BlackBerry's HUGE Gamble.
Even before the Z10 came out, I was excited for it. Here, I thought, was the phone that would kick Apple's *** and propel BB back to its giddy heights of old. Then it came out. I certainly wasn't unhappy. But I wasn't bowled over, either. Everything looked cool. But not great. And, I would hope, even the most diehard BB fan would admit that, good as it all is, it's not perfect. There are certainly enough forums here that probe the phone and the system's shortcomings that I won't go into them.
But here's the real problem. Having read literally dozens of reviews of the phone, and the new OS, it seems the people who are keenest to buy the phone are BB's most loyal fans. And here cometh the problem. If you hear TH's interviews, he has mentioned that first up is the Z10: kinda top range but not really. Then the Q10: traditional and for the QWERTY-only fans. But then comes the mid-range phone: developing markets and so on. And all along BB will be going like the clappers to read the reviews, fix the bugs and put BB10 up there with the others. And BB always knew they'd have to do that. They'd knew they'd never lure the iPhone and Samsung fans with their first offering. No, the real draw is still being put together in some factory in Mexico, or is still an idea in their designers' minds. BB's true aim this year, I think, is to gear up for the launch of the phone they really want out there. A top of the range, avant garde, brushed metal, bells and whistles phone which, by that time, would have a truly sorted OS behind it, a properly stiocked app store, etc, etc.
Yet in the meantime, you'll have had the Galaxy S4, maybe even an iPhone 5, come out, all of which'll suck their owners into new contracts. And in the meantime all the true BB fans will be on a Z10 or Q10 contract with a year or two to run.
So, it begs the question, who is going to be left at that time to buy the real money making flagship phone, come year end? And, more to the point, how annoyed are the BB loyalists going to be when they realise that BB sold them what is essentially a trial tester phone in the Z10, cheap to make, quick to roll-out, all in a bid to field test the BB10 software before their real deal phone is launched come Q4?
It's for this reason that I'm really heasitant to get the Z10, love it as I might. And that, I feel, is sad, because it smacks of a corporate disregard for BB's most loyal fans, who, one can only speculate, they are happy to lose or alientate in a bid to lure a whole new legion of followers later in the year.