[gng11]

Yes, latest IDC numbers show Android powering 80% of all Smartphones. Apple down to 13% (from 16% last year).

Posted via CB10

And yet as the article says, more handsets making the same type of phone that is Android, only makes the value of the OS not worth making a phone for at all because Samsung is THE face of Android on many people's minds. HTC, Sony, LG and others are second thoughts. You won't stand a chance at beating Samsung unless you're a conglomerate, tens of billions in the bank and have lots of marketing power. That's something BlackBerry does not have much of a luxury at this point.

Posted via CB10

[gng11]

On a second thought:

I think BlackBerry's timing couldn't be more perfect: one product, one phone to focus on promoting this fall season. Think they are rather smart. Maybe pushing out the Z10 & the Q10 earlier just to gain some traction and remain visible throughout was their strategy after all. The Z30 could well be their actual ultimate product.

Posted via CB10

[Robin Lim]

A forked version of Android with a heavily customized UI would probably have been the best way to go.

Posted from my Zed 10

[grahamf]

The only thing keeping me with Blackberry is the OS.

If they went Android, then that would mean I would have to consider how their hardware competes with every one else's, and I'd probably end up with a Nexus.

It would be really hard for Blackberry to push an Android phone with a keyboard, so there goes the keyboard legacy.

[GadgetTravel]

A forked version of Android with a heavily customized UI would probably have been the best way to go.

Posted from my Zed 10

I think that may very well be true.

[Robin Lim]

I think that may very well be true.

Would probably not be as secure as BlackBerry 10, but if you are going to cater to the mass market you need those 975,000 apps.

You also cannot build an OS that needs 2GB of RAM.


I hope BlackBerry finds a niche market. Having come from Android, am happier here.

Posted from my Zed 10

[kbz1960]

Would probably not be as secure as BlackBerry 10, but if you are going to cater to the mass market you need those 975,000 apps.

You also cannot build an OS that needs 2GB of RAM.


I hope BlackBerry finds a niche market. Having come from Android, am happier here.

Posted from my Zed 10

How much RAM it takes makes no difference. As long as you're not paying more for it. Otherwise why does anyone care?

[Robin Lim]

How much RAM it takes makes no difference. As long as you're not paying more for it. Otherwise why does anyone care?

Well, the Q5 is BlackBerry's cheapest phone. It has to compete in price with Android phones with half as much RAM, and Windows Phones with a quarter of that.

In my country a Q5 costs more than two Nokia Lumia 520's or a two 5-inch HD Android phones.

Posted from my Zed 10

[grahamf]

Well, the Q5 is BlackBerry's cheapest phone. It has to compete in price with Android phones with half as much RAM, and Windows Phones with a quarter of that.

In my country a Q5 costs more than two Nokia Lumia 520's or a two 5-inch HD Android phones.

Posted from my Zed 10

The Q5 also has LTE, and is designed to be identical to the Q10 to code for. The reason why you don't have BB10 on the Playbook is it doesn't properly support it, and Blackberry wants to avoid that again.

And they're still clearing out BB7 stock.

[iN8ter]

Fragmentation is probably the biggest problem Android. Of late, I have read Google is trying to help the problem. But you're right it is a problem. But problems are relative. Several of the Android campanies, not just Samsung seem to be selling as well or better than Blackberry.

Fragmentation isn't really a problem. Not nearly the problem people make it out to be.

Sent from my Galaxy S III using Tapatalk 4

[Skateman1972]

When Blackberry starts using Android as their main OS...... the world of Smartphones has Died...and would become just another Phone with lots of Capabilities. To bad none of those are really that Smart.

Blackberry..for Smart Phones!

[GadgetTravel]

Fragmentation isn't really a problem. Not nearly the problem people make it out to be.

Sent from my Galaxy S III using Tapatalk 4

At the time I got my HTC Droid Incredible 2 I would say it was a huge problem in my opinion. As I said, I think Google is improving or has improved the situation over time.

[GadgetTravel]

When Blackberry starts using Android as their main OS...... the world of Smartphones has Died...and would become just another Phone with lots of Capabilities. To bad none of those are really that Smart.

Blackberry..for Smart Phones!

We must define smartphones differently.

[iN8ter]

That was a long time ago. Doesn't even matter at this point. It's not Google. The OEMs have gotten massively better at pushing out updates.

Sent from my Galaxy S III using Tapatalk 4

[GadgetTravel]

That was a long time ago. Doesn't even matter at this point. It's not Google. The OEMs have gotten massively better at pushing out updates.

Sent from my Galaxy S III using Tapatalk 4

I believe you, but not on my Droid Inc2.

[Robin Lim]

The Q5 also has LTE, and is designed to be identical to the Q10 to code for. The reason why you don't have BB10 on the Playbook is it doesn't properly support it, and Blackberry wants to avoid that again.

And they're still clearing out BB7 stock.

The Q5 variant sold in my country does not have LTE. It does cost more than a few LTE Phones.

Checking my Z10 right now, with only this app running, it says it has 819 MB of free Memory.

Posted from my Zed 10

[southlander]

That's exactly the point. They won't port to a platform with this level of sales in many cases. Maybe they could have done something like have a secure and non-secure partition.

Posted via CB10

So then how would they differentiate? Sounds comiplicated. Even with BlackBerry Balance doing this type of thing as I undertstand it the requirement was to design security in at the OS level to achieve that.

The Android runtime is already the closest thing to it and it's not working out well. Nothing short of one click installs of any app from the Google Play store would suffice. And without doing an actual full Android device, folks on here have said Google won't certify and allow that access.

So you end up with just another device with Android and some custom skin. And then what BBM? But now you'll be able to have BBM on Android anyway.

