1. bboldboy's Avatar
    BlackBerry as we all know is about productivity. However, why is there such little information about the metrics of productivity when its measurement should be fairly easy?

    The key to a Blackberry's productivity has been the typing experience and their products established leadership in this regard from their very first devices. Coming late to touch phone technology with the Z10, BlackBerry managed to lead again with strong predictive text software which put word suggestions right in the middle of virtual keyboard frets allowing for "flick" typing. Q10s as well as the Bold 9900 placed text predictions above the keyboard at the bottom of the screen. This is a less than ideal solution as it forces one to look up from the keyboard and extend the thumb to select the correct word. The "Classic " I understand does not have text prediction which may reflect Blackberry's conclusion that predictive text brings little advantage to conventional physical keyboards.

    The innovative Passport marries word prediction and physical keyboards by permitting "flick" typing on a capacitive keyboard, interfering far less with the flow of text inputting than is the case with conventional physical keyboards. The hybrid keyboard also combines three physical rows with a virtual one and indeed an alternate virtual keyboard of symbols which can map onto the physical keys. This innovation should improve text inputting speeds as it eliminates the need to use an additional keystroke to activate the alternate key values and another stroke again to return to the key's main values. Gestures on the capacitive keyboard are used instead of the alt key. However, the utility of the Passport's hybrid keyboard in this regard has been debated in these forums with some calling for a Passport with four rows. The Passport's ability to delete words through gestures on the capacitive keyboard is another productivity feature.

    Consumer reactions to these innovations both with the all touch Z10 and Z30 as well as the hybrid Passport keyboards have been generally positive, with it frequently being noted that there is a learning curve with the Passport requiring a number of days. That said, all of the observations made in this forum and elsewhere are anecdotal and qualitative. Surely there has to be quantitative evidence available which supports these claims, and more importantly, quantitatively measures the advantage of either BlackBerry keyboard with respect to those of other devices?

    The absence of quantitative claims is surprising. The speed and accuracy of text inputting is easily measurable in words per minute (WPM ) which can be adjusted for accuracy. Testing the performance of a number of individuals on a number of different types of systems and devices would establish relative speeds. It could be argued that the WPM metric might be significant in the context of old fashioned copy typing, but not relevant to document creation. However the basic keyboarding speed and accuracy measured by copy typing tests will result in faster document creation, all things being equal. In fact, a faster and more fluid keyboarding experience could arguably lead to disproportionately faster document creation as the experience is just more pleasant and less frustrating.

    Another challenge to text inputting productivity is the process of editing text once it has been written. Again, this was something which the early BlackBerry pioneered and was not available in any serious way on the standard mobile devices of 10 or more years ago. While Blackberry's earlier physical keyboard phones were the highly capable with regard to text editing, virtual keyboard devices including BlackBerry are challenged in this regard. Here again the Passport's hybrid keyboard introduces real innovation and appears to have brought editing capability back to the level of the physical keyboard phone. Text editing capability is a tremendous productivity factor for those who use their devices to draft or modify documents for professional purposes. In contrast to less formal, personal messages, if you can't perform serious "wordsmithing" on your device, you'll leave the task for the trusty desktop reducing the value of your smart phone as a "mobility " tool. Again, it should be possible to measure how fast individuals can edit text on various devices, and as with text inputting speeds and accuracy, make comparisons among devices possible.

    Given the clear emphasis which BlackBerry has traditionally put on text inputting and innovations designed to improve it, one would think that development work was led in part by testing the performance of a sample of individuals using different inputting and editing methods. On that assumption, BlackBerry should have the data available to indicate the relative performance of its devices against its competitors. If this is in fact the case, and one suspects that it is, why has such databeen used so sparingly by BlackBerry to market its smart phones. Blackberry has said in the case of both the Passport and the Classic that they are four times more accurate than Blackberry's own touch phone, which is the only performance claim I have seen. If there was evidence to indicate that a Passport increased inputting speeds by let's say 20 to 30 per cent on average, one would think that this would be an important selling point for the device and very much in line with Blackberry's "tools not toys "message.

