[maclancer]

I own a playbook and still working like a charm. First let me clear this a little bit, I know the passport is not a tablet but looks like a mini tablet. I like the design, because it is great for reading, editing documents and surf the web. I think it could be a great playbook replacement if you are looking to replace as well your smartphone. It like having a phone and tablet in one package. I love it.
Sent from my Lumia 1520 using Tapatalk

[blueberrymerry]

Here's how it could be the new PlayBook: BlackBerry can't sell them, cuts the price over and over again, then drops support because something better has arrived.

[mtint]

My PlayBook still in use daily, but couple of months ago start thinking about a new 7" tablet. Was considering Windows 8.1 tablets in fact, with the idea it will give me better productivity over Android or iPad tablets.

Well, when I saw the Passport... that was just the right device for me - combo of smartphone and tablet, with physical qwerty keyboard, and not to mention other goodies like capacitive keyboard and so.

Now decision is made, just waiting for the release day.

Posted via CB10

[DOCTOREVIL8]

Here's how it could be the new PlayBook: BlackBerry can't sell them, cuts the price over and over again, then drops support because something better has arrived.

OUCH!!!

Posted via CB10

[BoloMKXXVIII]

How is a device with a 4.5 inch display a replacement for a device with a 7 inch display? I know the Passport has a high resolution display but reading web pages on a 4.5 inch display is not fun. Either the type is way too small or you have to do a lot of scrolling.

[maclancer]

How is a device with a 4.5 inch display a replacement for a device with a 7 inch display? I know the Passport has a high resolution display but reading web pages on a 4.5 inch display is not fun. Either the type is way too small or you have to do a lot of scrolling.

The dimensions are different than regular 4.5 inch phones. It looks more bigger than regular phones with the same ratio.

[joshua_sx1]

Here's how it could be the new PlayBook: BlackBerry can't sell them, cuts the price over and over again, then drops support because something better has arrived.

You forgot to mention that there will be a lot of promises that in the end, they will be forgotten and abandoned. And yeah, in the process, there will be another "us"...

Posted via CB10

[BoloMKXXVIII]

It still has only about 1/3 the screen real estate. Too small for "tablet" use.

[Chrysalis1156]

Here's how it could be the new PlayBook: BlackBerry can't sell them, cuts the price over and over again, then drops support because something better has arrived.

And all of the above will be sprinkled liberally with promises of "soon" and "right around the corner." Painful memories indeed.


Sent from my iPad using CB Forums mobile app

[BrizzadMan]

Large phones are dipping into small tablet sales - so you are not far off. As for it being a tablet replacement - that depends on what you use your PlayBook for.

For me, I consider my Z30 to be my PlayBook replacement. It's still a smaller screen - but large enough that I don't feel the need to reach for a larger screen...

Posted via CB10

[kaalpani]

When Blackberry wil introduce a all touch smartphone (16x9 candy bar format) based on the size of the passport, the "new" playbook will be there! This will result in a 7" smartphone!

[sad_old_man]

I will regret this but here goes?

Could anyone tell me please why no other top of the range smartphone has a physical keyboard?

What is this fanatical insistence with BlackBerry constantly churning out "SMARTPHONES" With a touch screen and a physical keyboard? They put a screen so small on a phone so large and then make the screen touch sensitive but stick a big physical keyboard on it?

I am typing this on my Z10? No physical keyboard? I could type it on my pb? But then again it doesn't have a physical keyboard? Hey BlackBerry we have moved on from the 14th centuary?

Perhaps we should tell apple and samsung they have got it wrong.

Posted via CB10

[sad_old_man]

I wunder?

[BrizzadMan]

I wunder?

Virtual keyboards aren't for everyone. I'm fine with the Z30, though never liked the keyboard on iOS.

It may be a small %, yes - but it still represents 10's of millions of people. Many women I know on physical keyboard BlackBerry devices detest touch screens because they are 'nail typists'. Not being able to use the tips of their thumbs/fingers does not aid to using touch screens. Again, a small % - but some people simply prefer it.

Touch screen keyboards are famous for auto correct errors, even BlackBerry's. At least with a physical keyboard you can make a typo, a real spelling error - and someone will understand the word you meant. Whereas with auto correct it will use such a different word out of context- it is difficult to decipher the original meaning, or worse - will be unprofessional.

Posted via CB10

[sad_old_man]

Virtual keyboards aren't for everyone. I'm fine with the Z30, though never liked the keyboard on iOS.

It may be a small %, yes - but it still represents 10's of millions of people. Many women I know on physical keyboard BlackBerry devices detest touch screens because they are 'nail typists'. Not being able to use the tips of their thumbs/fingers does not aid to using touch screens. Again, a small % - but some people simply prefer it.

Touch screen keyboards are famous for auto correct errors, even BlackBerry's. At least with a physical keyboard you can make a typo, a real spelling error - and someone will understand the word you meant. Whereas with auto correct it will use such a different word out of context- it is difficult to decipher the original meaning, or worse - will be unprofessional.

Posted via CB10

Yes I am intelligent enough to work that out from reading this and other forums to realise that for some reason unknown to me bb fanatics doggedly stick to a physical keyboard but that was not my question?

Tell me one other SUCCESSFUL. High end market smartphone that has one?

It's nice if you like it and it's available on a phone that you like, but from a business perspective producing very expensive smartphones for 4% of users in the market who find a virtual keyboard difficult to use does not lead to a profitable business. I have two Z10s, an iPhone 5s, a Samsung S4 and a Samsung S5. I honestly couldn't wait to see the new passport from bb but after seeing the first image of it with the bb regulation physical keyboard stuck on the bottom of it yet again I didn't even read the article any further. To me it's just like my very first curve only its square and can't use BIS?

