1. casefile101's Avatar
    A little bit of background first so you know where I'm coming from:
    Ive been a BB user since way back in 2007. My first BB was the Curve 8310 and for the time it was a smokin set. I had just begun working at Mobilink GSM (at the time it was the largest GSM provider in Pakistan) as a Technical Sales Engineer. I had an MSc in Mobile and Personal Communications from Kings College London. They gave me the 8310 with one mission, "Help us boost sales by any means necessary, you're the techie help the sales team shift this set".

    Our main handset competition was the Apple iPhone. You have to understand the people buying smartphones in Pakistan back in 2007 was ********. I mean the "majority" (not all - alot of decent users who used their sets to the max) of smartphone users were people who needed the sets as a fashion accessory to show off how rich and successful they were. When trying to help design pitches to that market the only feedback we got was "Look at my iPhone, can your blackberry swipe as smooth as this?" Complete ID10TS! People who only really used 2 buttons. The green one to pick up a call, and the red one to hang up. It was back then that I joined crackberry and although I have very rarely posted have been gobbling up the information all of you intelligent people have been sharing.

    And so began my fight against the Apple device and thus promotion of the BlackBerry email platform. I used a combination of tech advantages with some good old fashioned FUD (Fear, Uncertainty & Doubt).

    1. The battery life. BlackBerries were known to have batteries which went on forever... iPhone didn't.
    2. If the battery died which does happen you can swap it out yourself for a new one... Not on iPhone you cant.
    3. The true 2MP (not software enhanced crap... Nokia) would hands down beat the picture quality of the iPhone. And it did when it came to quality.
    4. You could drop the phone and it would still go on... Not on the iPhone you couldnt.
    5. Should a leaky app cause the software to hangup, simply remove the battery, wait for 5 secs and reinsert... A luxary iPhone did not have where you had to wait for the whole battery to lose charge and then recharge it from dead, only to find that your jailbroken iPhone (no official Apple presence in Pakistan at the time) was not Jailbroken anymore.
    6. The 256bit DES security (BES) and 128bit AES security (BIS) would keep all of your data secure. It is so secure that when Obama (2008) wanted to use his Storm 9530 they had to build him an entire data centre so the CIA could snoop him. Does iPhone offer that level of security... No.
    7. BBM which at the time had no match, Windows Live Messenger and Google Talk were buggy and full of idiots. iPhone users couldnt even use threaded SMS. I can go on and on about the virtues of BBM but it isnt required.
    8. True Push Email... None of that virtual Push crap iPhone and Nokia was spitting out back in the day. The emails you need to make your urgent business decisions... instantly. And if you deployed to all of your staff, you could ensure they were at work 24/7!! The office followed them everywhere.
    9. Better data handling especially when roaming so no hugh data roaming bills.
    ...

    The list kept growing and we took over the market. We managed to give BlackBerry the image in Pakistan (I was promoted to National Technical Sales Engineer where I went across the country educating all the sales teams about how to sell BlackBerry) that it was the phone for the corporate user, the serious businessman who needed instant information... The in the know user. At that time at least iPhone users were either over aged children who got sold on how shiny it was or stubborn dumb-asses who just wanted an iPhone because it cost more.

    BlackBerry's OS just worked well, were laid out so well, made sense. They were just so easy to use...

    Then the market changed.
    Blackberry started positioning themselves for the new upcoming generation. They tried to become hip. That was a mistake in my opinion. Hip means shiny, lots of silly little gismos you are never going to use. And they lost sight of their core market. Apps are a good thing. But drowning in apps isnt. 2010 came and BB didnt have a clue how to compete anymore. The 9900 was a debacle (IMO). To make it thin and sexy they lost the battery life. They added the touchscreen but werent as touchscreeny as the androids. Then the worst mistake of all. They dissappeared for a whole year. In that year smartphones turned into these behemoths of processing and apps and screen resolutions... They will be making toast next!!!

