so how can you claim that everybody has to have the
old features, i am puzzled...

[overzeer]

There are multiple threads about push email. Look for my posts - I already tested this and it works flawlessly. For each contact you can set a different phone ringtone and a different message notification tone.

[dorbit]

I'll be sticking with OS7 as long as it's supported.

[smithjohn57]

Well Google announced it is killing off Google Sync in the future, so there goes that option, if you even want to use Gmail in the first place. IMAP- IDLE is not the most efficient system for a mobile phone. BIS to me was great for push because the polling was done on the BIS servers and pushed to the phone, it also provided push like capabilites for POP3 email and saved battery life. Any phone can fetch these days.

[momofteme]

I fully understand your position here.

Slow browsing, no images in that push e-mail, truncated messages, garbled html messages, those are the things you are losing, by losing BIS.

You would also lose BB completely most likely, the carriers were making more money off android and Iphone, BB had to drop BIS or be shut out by the US carriers at least.

So it is accurate, that to be more like the other mobile OSes, BB loses some of it's features (BUGS?).
I am afraid that is the price of progress.