[DenverRalphy]

So what if I'm referencing "too far ahead" with BB7. You're missing the point.

It took a YEAR after the release of an UP-TO-DATE piece of HARDWARE to get a major app that has been widely available on inferior hardware.

That just proves RIMs downfall has nothing to do with the hardware itself. It was largely due to a lack of ecosystem that could provide the consumer with an experience they desired.

Not sure how you're missing that.

But perhaps you've been around too long to notice that.

I think you missed my point. I said that falling behind in hardware specs was a major factor, I didn't say it was the only factor. Yet there was a point in time when all BB devices were woefully behind the competition, and all the while RIM had rationalized their decisions to not improve hardware, while it just fell further behind. Sure, now the hardware specs aren't the significant cause of RIM's shortcomings. But it's unsettling to see a statement that resembles the attitude RIM had a couple/few years back that initiated the downfall. What RIM needs to do now is excel on all fronts. No concessions, no cutting corners, and don't even attempt to rationalize doing so.

[brucep1]

I interpreted this as "We are going to be more like Apple and less like Android"

[Tre Lawrence]

Apple can afford to be patient with specs; I suspect the experience makes up for any perceived lack of specs.

RIM doesn't yet have the cushioning experience.

[Rello]

I think people may just be looking too far into the statement. I mean, i dont think they a skimping considering the fact that we know a quad core device is coming next year and looks to have all the bells and whistles with it. I look at the statement more as that the specs will come eventually but without the experience it will mean nothing...and i agree. WP7 were using single core processors yet many argued it was just as smooth as IOS.

Watching the video of "pinning" active frames on the front page of crackberry, it makes me so happy to see how fluid that dev Alpha B looks yet we are 5+ months away from launch and its using a old processor. I can not wait to see how BB10 will fly on a s4 processor. If it were a spec race, BB10 wouldve been out the door by now. RIM made the best decision to just delay it and provide a better experience

[torndownunit]

Yes, people just took his statement as RIM rolling over and dying.

RIM will stay competitive, but again, they're not going to dish out a phone with 8GB of RAM just so they can say it has 8GB of RAM...

While I owned a BB years ago, I am more a recent RIM customer with the purchase of my Playbook. So from a perspective more from the outside, I am not even sure why RIM makes these comments. It can lead to people interpreting the statements exactly like that (re RIM rolling over). Why not just release the phone with competitive specs? Why event comment/hint now on what the phone WON'T have? It just plants doubts in people's minds. It's tough to figure out RIM's marketing.

[anon(4018671)]

They should have shut up while ahead lol Now there is a lot of anxiety over (probably) nothing.

Dev Alpha looks great and PlayBook is a champ anything extra right now is bonus

[Fastjc]

I agree, the experience should be the number 1 goal. I have a third generation iPod touch (2009) and a Galaxy Nexus (2011) both have the Flipboard app. My experience with the app is way better with my iPod, which is two year older than the Nexus. As long as BB 10 give an stable experience with my apps I am going to be very happy.

[jechow]

We can all agree that Apple is a great marketing company. In a few short months, Apple went from the new iPad to the iPad 4. The experience on the new iPad was fine (maybe best in class) yet Apple decided to change the cpu from an A5x chip to an A6x chip. Does RIM need to reconsider if they can be successful without being in the spec race?

In my opinion, Apple's decision to move from the A5x chip to the A6x chip and announcing this decision publicly indicates to me they recognize to to sell products to consumers specs matter.

[MACKSnare519]

Bad marketing at its worst. As others have said, why add doubt in the minds of future consumers, techies and tech blogs who will be reporting this stuff?

This should not be a talking point of RIM, especially considering the sentiment of the old CEOs about specs that led to this hole RIM has found itself in.

In the very near future, smartphones will have 1080 Full HD 4.5+ inch displays (with 330+ ppi), 1.6+ quad core processors, 2 gigs of RAM, awesome cameras, and at least 16 gigs of onboard memory.

That's where the competition is heading. The spec race IS apart of all of this. Otherwise, we're stuck with playing catch up. I guess RIM is comfortable with that, as that's all they've been doing.

The goal should be to be impressive in every single way.

Smh... I can only imagine how much better the user experience would have been if the 9800 had competitive specs of that time.

Sent from my rooted AT&T ATRIX HD using Tapatalk 2

[Masahiro]

So how do you propose that RIM get ahead of everyone in the "tech race" when they are competing with OEMs that only have to worry about slapping together the best hardware and throwing Android on top? In fact, it's the only way Android manufacturers can really differentiate themselves from their rivals. RIM, on the other hand, has to worry about optimizing the hardware and software. They go hand-in-hand. They simply cannot churn out many cutting edge phones as quickly as five other OEMs combined. It's just not going to happen. Even if RIM did come out with a phone with market-leading specs, it will only stay on top for maybe a month or so before another Android phone comes along with better specs.

Consider the iPhone5. It had comparable specs to the SGS3, but that came out months before. That still didn't stop the iPhone5 from record-breaking pre-order sales.

[DenverRalphy]

So how do you propose that RIM get ahead of everyone in the "tech race" when they are competing with OEMs that only have to worry about slapping together the best hardware and throwing Android on top? In fact, it's the only way Android manufacturers can really differentiate themselves from their rivals. RIM, on the other hand, has to worry about optimizing the hardware and software. They go hand-in-hand. They simply cannot churn out many cutting edge phones as quickly as five other OEMs combined. It's just not going to happen. Even if RIM did come out with a phone with market-leading specs, it will only stay on top for maybe a month or so before another Android phone comes along with better specs.

Consider the iPhone5. It had comparable specs to the SGS3, but that came out months before. That still didn't stop the iPhone5 from record-breaking pre-order sales.

Samsung, the top Android vendor does a lot more than just slapping together the best hardware and then throwing Android in top. They heavily modify their version of Android and incorporate a lot of their own software. Samsung works both sides of the fence.

What RIM has historically don't different, is buy hardware in such large quantities from other manufacturers (ie. Qualcomm) to get a great price, that they're stuck with that hardware for future devices because they have huge surpluses.

I suspect that that may be the reason for their comment. They're buying hoards of hardware and planning to use it all up.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

[srsBlackBird]

BB10 is being positioned as an innovation in UX design, but virtually no one except the people in the BB community are complaining about their UIs. The problem there is RIM is trying to peddle wares that the people who they want to attract are not in the market to purchase or even consider.

It's probable they may win the attention of a few early adopters, and it's probable they may convert a few people in a few markets, but these things are highly unlikely simply because people have committed themselves to something else AND find no fault with it.

The language of smartphone competition has already been established, and that language is specs. The dialect of that language is software, and ux design. The position RIM is in, and the language they are electing to speak with regards to their devices makes them the technological equivalent of Tom Hanks' character in "The Terminal" at best, and Borat at worst.

#BlackBerryTorchBearer

[RubberChicken76]

Put me in the "experience camp" in that they don't need to be the absolute greatest as long as it performs.

That said, specs do matter. RIM examples:

- PlayBook is 18 months old and there are now newer tablets with better hardware (go figure ). But I don't feel the hardware is holding it back from doing anything.

- When Torch 9800 came out, it felt anemic out of the box when it was new.

One had hardware that was well chosen for its release time. One didn't.