    There will all ways be people (sheep) who will want a handset which can do absolutely everything. Soon these people will be carrying around 10 inch screen phones with 4K screens which wont make any sense as most actually want to watch a movie at home in front of a large screen telly, not on a mobile phone. And when google and apple rushes to fill that absolutely everything they or their hardware manufacturers (Sony, Samsung, HTC here is looking at you) will fill the phones up with bloatware upon bloatware. The fact you have to download an app to organize the snaps you take into folders really cheezes me off. That should be standard, like on a BlackBerry. Instead you get Hangouts, and at least 5 other apps from google tracking your everymove and five from the manufacturer. And the OSs are all squished from a standard roll out from Google by the end manufacturer onto the sets. This adds to the bugs. I can say this as I have also owned 2 Android phones during the void BB left for a year.

    So the question now finally is what should BB do? well OS10 is great. Perfectly balanced with the hardware. No need for countless apps. There are little niggles here and their and BB needs to listen to their customers. For example Viber is not making an app for the BB10. But BB should get the rights from them and make it themselves. BB customers are premium customers. BB customers are snobs and proud of it. We want to be treated the best. If they cant take over 3rd party developer apps which the developer quits on then at least open up the HUB so we can add a link to those sideloaded apps. These little suggestions should all be accommodated. And they should bring back BIS. Bring back all those things which made them great BUT remember this time dont roll off millions and millions of sets. Think small exclusive market. Premium market. We all should be paying more for our sets and in return BB should be treating us like superstars. I want to hear more of "That set is all sold out" They are bringing in something new now. So if you dont buy the set when its hot, you wont be buying it period.

    And believe it or not that is exactly how Zara (fashion retail) positions themselves. Trendy fashion which if you take too long to buy, it will be gone. Creating a demand for every line that comes out. BB shouldnt be looking to take over the market. It should be looking to own the market which is full of users who know exactly what they want and are prepared to pay the premium to get it first.
    nyplaya610 likes this.
    01-29-14 05:56 PM
  2. Bla1ze's Avatar
    And so began my fight against the Apple device and thus promotion of the BlackBerry email platform. I used a combination of tech advantages with some good old fashioned FUD (Fear, Uncertainty & Doubt).

    1. The battery life. BlackBerries were known to have batteries which went on forever... iPhone didn't.
    2. If the battery died which does happen you can swap it out yourself for a new one... Not on iPhone you cant.
    3. The true 2MP (not software enhanced crap... Nokia) would hands down beat the picture quality of the iPhone. And it did when it came to quality.
    4. You could drop the phone and it would still go on... Not on the iPhone you couldnt.
    5. Should a leaky app cause the software to hangup, simply remove the battery, wait for 5 secs and reinsert... A luxary iPhone did not have where you had to wait for the whole battery to lose charge and then recharge it from dead, only to find that your jailbroken iPhone (no official Apple presence in Pakistan at the time) was not Jailbroken anymore.
    6. The 256bit DES security (BES) and 128bit AES security (BIS) would keep all of your data secure. It is so secure that when Obama (2008) wanted to use his Storm 9530 they had to build him an entire data centre so the CIA could snoop him. Does iPhone offer that level of security... No.
    7. BBM which at the time had no match, Windows Live Messenger and Google Talk were buggy and full of idiots. iPhone users couldnt even use threaded SMS. I can go on and on about the virtues of BBM but it isnt required.
    8. True Push Email... None of that virtual Push crap iPhone and Nokia was spitting out back in the day. The emails you need to make your urgent business decisions... instantly. And if you deployed to all of your staff, you could ensure they were at work 24/7!! The office followed them everywhere.
    9. Better data handling especially when roaming so no hugh data roaming bills.
    ...
    Interesting look back. A lot has changed since then though, as you noted.
    casefile101 likes this.
    01-29-14 05:59 PM
  3. casefile101's Avatar
    majority of the phone market doesnt have a clue what they want in a phone. blackberry shouldnt be targeting them. they should be targeting those that do know.
    Jrclen likes this.
    01-29-14 06:13 PM
  4. nyplaya610's Avatar
    This is a great analysis of everything. You have a point when you say feel special to have a BlackBerry.
    When I first bought a BlackBerry I felt special and business like even though I wasn't.
    A BlackBerry should be premium and we should be treated special like you said.

    Posted via CB10
    casefile101 likes this.
    02-01-14 12:20 PM

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