Is this dogged adherence to the physical keyboard really a successful way to pave a road out of bankruptcy for bb. Come on guys let's at least try to embrace the 14th century even if we don't agree with it?

[insandouts]

I own a playbook and still working like a charm. First let me clear this a little bit, I know the passport is not a tablet but looks like a mini tablet. I like the design, because it is great for reading, editing documents and surf the web. I think it could be a great playbook replacement if you are looking to replace as well your smartphone. It like having a phone and tablet in one package. I love it.
Sent from my Lumia 1520 using Tapatalk

Tablets do not have and should not have keyboards

[Thunderbuck]

I will regret this but here goes?

Could anyone tell me please why no other top of the range smartphone has a physical keyboard?

What is this fanatical insistence with BlackBerry constantly churning out "SMARTPHONES" With a touch screen and a physical keyboard? They put a screen so small on a phone so large and then make the screen touch sensitive but stick a big physical keyboard on it?

I am typing this on my Z10? No physical keyboard? I could type it on my pb? But then again it doesn't have a physical keyboard? Hey BlackBerry we have moved on from the 14th centuary?

Perhaps we should tell apple and samsung they have got it wrong.

Posted via CB10

I think there's a couple of factors that help explain why a physical keyboard phone still makes sense for BlackBerry even when it may not for anyone else.

BlackBerry was first to the market with a pkb phone, and they continually improved it. In fact, they're so good at it that many pkb phones are generically referred to as "BlackBerry", even when they're from Nokia or Motorola.

The thing is, nobody has ever built a kb phone that works as well as a BlackBerry. It's the one niche that they really own on the hardware side. I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that when BlackBerry's sales started to slide, the other manufacturers took it as a sign that the market for pkb phones in general was disappearing and not worth pursuing. Especially when many consumers view pkb phones as looking "old fashioned".

There evidently is still a market, though. When Heins unveiled the BB10 virtual keyboard at BlackBerry World back in 2012, RIM's stock took a huge hit when Heins' comments were misinterpreted to suggest there would be no more pkb phones. Since then, enterprise customers have been really vocal in demanding that there be decent pkb phones available, and that particularly explains the upcoming Q20 "Classic" device.

I'm not completely clear where the Passport fits into this story, though. I don't think it was developed as an "enterprise" phone so much as an "executive" one, and there's a difference. I think the Passport has been designed deliberately to be a style and technology leader, and there's little call for such a phone on the enterprise side.

[BrizzadMan]

Yes I am intelligent enough to work that out from reading this and other forums to realise that for some reason unknown to me bb fanatics doggedly stick to a physical keyboard but that was not my question?

Tell me one other SUCCESSFUL. High end market smartphone that has one?

Congratulations on your intelligence. Also for asking a question everyone knows the answer to.

I was not referring to BlackBerry fanatics completely. Some of the females I referred to as nail-typists are not so much BlackBerry fanatics as they are simply dependent on a physical keyboard. I'm sure if there were a competitive option for them, they would jump ship immediately.



Posted via CB10

[BoloMKXXVIII]

Do NOT buy a Blackberry Passport until you read this

[BroncoVAL]

Do NOT buy a Blackberry Passport until you read this

and once you read it, don't lose time commenting this article, just take a good laugh, and wait patiently for the Passport's launch to buy it.

[sad_old_man]

Congratulations on your intelligence. Also for asking a question everyone knows the answer to.

I was not referring to BlackBerry fanatics completely. Some of the females I referred to as nail-typists are not so much BlackBerry fanatics as they are simply dependent on a physical keyboard. I'm sure if there were a competitive option for them, they would jump ship immediately.



Posted via CB10

Ok in advance I'm very sorry for this as it's been a very very hard three days and it's still continuing but if that is the last bastion that BlackBerry base their financial recovery on, "producing handsets for fashionable females with stuck on fingernails " then god help them. My advice is tell them to save money and don't have false nails stuck on in the first place and then they could use their fingers like god intended them to do?

Posted via CB10

[BrizzadMan]

Ok in advance I'm very sorry for this as it's been a very very hard three days and it's still continuing but if that is the last bastion that BlackBerry base their financial recovery on, "producing handsets for fashionable females with stuck on fingernails " then god help them. My advice is tell them to save money and don't have false nails stuck on in the first place and then they could use their fingers like god intended them to do?

Posted via CB10

The nail typists go where the keyboards are... not that BlackBerry is catering to them. :P



Posted via CB10

[sad_old_man]

In that case no valid reason to continue tagging an anarchic virtual keyboard to every BlackBerry hanset?

Posted via CB10

[joshua_sx1]

BlackBerry should make a device name "PassBoook" or "Playport"...

Seriously, the problem with PlayBook is it OS. It is like a mutant OS between OS7 and BB10. It evolved from OS7 buy failed to become BB10. And BlackBerry has limited resources to handle and maintain three OS's (probably don't even have enough resources to evolve PlayBook OS to BB10) so they have to kill the weakest profitable device (not even profitable, I guess) - our beloved PlayBook.

BlackBerry Passport on the other hand is already BB10. And this is the current OS that BlackBerry is fully supporting and maintaining so most likely, Passport will not have the same fate as PlayBook. And it seems that the marketing strategy in Passport improved compare to how they handle PlayBook before...

Posted via CB10

[BoloMKXXVIII]

Except the developers of apps have "left the building". Blackberry touts the ability to run Android apps because they cannot get developers of many in-demand apps port their apps to BB10 even when it is often an easy process. Windows phone is in the same boat.