[FirstBerry101]

I have not been a long running RIM fan, in fact I was very much the opposite. I detested Blackberry (for no reason) and would often promote my android phone (HTC DESIRE) as being way better than my wives iphone 3GS and anyones Blackberry.

Then something scary happened, I got a promotion at work and was given a blackberry. It was old. Old and worn. I think it was an 8850 or something like that, small plastic colour screen and a really clicky keyboard. I made fun of it and resented having to lug two phones around with me. My password to get into the phone was driving me crazy, It had to be 12 characters long, a capital letter, special character and a number, And the phone went to sleep every 2 minutes of no activety! what a pain.

Over the course of a month or two something scary happened, I found I was using the workberry more and more. It just worked. Even entering the lame password, I could get in, send off an e-mail or text message chain faster than I could on my android. My spelling mistakes and frustration of hitting five keys at once vanished.

Christmas 2011 something really scary happened, I asked my wife to replace my android for the 9900. Since then I now have 3 playbooks, and even converted my wife to drop the iphone for a torch! (that took some work). I should note she still lugs the iphone around which I pay for so she can play dragon ville.

(side note here) Unlike a lot of people, I don't have the money to buy a new phone all the time. Most if not all of the staff at crackberry are not even running blackberries as the 'daily driver' which drives me crazy. The people promoting blackberry brand should not be using Android phones / or iphones. ....

My last random thought is this... Prior to blackberry 10 being released, which I will buy for sure, here is my question. If RIM released a new flagship such as Bold 2 running OS 7 with some better stats, a re-designed phone like the curvy slider I saw as concept, would anyone purchase it? Probably not I guess with BB10 around the corner. I just found it frustrating when I decided to buy a blackberry for my wife that I had no choice but 15 month old phones, or low end budget phones.

Random thoughts,

Bryan.

[madman0141]

Nice post and I agree about daily drivers but people that work at Dodge factories drive toyota's so what can you say.

[kraski]

Short answer = NO! I'm happy enough with my 9810 that I'd keep it for awhile, if I wasn't upgrading. BB10 is going to be my next phone. I'm not impressed with the models I've seen. I have three concepts I really like -- the TK2 Victory and the TK5 Justice, both from Digital Homeboy, and the Blade slider from Pixelcarve. If RIM brought any of them out, I'd be a happy camper, but I lean toward the slider with a screen that's 1" bigger. Although I'd really like to see what Digital Homeboy could do with a slider, after looking at his other designs.

[steven4u2nv]

If BB is releasing the L-series (iphone and “regularly sized phones” competitor), the A-series (Galaxy S3 and phablet competitor) and the N-series (for keyboard loyalists) then RIM will be unstoppable. I hope this is the plan. Three great phones BB, with an awesome User Experience, for the world to fall in love with. I have been sitting on a upgrade for a while and I hope the A-series is released at the same time was the L and N. Only time will tell. BB10 has got my business, the only question is it in January or is it in March. I am 100% sure I will wait for the A-series if my 9800 will hold out just a little bit longer that is.

[Masahiro]

If RIM were to release an updated 9900, some people will buy it. There are those that simply don't care about having the latest apps, and just want a phone that's proficient at making calls, sending e-mails and instant messaging. Having the convenience key goes a long ways too. Mine's bound to the inbox, and so it's always a single button press away, without having to use swipe gestures, and that's just one example.
However, it's a matter of whether it will be economically feasible for RIM to try and bring to market such a device. Maybe in developing nations, but I don't think it would be worth it in NA.

[FirstBerry101]

The Tk 5 justice running os7 would be cool... How about this an os 7 phone with an upgrading option to bb10..... I know chipset and what not wouldn't work. Dare to dream.

[cgk]

It's not going to happen - OS7 is to Blackberry what Symbian is to Nokia, they will noises about supporting it and I'm sure there will updates but it is effectively yesterday's news.

[belfastdispatcher]

It's not going to happen - OS7 is to Blackberry what Symbian is to Nokia, they will noises about supporting it and I'm sure there will updates but it is effectively yesterday's news.

BBOS lives on, the S model coming out next year. Don't forget 80 million people use a bbos blackberry right now, people love bbos, including myself. There is no reason why people will not continue to buy it. For some BB10 is a too extreme of a change from the current os.

[johnny316]

"Random thoughts, my testament, and would you buy a new (designed) BB OS 7?"
- Got a new 9320 running 7.1 at a great price.

[randall2580]

If there was no BB10 coming, my 9810 would be the last of the 5 BlackBerry phones I have owned to date.

[Taigatrommel]

I don't think it would make any sense to release another non-BB10 flagship. The specs of the 9900 aren't that bad and I somehow think the OS itself limits more than the hardware. It has already said multiple times from multiple sources: The BBOS as we know it (7.x) has already been pushed beyond its limits. Cranking up the hardware again would be nothing more than a workaround. Also what should they upgrade to? Dual- or even quad-core processors? I somehow doubt 7.x supports those. An updated GPU? For what, we don't really have any graphic intense games nor UI elements which would benefit from this.

Even if there would be a new Bold with, let's say a 1.5 GHz CPU as well as 1 GB of RAM and maybe even a 3" display, it wouldn't really be a game changer. I wouldn't even really consider buying it, simply because I doubt it would be a decent upgrade compared to my 9900.

[James Nieves]

its not about what's underneath -- what you do defines you. BB10 bare minimun specs 1ghz dual core 1gb ram. Bb10 doesn't need quadcore ppl just expect it these days. Rim is no part of the "spec" race

[RubberChicken76]

Bb10 doesn't need quadcore ppl just expect it these days.

It's true. I keep asking the question, "can you give me an example where having a quad core CPU enables a game or other application that won't run on a dual core well?" whenever I see the quad core example brought up. No one has given me an answer thus far.

I agree that quad core help makes it last longer down the road, but sometimes it feels like the mobile spec race is kind of silly and advancing quicker than it needs to.

[berryaddictnoza]

Seeing the quick navigation of BB10 makes me think I'll never look back, as long as we get to keep keyboard shortcuts, have some sort of charging pod and have a customizable "convenience key" swipe.

[FirstBerry101]

My wife and I are rocking his and hers z10 currently. fantastic phone.