[kfh227]

Personally, I don't get the following argument:
People with Android will not switch because they are embedded with the environment already.

Is it just me or can I use social media (Facebook, e-mail, etc) on any make/model of phone?
Apps? I havn't paid of a single app and that $1 game I might have bought a year ago and not played for 9 months? I don't care if I loose it.
Music/Movies? Is this it? People that bought movies/music don't want to migrate? Some use a Google service to put their music on the cloud and get it anywhere. Is this the ecosystem?

I just don't get it. There is nothing so precious on my phone that I won't switch "ecosystems".

Please provide concrete examples.

[Rello]

I think you need to open your mind to other possibilities a little bit. Plenty of people both pay for apps and use them on a daily basis. If someone really uses netflix or instagram, that could be a huge barrier to them switching if they use these on a daily basis. People who have bought tons of tracks on itunes are invested into into their ecosystem (althought I'm sure their music is DRM free correct me if I'm wrong someone). If anything they use daily isn't there, I can see how it may give them pause in switching. At that point, the most you can hope for is that they just want a fresh experience and are mayb tired of their current OS.

[kfh227]

Rello,

Good points. It makes alot of sense.

And it can't be that "you can do that through sideloading" either. It needs to be on the app store.

Some info:
All iTunes music is DRM free. RIM needs to make migrating that music to Blackberry painless! (As an investor, I hope RIM is reading this)

FYI:
Having said that, Netflix is rumored to be on the way and Instagram can be sideloaded.

Maybe I'm somewhat rare.

Is Google Play on BB10? if not, it needs to be. Or RIMM needs to make an app that can transfer all that music to their own equivalent.

[darkehawke]

Personally, I don't get the following argument:
People with Android will not switch because they are embedded with the environment already.

Is it just me or can I use social media (Facebook, e-mail, etc) on any make/model of phone?
Apps? I havn't paid of a single app and that $1 game I might have bought a year ago and not played for 9 months? I don't care if I loose it.
Music/Movies? Is this it? People that bought movies/music don't want to migrate? Some use a Google service to put their music on the cloud and get it anywhere. Is this the ecosystem?

I just don't get it. There is nothing so precious on my phone that I won't switch "ecosystems".

Please provide concrete examples.

you said it yourself, you dont buy apps.
but other people do, and they're the ones who get caught in an ecosystem.
and they are more numerous then you'd think.

Sent from my BlackBerry 9810 using Tapatalk

[Tre Lawrence]

I think it can be a valid concern.

One thing is how you define ecosystem. I look at what Apple has done as an effective prototype. Device, apps, content, peripherals, PCs... all somewhat connected to iTunes. People tie in, but most importantly, they seem satisfied, and thus, less likely to leave anyway.

For me, the ecosystem represents a way of doing things that I prefer. I use Android, so I prefer not to have a desktop manager. I prefer to be able to purchase music -- relatively cheaply -- and media OTA, and stream it to numerous devices. I like having access to the latest and greatest apps to increase my productivity.

Take communications , for instance. I use a Google Number as my primary number, and use Google Apps for free domain email (and manage company email as well). Gmail IMAP trumps everything else for me. So having an Android device works. Getting, say, Angry Birds premium for free and using it on 6 or seven household devices is priceless.

I love to tinker... so again, Android works for me. I have created quite a system that works for my family, and it helps that Android has patched together a reasonable ecosystem.

I read somewhere that as iTunes is the center of Apple's ecosystem, BlackBerry's keyboard was the center of the old RIM's. Kinda makes sense. Now, having said all that, if any platform is compelling enough, I am willing to try, as long as my productivity actually increases. I was invested in BlackBerry, and Palm before that, and relish viable technology.

[Emu the Foo]

Good point about being "provincial" (am I using that right?) People shouldn't be crazy attached to one OS just like they shouldn't be racist. But they are. But I can also see why. They spend so much time, money and effort in to they way they want it they might not move. But to those that are ready to move on there is a choice. And they can try here if it has what they need.

Ps instagram seems to be a native app already and not side loaded anymo'!

[Tre Lawrence]

When I'm looking at new devices, I'm one of those nerds that has a checklist. What can "Device X" do for me and mine?

Premium on ease of use.

[kfh227]

you said it yourself, you dont buy apps.
but other people do, and they're the ones who get caught in an ecosystem.
and they are more numerous then you'd think.

Sent from my BlackBerry 9810 using Tapatalk

Warning, have a FEW BEERS IN ME.

I can understand some $50 productivity app.

But if it is $1 for some game, is there really a moat? That's like saying my XBox 360 games that I don't play anymore will make my buy ad XBox 720 when it comes out.

But yes, if there is some must have app that is more than $5, I can see people having second thoughts.

the thing is, what percentage of the market falls in this category? It's simple to say that people won't switch. How many really won't? This is a question that is highly ignored. I guess download stats on all apps/games in the android market when price is over $5 (not 4.99, not 5.00, 5.01+) could give some insight into this real number.

[EdY]

This is the reason not to buy DRM-protected iTunes content, although I heard they removed it (is that true?). Once you buy something you should be allowed to put it on any device you move to.

Then again with today's "legal" contracts you agree to, you don't actually own anything, you are just licensed to listen to it, and they can just restrict the license to whatever they want.

You pay for being allowed the convenience to download content and play it on device XYZ for a specified period of time. Not like buying a CD at all.

Sent from my BlackBerry 9810 using Crackberry Tapatalk Forum app

[fernandez21]

Ecosystem is not only apps, but also accessories. Such as, my clock radio has a built in dock for my iPhone and iPad, I have an apple tv and use air play, and there are other peripherals that only work for the iPhone. So if I was some one that had a ton of those, getting a different phone would make all those devices pretty much useless.

And for those asking, All music in iTunes is now DRM free. The only thing in iTunes that has DRM is movies/tv shows and apps.

[darkehawke]

Warning, have a FEW BEERS IN ME.

I can understand some $50 productivity app.

But if it is $1 for some game, is there really a moat? That's like saying my XBox 360 games that I don't play anymore will make my buy ad XBox 720 when it comes out.

But yes, if there is some must have app that is more than $5, I can see people having second thoughts.

the thing is, what percentage of the market falls in this category? It's simple to say that people won't switch. How many really won't? This is a question that is highly ignored. I guess download stats on all apps/games in the android market when price is over $5 (not 4.99, not 5.00, 5.01+) could give some insight into this real number.

i can see your point for a few �1 games.
but if they have 50 �1 apps that they use regularly then you can see it gets expensive.
depends on the price of the app, the number of apps, and what the person deems as too expensive to start over again.
Those three points are key and differ from person to person

[cgk]

OK, if you don't care about apps and you think that most users don't care about apps - what's the attraction in the blackberry ecosystem for developers?

[katiepea]

Right now there's a lot of function I get with android that I'd lose on bb10. Cloud service, group video chat, push gmail / contacts / calendar, awesome navigation maps system that doesn't require data, Google music (remote storage of 150gb of music that caches). That's all part of the android ecosystem and if I switch to bb10 I'll lose all of those things