    The absence of text inputting performance data for OS10 devices in BlackBerry marketing campaigns might have a number of explanations:

    1. The data doesn't exist. Perhaps development was not based on performance data samples that made comparisons against competing devices. Rather Blackberry's existing devices may have been the benchmark and beta testing and focus groups were used to refine and improve the approach.
    2. Cross-device performance testing was undertaken, but the results are not very impressive with respect to establishing an advantage for BlackBerry devices over competitors.
    3. Cross -device performance testing was undertaken and the results are very impressive. However, there might be concern that releasing them would reveal Blackberry's trade secrets and proprietary approaches to competitors.
    4. Data might might have shown strong advantages for the hybrid Passport keyboard or Blackberry's virtual keyboards, with Blackberry's marketing people then fearing that it might undermine the case for the Classic.
    5. Cross -device performance testing was undertaken and it is impressive, however, all the data remained in the engineering department and was never shared with the marketing department, or if it was, the latter could not see its promotional value.

    Scenario 5 is not to be ruled out given how week the BlackBerry marketing effort has been in the past, although there are clear signs of improvement, witness the IPhone "trade-up" campaign.

    The "Hub" is another feature of OS10 devices which is also touted as a productivity enhancement. It should also be possible to measure the advantage the Hub brings by testing the time individuals require to complete a certain series of tasks on different devices. Again any performance advantage measured would be an important selling point.
    Andy_bb_king likes this.
    12-21-14 10:17 PM
  2. early2bed's Avatar
    Scenario #6 - The data doesn't matter. If the only productivity metric that mattered was typing speed then we would all be evaluated by our WPM at a keyboard.
    12-21-14 11:08 PM
  3. GadgetTravel's Avatar
    Scenario 7: the lack of physical keyboards forces people to be less verbose hence more productive.

    Posted via CB10
    12-22-14 08:40 AM
  4. tinochiko's Avatar
    Interesting write up, would have been nice to see it as one of those 'community posts' that crackberry did for a little bit, don't know what happened with those....

    Check Out TechCraze
    12-22-14 08:46 AM
  5. smart548's Avatar
    Scenario 7: the lack of physical keyboards forces people to be less verbose hence more productive.

    Posted via CB10
    ...and incomprehensible.. Every time I text someone without a BlackBerry, via sms, via whatsapp, via whatever..They always make a couple of typo in each sentence and the need to cut those sentences too just makes me ask them to explain..where is the productivity here??
    12-22-14 08:47 AM
  6. GadgetTravel's Avatar
    ...and incomprehensible.. Every time I text someone without a BlackBerry, via sms, via whatsapp, via whatever..They always make a couple of typo in each sentence and the need to cut those sentences too just makes me ask them to explain..where is the productivity here??
    Most people don't have that problem. I make more mistakes with my Q10 I suspect than with Swype for instance since the error correction on the Q10 doesn't seem as good to me. But I like the physical keyboard so I use it.

    Posted via CB10
    anon(832122) likes this.
    12-22-14 09:07 AM
  7. Playbook007's Avatar
    Simply stated, the Passport is the future. It's like an all touch device with tactile feedback. Sure it takes a few days, but well worth it.

    Posted via CB10
    Blue787 likes this.
    12-22-14 12:17 PM
  8. Supa_Fly1's Avatar
    Productivity - the measurement of.

    Measurement of productivity is unique to the person's job title, roles and responsibilities dependent on the corporation, and also on their pay rate, benefits, etc

    Example:
    Service Desk rep
    - at one company this rep can do al roles and responsibilities local to the site business as a Helpdesk rep with additions including supporting other users from other sites is working at the head office.
    - at another company this could also include responsibilities such as: Network Share membership, audits, seeking or changing permissions (and who grant permissions based on director changes/exits), mobile device management, testing pilot of new EMM (end users perspective, insight of mailbox sizes and how much this affects data roaming costs, I I changes, training docs, etc), exit employee OOO's for both internal and external, granting permissions to exiting employee's mailbox based on approval from HR/Legal (or both) yet having to seek this on their own before enacting, communicating to international sites based on other languages etc!!!

    Pay Rates would vary based on such an example above and would vary even in the same city in the same industry in the same role (speaking from direct experience myself)

    One hour of losses productivity giving the various roles and responsibilities that comes down to pay rate per hour gives you a different perception of Productivity! In other words based on one role responsibility vs another, if one value vs another in pay say for 4 hrs how much less productive am I affected by a mobile device am I in one role vs another based on the variances listed above.

    Now let's add to the mix, what CAN I DO with said mobile device in both roles - if it doesn't vary at all in either responsibility then it does not matter how.much I'm paid, the end result is my productivity using one mobile device is affected more by how it compares to another to the the same tasks done!

