Nokia Experts on BlackBerry - Round Robin

[silenttt123]

I think that RIM WILL continue to produce touchscreen BB's. They have no need to stop, the tech is pretty good that they are using, and I think that they have room for inprovement, and definitely can do it.

I would be more than happy if RIM were to modernize thier UI.. But at the same time, I like what they have already. It's just a case of getting used to something different agian.

[iLovemy_bb]

Originally Posted by Erkenntnis

I seem to have given the impression that it does this -whenever- I install a third-party app. I did not mean to give that impression, because that's not what happens. It appears to be a totally random event, and I have installed many more apps successfully than I have had the issue I describe, but the last two times it has happened, it happened with downloads from BlackBerry App World - first was BBM 5.0, and the second was Evernote.

And this is an issue other BB users have. I have read forum posts from other Tour/OS 4.7 users, and theories about why it happens as well, right here on the CrackBerry forums, about this very problem. And while it is nice to hear that you have not had any problems, your experience does not rule out the existence of problems with the Tour's OS, or the possibility that RIM is at fault.

Evernote truly sucks man...I had that early on and removed after a few days. It has never worked for me and I have a 8900. The Tour had it's issues like some BB's initially but RIM cleans that up with fresh OS releases. I agree with you though, these things can happen to all of us, but don't fault the OS, fault the app dev's. It's not like you turned your BB on, sent a text and it bricked on you. Just some food for thought.

[BerSerX]

1. I believe that RIM's market shares have been increasing due to businesses of most types realizing the benefits of having a BB. The superior security when sending & receiving sensitive info. The push email feature helps when there are last minute meetings or changes.

2. The touchscreen is sort of a evolutionary branch in tech that consumers have grabbed onto. The way they did when QWERTY keyboards debuted. Everyone likes options & not being forced to have just one choice. It's just another piece of the foundation that holds up the house of RIM.

3. I would miss the push email feature. It greatly helps when I'm working, need certain info sent to me, & not near a computer. More convenient than just loading & bloating my phone with every bit of info I have stored on my pc/laptop.

4. RIM does need to modernize & improve the UI. They've made great leaps w/ upgrades but it shouldn't take longer to reboot my BB compared to my laptop(Vista).

5. The E71 keyboard is too cramped due to the bar form from older models. The E72 has a much improved & sleeker form factor that improves on the keyboard. The BB keyboard has much better usability & efficiency due to the closeness of the layout to a regular keyboard. Nokia shouldn't have shifted everything towards the left. It makes it almost as difficult as trying to use multi-tap on a basic keypad.

[nvious]

Sorry to hijack as such but here's something I'd like you guys to look at :

Mobile Users » Blackberry vs Nokia: The Email Battle

What do you guys think? (I know its a hard-core blackberry community here but competition = improvement!)

Oh and answer to 5. Mobile Users » E71 vs 8900: The Battle for Business Market

[BlkBear]

Originally Posted by palmsolo

1. Like Nokia, RIM has been around for many years. Nokia is the worldwide market leader, but does not do well in North America while RIM has an increasing market share here. What do you think this can be attributed to?

I think many cell phone users gravitate to what happens to look good. And many will only buy what is advertised as cool and something to show off, and "they" are not going to want to show off a beater phone. Over the years Nokia phones have been one of those "Free Beater" phones with many of the US carriers. Good and sturdy but cheap, drop it, scratch it up, don't care about it starter phones, that you keep until you get something better.

Originally Posted by palmsolo

2. I've played a bit with Kevin's Storm 2 and am wondering if you all think RIM will continue to make touchscreen BlackBerry devices? It seems to me that QWERTY keyboard devices are the heart and soul of RIM and the touchscreen seems a bit out of character.

I think RIM's bread and butter will always be QWERTY keyboards, even if they have to make a dual keyboard device and a touch screen only device that is the same, just without a physical keyboard. But they do have do better with what they offer in the way of touch screens, because right now, it's just not there yet. Computer keyboards have been around longer than BlackBerry phones, and while there are virtual keyboards and touch screen pads, they are not the norm, and won't be any time soon. So for now QWERTY is going to be safe with RIM.

Originally Posted by palmsolo

3. What BlackBerry feature do you think you'd miss the most if somebody replaced your BlackBerry with a Nokia smartphone?

You know there are no Blackberry only features that I'd actually miss, other than RIM's Qwerty style keyboard. The people I know, can reach me using texts, phone, efax or email. I have had email filters that have been setup for years. PUSH mail isn't a big deal for me.

Originally Posted by palmsolo

4. Like Nokia, RIM's UI is dated. Do you think RIM needs to modernize it or are your perfectly happy and familiar with what you have now?