I tend to agree with BlackBerry when they said Android is not and was never the answer.

Z10STL100-4/10.2.0.1047

[Robin Lim]

I think we really will not know if a BlackBerry Android OS would have been feasible. Even Samsung and KNOX has a security rating a level lower than BlackBerry 10. So it at not have been feasible.

Still, if you look at Android, one of these says someone should fork it, simplify it a bit and get rid of the back button which operates inconsistently across different apps. The only reason to go Android is to avoid the app numbers issue.

Posted from my Zed 10

[GadgetTravel]

So then how would they differentiate? Sounds comiplicated. Even with BlackBerry Balance doing this type of thing as I undertstand it the requirement was to design security in at the OS level to achieve that.

The Android runtime is already the closest thing to it and it's not working out well. Nothing short of one click installs of any app from the Google Play store would suffice. And without doing an actual full Android device, folks on here have said Google won't certify and allow that access.

So you end up with just another device with Android and some custom skin. And then what BBM? But now you'll be able to have BBM on Android anyway.

I tend to agree with BlackBerry when they said Android is not and was never the answer.

Z10STL100-4/10.2.0.1047

Why is just another Android device a bad thing compared to a device that sells less than many Android devices. This seems to me to be about numbers and they aren't there for BB10. As I have said before, as I understand the numbers if they could have gotten 10% of the Android share they would have been WAY ahead of where they are now I think.

Posted via CB10

[Robin Lim]

Getting 10% of the Android market would be about 3 to 3.5 million units a month.

If BlackBerry goes down, I hope some Android manufacturer picks up the right to the Hub and the swipe and multitasking interface. It really would not be all that incompatible with Android. A swipe up brings up multitasking and backs out of the app, than you can swipe the app away to close.

I don't know of a lot of you know this. Sometimes closing an Android app means pressing the back button three or four times.

Cascades to me are just okay. But the simple basic elements of the UI of BlackBerry 10 are really amazing. They keyboard is great (I used to use SwiftKey) and the browser really is better than Chrome. Google Now will let you compose a email or SMS but you cannot complete the process via voice commands. Ultimately you have to click a send button on the display.

In sum, I think BlackBerry could have brought a lot to Android.

Posted from my Zed 10

[GadgetTravel]

Getting 10% of the Android market would be about 3 to 3.5 million units a month.

If BlackBerry goes down, I hope some Android manufacturer picks up the right to the Hub and the swipe and multitasking interface. It really would not be all that incompatible with Android. A swipe up brings up multitasking and backs out of the app, than you can swipe the app away to close.

I don't know of a lot of you know this. Sometimes closing an Android app means pressing the back button three or four times.

Cascades to me are just okay. But the simple basic elements of the UI of BlackBerry 10 are really amazing. They keyboard is great (I used to use SwiftKey) and the browser really is better than Chrome. Google Now will let you compose a email or SMS but you cannot complete the process via voice commands. Ultimately you have to click a send button on the display.

In sum, I think BlackBerry could have brought a lot to Android.

Posted from my Zed 10

I agree. I think what most people say they like about the "OS" are actually things they like about the user interface. Maybe all of them actually. They could have put all or most of that on Android and had access to the apps and ecosystem.

[bobauckland]

In my opinion, the last few months have shown that Android was by far the better option for BlackBerry.
A skin on top for the UI, like all the manufacturers have, and additions to make the OS click with the keyboard.
They'd immediately benefit from the content and ecosystem of Android.
It would have been win win.

I think BB10 was an excellent venture, for a much bigger and better organised company with better programmers.
They have struggled to cope with everything, struggled to make it functional, they simply weren't big enough or rich enough to make it compete.

If they could have accepted this earlier and gone Android, they might not be trying to sell themselves, and BBM would still be cross platform.

[Robin Lim]

In my opinion, the last few months have shown that Android was by far the better option for BlackBerry.
A skin on top for the UI, like all the manufacturers have, and additions to make the OS click with the keyboard.
They'd immediately benefit from the content and ecosystem of Android.
It would have been win win.

I think BB10 was an excellent venture, for a much bigger and better organised company with better programmers.
They have struggled to cope with everything, struggled to make it functional, they simply weren't big enough or rich enough to make it compete.

If they could have accepted this earlier and gone Android, they might not be trying to sell themselves, and BBM would still be cross platform.

With BlackBerry's expertise I think they could have gone beyond a skin. BlackBerry 10 is in a good place between iOS and Android in terms of functionality and ease of use. Android could use some cleaning up. iOS is still just an app launcher, but it is improving over time with the notifications and now quick settings being added. BlackBerry 10 could have been Android for those wanting something less busy than Android and more capable than iOS.

One Android interface,Hauwei's Emoticon was designed in the principle that Android was too complicated. They drop the app drawer which makes sense because the home screens and app drawer are redundant.

Posted from my Zed 10

[bobauckland]

With BlackBerry's expertise I think they could have gone beyond a skin. BlackBerry 10 is in a good place between iOS and Android in terms of functionality and ease of use. Android could use some cleaning up. iOS is still just an app launcher, but it is improving over time with the notifications and now quick settings being added. BlackBerry 10 could have been Android for those wanting something less busy than Android and more capable than iOS.

One Android interface,Hauwei's Emoticon was designed in the principle that Android was too complicated. They drop the app drawer which makes sense because the home screens and app drawer are redundant.

Posted from my Zed 10

Basically i agree with you, they could have spent time tidying up android and making it attractive and offering a different ui, without worrying about all the basic nuts and bolts.

They're more likely to have succeeded in that than in designing and maintaining an entirely new os from scratch.

Posted via CB10