    As I've said before : if it don't make dollars it don't make sense!!!

    Posted via CB10
    12-22-14 03:35 PM
  9. bboldboy's Avatar
    You have no issue, Smart 548, with making a few mistakes on the Q10 and even when you believe that there is a technology out there which would allow you to be more accurate. You just prefer the physical keyboard experience and I can understand that personal choice. The thing is that those sorts of errors are unacceptable for those who are using their smart phones in a more formal work environment where message has to be right in terms of spelling and grammar and has to say the right thing. A typing experience that avoids errors in the first place and easily allows editing afterwards is what you need in that sort of environment. Given that those professional messages may be longer than personal ones, or that there could be a need to respond to a lot of messages quickly and under pressure in the work environment, the speed and accuracy of text inputting is going to be important factor for those users. I'm inclined to think that the Passport brings a lot in all these respects, but my point is that solid performance data would help a great deal to convince "prosumers" who use their device professionally that this is the case.
    12-22-14 09:50 PM
  10. bboldboy's Avatar
    An interesting thought, GadgetTravel, but the logical implication is that the way to make a more "productive" communications device is to make it slower, more awkward and less usable to discourage people from engaging in written communications unless they really have to. Why not extend the idea to the phone function as well, and make dialing difficult and increase the number of miscalls? No smart phone maker has taken that approach for obvious reasons. My point is that if certain BlackBerry models are more productive on certain measures than other devices, wouldn't it make sense to make that part of your marketing?
    Supa_Fly1 likes this.
    12-22-14 09:58 PM
  11. GadgetTravel's Avatar
    An interesting thought, GadgetTravel, but the logical implication is that the way to make a more "productive" communications device is to make it slower, more awkward and less usable to discourage people from engaging in written communications unless they really have to. Why not extend the idea to the phone function as well, and make dialing difficult and increase the number of miscalls? No smart phone maker has taken that approach for obvious reasons. My point is that if certain BlackBerry models are more productive on certain measures than other devices, wouldn't it make sense to make that part of your marketing?
    I was making a joke.

    But I think a lot of people can type as fast or faster and more accurately on an Android or iphone device.

    I view my Q10 as a simple, less distracting device. Sort of like a nice small flip phone but with a physical keyboard and pretty good at mail. But not as a more productive device overall. I like the physical keyboard and the small form factor for simple tasks. But most of my work is on my iPhone 6.

    Posted via CB10
    12-22-14 10:54 PM
  12. bboldboy's Avatar
    I was making a joke.

    But I think a lot of people can type as fast or faster and more accurately on an Android or iphone device.

    I view my Q10 as a simple, less distracting device. Sort of like a nice small flip phone but with a physical keyboard and pretty good at mail. But not as a more productive device overall. I like the physical keyboard and the small form factor for simple tasks. But most of my work is on my iPhone 6.

    Posted via CB10
    Sorry for missing the irony. I don't know if you've used BlackBerry touch devices such as the Z10 or Z30, but many say that they provide a superior touch keyboard experience because of the unique approach to predictive texting where word suggestions appear above each key and just need to be "swiped up". Again, performance data would serve to answer some of these questions even though personal experience and preference is going to vary among individuals.
    12-23-14 10:00 AM
  13. Blue787's Avatar
    Absolutely agree with you. Cannot wait for mines to land.

    Posted via CrackBerry App
    12-25-14 08:27 AM
  14. tinochiko's Avatar
    I believe one test in which BlackBerry 10 would come to its own and the Passport for me would shine in particular is one where someone is sent a looaaadds of different messages from different applications simultaneously, and the test can be quantity and quality as well as the general ability to keep up with everything, this would also make a great advert for BlackBerry ( a version shot down to 60 seconds) not only showing the availability and integration of apps on BlackBerry 10 (showing Igran for instagram, as well as Bbm fb twitter) but also how they can be seamlessly managed on an exaggerated case ..

    Check Out TechCraze
    12-27-14 08:37 AM
  15. Q10Bold's Avatar
    I love my Q10. Thats all. And I'm very productive

    Posted via Q10Bold
    12-27-14 02:47 PM
  16. TgeekB's Avatar
    I love my Q10. Thats all. And I'm very productive

    Posted via Q10Bold
    Which is all that matters. You cannot properly measure such a subjective element.