It would be nice if RIM did a overhaul on their UI, or allowed for it to be user customizable to a greater level than it is now. The ability to install fonts would be a great option for many users. But once you get past flicking and scrolling screens, pretty backgrounds and LEDs that flash morse code, to let you know that a message, text or email has just arrived or some sort of attention is needed because you didn't pay attention the the reminders the first few hours it's been blinking or to warn you that the battery is drained and you need to plug in now or miss all those important messages you have reminders blinking on and on, which have gone ignored. (Which was the reason for the apps you installed to remind you of messages and phone calls every time you got a new one).

Da Bear's Blackberry Basics:

The ability to make and receive phone calls is #1 in my mind. If this means putting a beefier antenna in the phone along with a beefier battery, so be it.

Power hungry smartphones should ship with the most robust batteries available out of the box. If it adds weight too bad, if it adds cost, so what? If you advertise 3G, 24/7 news feeds, talk any time, text until your fingers bleed and surf until your eyes fall out..... you better have a battery in the phone that can live up to at least 16 hours of that between charging, because the main reason people have cell phones, is so they can move around and not be trapped at the end of a six foot cable , like their grandmother's old rotor house phone, with the powdered end in jammed into a wall, computer or handy Art Deco Lamp with USB ports (a friend has one).

More processing power. (yeah yeah I know needs a better battery)

A snappier web browser that does not bog down when viewing non WAP web pages.

Min memory size after OS and native apps are installed should be 512MB for the app crazed fans out there.

SIM card and SD card should be accessible without removing the battery on all future Blackberries.

And for those times that you must remove the battery, booting from ROM should be a tad faster than it is now on most BB's. I can just about get a power shower done in the time it takes most BB's to boot from having the battery out.

Originally Posted by palmsolo

5. Have you seen the Nokia E71 or E72 with front facing QWERTY like a typical BlackBerry? What differentiates a BlackBerry from these devices?

Having not seen them in hand, so can't comment.

[onlineaddy]

1. Capitalism in NA results in more business use for BB's.
2. RIM has got to improve its touch technology or else it needs to go back to physical keyboards.
3. Corporate mail integration.
4. BB OS sooooo needs an update!
5. No, I have not seen them.

[rboren0119]

Rim has been a decsent phone for me but I would like to try the nokias because I've heard that the OS is much better than the Blackberry OS. I would love a chance to see how a Nokia phone works.

[gtstang462002]

I think that you will see many more touchscreen Blackberrys from RIM. I think that also in the coming years there will be a major overhaul to the UI on the Blackberry platform as well. The core components will likely remain the same but the upper layer that the user interacts with will likely get a face lift.

[Sanch0]

1. I think that theres a generational gap among cell phone users. It hasn't been long since cell phones have gone from calling people to full out multimedia connectivity devices. I almost couldn't call a Blackberry a cell phones, its much more than that. To me, companies like Nokia, Palm, and Motorola have been consistent with their older phones, but I don't usually associate these companies with high end multimedia feature packed devices. I think more of the Samsungs, the HTCs, the LGs, etc as featured packed devices. I was very surprised when Palm came out with the Pre, quite a leap for a company that kind of feel off the market for many years. Motorola came back with the Droid, which is doing very well for the company. Even though Nokia has the N97, I wouldn't really associate Nokia with the high end smartphone market, but then again the other two have surprised me as well.

2. There has been a lot of discussion about this and I believe that the physical keyboard is the heart of the Blackberry, but that doesn't mean that the company is confined to that mold. Look at companies like GM, who continued with the same practices for decades, refusing to change or comprise, to move with the tide. Sometimes this means taking risks, as RIM did with the first storm. It became the precursor to the Storm 2, which is an outstanding phone, but sometimes we have to make mistakes to get it right. I wasn't particularly fond of a clicking touchscreen, but since i've gotten used to it. Perhaps the "click" is still inherent from the physical qwerty blackberries with the trackballs.

3. There's nothing RIM has done feature wise that cannot be duplicated by Nokia. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and Apple was an early adopter for the touch screen cell phone (and look how many more there are now).

4. As much as i'd like to see something new from the company, i'm currently happy with the UI. I think the selling point of a Blackberry is primarily the functionality. Can you guess why the Storm did so poorly the first quarter it came out? You will always be faced with cynics that are resistant to change.

5. Yes I have seen the Nokia E71. What differentiates the two, besides the size and feel of the device, is the functionality of its menus. Here is an example of when the software is more important than the hardware. Blackberries come with a very consistent menu system that anyone who has used a blackberry will feel at home with. Whether or not the E71 mimics the Blackberry OS, I don't know, i've never used the device. Probably what differentiates it the most would be the Blackberry network, which has been very well maintained. I don't know if you can get that kind of experience

[wiseolddragon]

Originally Posted by palmsolo

1. Like Nokia, RIM has been around for many years. Nokia is the worldwide market leader, but does not do well in North America while RIM has an increasing market share here. What do you think this can be attributed to?