    Posted from my Classic.
    12-27-14 02:49 PM
  17. bboldboy's Avatar
    Which is all that matters. You cannot properly measure such a subjective element.

    Posted from my Classic.
    It 's part of what matters, and depending "what" it is, it may or may not be measurable. However, it is possible to measure the speed and accuracy of text inputting with a smart phone as can other productivity -related aspects such as text editing, device navigation and browser speed. Many users would find such data useful in making their purchase decisions.
    It's interesting to read the comments in response to James Richardson's December 24th survey and article about the preferences of BlackBerry users with respect to touch or physical keyboards. There is quite a diversity of views about the advantages of either. I find it difficult to believe that an physical keyboard device would be faster than a touch device with predictive texting capability, but some some believe that to be so. Subjective impressions may not be accurate, or there might be a learning period where the physical keyboard is found superior to the touch keyboard, or in the case of the Passport, the hybrid keyboard. Performance data collected from an average group of users would be helpful to resolve some of these divergent views and help consumers make their purchase decisions. .
    12-28-14 01:08 AM
  18. TgeekB's Avatar
    It 's part of what matters, and depending "what" it is, it may or may not be measurable. However, it is possible to measure the speed and accuracy of text inputting with a smart phone as can other productivity -related aspects such as text editing, device navigation and browser speed. Many users would find such data useful in making their purchase decisions.
    It's interesting to read the comments in response to James Richardson's December 24th survey and article about the preferences of BlackBerry users with respect to touch or physical keyboards. There is quite a diversity of views about the advantages of either. I find it difficult to believe that an physical keyboard device would be faster than a touch device with predictive texting capability, but some some believe that to be so. Subjective impressions may not be accurate, or there might be a learning period where the physical keyboard is found superior to the touch keyboard, or in the case of the Passport, the hybrid keyboard. Performance data collected from an average group of users would be helpful to resolve some of these divergent views and help consumers make their purchase decisions. .
    You have to take into consideration a users abilities also, Some people find typing on a vk almost impossible and spelling mistakes slow them down. I am one of those people and I have used several vk phones. I can type much faster and more accurately on my Classic. It would be interesting to see the numbers though as most people say I'm in the minority.
    12-28-14 08:27 AM
  19. bboldboy's Avatar
    That's a very valid point and it underlines how interesting the data would be. What if 20 per cent of all smartphone users for whatever innate reason could type faster on a physical keyboard? Even if it were 2 or 3 per cent, that would be very significant given Blackberry's current market share and the fact that they are currently the only supplier of physical keyboard devices.
    The marketing task would be to convince people that they might be part of this minority and that they should consider, or re-consider, that option. You would think that BlackBerry has that kind of data given the focus they have given the keyboard and device productivity more generally. Then again, maybe they don't or there are reasons why they would not want to make it public.
    12-28-14 12:47 PM
  20. MikeX74's Avatar
    Since how you, or I, or anyone else might define "being productive" is probably different, it's a difficult thing to measure. This reminds me of the "real work" argument Windows/Windows Phone users like to make. I can do what I consider "real work" on any phone or tablet with half-decent specs, but the same may not hold true for anyone else.
    TGR1 likes this.
    12-28-14 12:57 PM
  21. bboldboy's Avatar
    Since how you, or I, or anyone else might define "being productive" is probably different, it's a difficult thing to measure. This reminds me of the "real work" argument Windows/Windows Phone users like to make. I can do what I consider "real work" on any phone or tablet with half-decent specs, but the same may not hold true for anyone else.
    I agree you can define productivity differently, but if we narrow the discussion to speed/accuracy of text inputting and the speed (hence ease) of text editing, then most users -- but not all -- are going to find those to be important measures of productivity and significant to their device choice. Tell me more about about the
    Windows /Windows Phone “real work " argument. I'm not familiar with it.
    12-28-14 01:39 PM
  22. early2bed's Avatar
    You could also define productivity as being able to quickly and reliably use any mobile application.
    mornhavon likes this.
    12-29-14 06:37 AM
  23. MikeX74's Avatar
    Their contention is that "real work" is stuff like document creation and can only be done efficiently on Windows-based products, and that devices like the iPad are meant solely as consumption devices, not as creation or productivity devices.
    Last edited by MikeX74; 12-29-14 at 04:08 PM.
    12-29-14 03:47 PM

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