Worldwide phones are sold without carrier contracts, but in North America the public is not used to paying $100-300 for a phone with minimal features. I think that Nokia has been pushing out too many low budget phones with nothing that grabs attention in hopes of competing on price with contract deals. I see so many $0 phones with 3-year contracts at my Rogers retailer, that they all sortof seem the same to me regardless of cell phone brand. With all of the low budget phones that Nokia has made in the past, it seems the public has now associated Nokia with 'phones that are plain & ordinary'

Originally Posted by palmsolo

2. I've played a bit with Kevin's Storm 2 and am wondering if you all think RIM will continue to make touchscreen BlackBerry devices? It seems to me that QWERTY keyboard devices are the heart and soul of RIM and the touchscreen seems a bit out of character.

I think that RIM will always continue to make qwerty phones. Its just faster and more accurate than any other type of interface. Until mind reading devices come out, i dont think RIM's going to give up on QWERTY anytime soon.
I like how RIM is diversifying with touchscreens though, it just gives consumers more choice.

Originally Posted by palmsolo

3. What BlackBerry feature do you think you'd miss the most if somebody replaced your BlackBerry with a Nokia smartphone?

I think I would miss the apps I have grown to use. Especially BBM.

Originally Posted by palmsolo

4. Like Nokia, RIM's UI is dated. Do you think RIM needs to modernize it or are your perfectly happy and familiar with what you have now?

I'm satisfied with RIM's interface, it gets the job done most of the time. I would rather have RIM use their resources developing security, efficiency, and speed then the appearance of their UI

Originally Posted by palmsolo

5. Have you seen the Nokia E71 or E72 with front facing QWERTY like a typical BlackBerry? What differentiates a BlackBerry from these devices?

I just do not like Symbian phones. Sure everything is fast and efficient, but it lacks something I cannot descibe. Since moving over to BB I find that there there is always something interesting about BB's Os. Like.. random reboots and freezes. But it brings me great satisfaction whenever I figure out how to fix it
If Nokia had Android based phones, with elegant designs I would seriously consider them as a serious contender in the smartphone market.

[papped]

BB interface is easier to use than Nokia's, particularly s60v5 which is very terrible on devices like the 5800 and n97. Storm's interface blows those two phones out of the water. Certain Nokia phones have very restricted today screens that make the interface very annoying, like the 5800/5530.

Nokia's email client and chat client are pretty terrible also (particularly email).

As far as Nokia's touchscreen devices, they should seriously give up on any of the s60 based touchscreens because their offerings are fairly terrible. They have a pretty decent offering on the s60v3 devices and the maemo based stuff (but maemo doesn't have much traction right now).

[abezapata]

Lets see if you can bring us to the rebel side from the dark side lol. Okay now for your questions:

1. Like Nokia, RIM has been around for many years. Nokia is the worldwide market leader, but does not do well in North America while RIM has an increasing market share here. What do you think this can be attributed to?
Well BlackBerry has been integrated to many professional and business companies. Also, Blackberry markets its phones to a more professional crowd that has the ability to fork over the money. Nokia on the other hand tries to advertise itself to a more broader audience. Something that also attributes to BlackBerrys increased market share is its prestige as a reliable (the best) email phone producer.

2. I've played a bit with Kevin's Storm 2 and am wondering if you all think RIM will continue to make touchscreen BlackBerry devices? It seems to me that QWERTY keyboard devices are the heart and soul of RIM and the touchscreen seems a bit out of character.
I really do not like the touch software RIM has to offer. I have played around with the Storm and Storm 2, and I found that it was not a welcoming experience. I had an iPhone 3G before my BB 8900 and I think that the iPhone does touch the best in my opinion. RIM should stick to their amazing physical keyboards and the new and impressive tackpad.

3. What BlackBerry feature do you think you'd miss the most if somebody replaced your BlackBerry with a Nokia smartphone?
BlackBerry Messenger of course. This app keeps me from running back to the iPhone or to the android platform.

4. Like Nokia, RIM's UI is dated. Do you think RIM needs to modernize it or are your perfectly happy and familiar with what you have now?
The RIM OS is dated but it works. I would love to see what RIM would hope to do if it updated its OS but like they say,"If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

5. Have you seen the Nokia E71 or E72 with front facing QWERTY like a typical BlackBerry? What differentiates a BlackBerry from these devices?
Yes I have seen them but the Blackberry stands out with the appearance of the hardware and the os. BlackBerry phones look sexy and professional at the same time.

[palmsolo]

What a friendly and helpful community Kevin has here at CrackBerry.com! Thank you all for the very interesting replies. I did have the chance to play with the Bold 9700 and as a T-Mobile USA customer I am VERY tempted to go pick one up because I really do like QWERTY keyboards and that display is beautiful.

I have a couple further questions that concern me before I add a BB device to my collection.
(1) I use Exchange at work and my company is small so they will NOT add a BES. Is there a way to sync Exchange Calendar, Contacts, and Email with a BlackBerry without a BES wirelessly?
(2) If I purchased a BB on T-Mobile USA could I still pop out that SIM card and use it in my Nokia devices without a problem?

I recently purchased a B&N nook and see there is a BlackBerry client so that is very intriguing to me as well.

[ADGrant]

Originally Posted by palmsolo

1. Like Nokia, RIM has been around for many years. Nokia is the worldwide market leader, but does not do well in North America while RIM has an increasing market share here. What do you think this can be attributed to?
2. I've played a bit with Kevin's Storm 2 and am wondering if you all think RIM will continue to make touchscreen BlackBerry devices? It seems to me that QWERTY keyboard devices are the heart and soul of RIM and the touchscreen seems a bit out of character.
3. What BlackBerry feature do you think you'd miss the most if somebody replaced your BlackBerry with a Nokia smartphone?
4. Like Nokia, RIM's UI is dated. Do you think RIM needs to modernize it or are your perfectly happy and familiar with what you have now?
5. Have you seen the Nokia E71 or E72 with front facing QWERTY like a typical BlackBerry? What differentiates a BlackBerry from these devices?

1. RIM builds devices that meet the needs of large corporate IT depts and email/message centric uses. Nokia not so much. The email/messaging clients appear to be a bit of a mess. Also Nokia has very little carrier support here.

2. Personally I hate touch screen keyboards. I don't see the point in buying a storm. It's not like the BB browser is very good.

3 The email and third party app support.

4 The RIM UI works very well and the 4.6 and up OS versions are very polished compared to older version.

5 The 71 is a nice phone except for the low res screen and 2.5mm jack. Shame Nokia messed up the E71x. The E72 seems to have downgraded the keyboard. The big problem with these phones is the email software and the perception that S60 is a dead end.

[redman213]

Originally Posted by palmsolo

This is my first year participating with the Smartphone Round Robin and I am honored to be a part of the Smartphone Experts group. This week Nokia Experts (that's me) is taking a look at the almighty BlackBerry platform and to kick things off and help me understand the BlackBerry platform I am starting this thread and plan to participate in the discussion here on CrackBerry.com.

I have some familiarity with the BlackBerry platform and some devices, but this is a platform I use the least due to my need to swap my SIM between multiple Nokia devices and I can't have it provisioned for BlackBerry service.

Here are a few questions I have for you BlackBerry owners to kick off the discussion:

1. Like Nokia, RIM has been around for many years. Nokia is the worldwide market leader, but does not do well in North America while RIM has an increasing market share here. What do you think this can be attributed to?
2. I've played a bit with Kevin's Storm 2 and am wondering if you all think RIM will continue to make touchscreen BlackBerry devices? It seems to me that QWERTY keyboard devices are the heart and soul of RIM and the touchscreen seems a bit out of character.
3. What BlackBerry feature do you think you'd miss the most if somebody replaced your BlackBerry with a Nokia smartphone?
4. Like Nokia, RIM's UI is dated. Do you think RIM needs to modernize it or are your perfectly happy and familiar with what you have now?
5. Have you seen the Nokia E71 or E72 with front facing QWERTY like a typical BlackBerry? What differentiates a BlackBerry from these devices?

....there's plenty more to talk about, so don't feel limited by the above. Remember, every day you make a post in this thread for the next week, you'll be automatically entered to win a BlackBerry device from CrackBerry.com! More details at www.smartphoneroundrobin.com

My uncle live in India and the N97 is probably one of the biggest phones there right now. Having grown up in America I've never owned a nokia phone but the N97 does look promising. I think Nokia's "current" image is poor because of the lack of innovation in their line-up. Nokia doesn't really have a Nokia only anything in America and their products don't do anything special or have the hardware appeal like many LG and Samsung phones do. That being said for the average consumer.

RIM would have gone touchscreen sooner or later but I like think of their click screen concept is kind of like making up for missing the keyboard. But hey they have potential and to really unleash it they need to start putting up more consumer ready phones.

I don't know how fast the web browsing is on Nokia phones but if its any slower I'd cry. The only thing I would miss is the familiarity but the was the Blackberry OS works just makes sense to me...if only this business woman of a phone would take off her glasses and let her hair down lol.

People judge books by their cover no matter what people say even I do and with that statement I would really push more companies to improve of the UI of their phones while keeping the same familiarity with the OS and cry tears of joy to how far that would take them.

RIM has really researched their customers preference on keyboards and made something people generally find easy to use. I've used a tour keyboard in-store and was very fond of it. I can't comment on a Nokia keyboard however.