1. ocgltd's Avatar
    Here's a suggestion, create one or more user councils which can provide input to the development efforts at RIM. Perhaps:
    1. OS council
    2. Business Apps council
    3. Entertainment council

    Let these councils bring their opinions and those of others (from places like Crackberry) to help steer future development efforts. I'm sure someone will point out that RIM already has product managers, agencies, R&D, etc....but after the launch of the Z10 and Q10 I have to believe something isn't working quite right.

    At the same time, how about briefing the fan sites (n4bb, crackberry, etc.) formally on the roadmap? Obviously some items must remain confidential, but better communications would help. (It's a shame when these leak out through BGR.com along with biased comments).

    I do admire that Heins reached out the core user based on day 1. (Chen reached out the the bus/gov community week 1 which is great as well).
    01-09-14 03:02 PM
  2. FCSC's Avatar
    interesting idea, thread title wrong though, no?
    01-09-14 03:23 PM
  3. Elite1's Avatar
    interesting idea, thread title wrong though, no?
    Not anymore.
    FCSC likes this.
    01-09-14 03:33 PM
  4. Andrew4life's Avatar
    They have something similar. It's called market research. That's where all those survey response goes.


    Posted via CB10
    01-09-14 03:34 PM
  5. Elite1's Avatar
    Here's a suggestion, create one or more user councils which can provide input to the development efforts at RIM. Perhaps:
    1. OS council
    2. Business Apps council
    3. Entertainment council

    Let these councils bring their opinions and those of others (from places like Crackberry) to help steer future development efforts. I'm sure someone will point out that RIM already has product managers, agencies, R&D, etc....but after the launch of the Z10 and Q10 I have to believe something isn't working quite right...
    I had a similar idea.

    I believe BBRY should have teams of testers using other platforms' flagship devices as daily drivers. These teams would stay "up" on news & rumours in the smartphone world, as well as just simply using these other devices for messaging, apps, games, media, syncing, and whatever else.

    These teams should have the ear of someone with power to influence decisions on future devices and OS development. Future BB device concepts would be reviewed with these users, as would planned OS features.

    I believe too many people that matter in Waterloo are out of touch with the competition and the smartphone market in general. This has shown signs of improvement, but BB is still perpetually playing catch-up it seems. Hopefully this idea, if well executed, could help them better understand the market and close the gap, or even leapfrog the competition when possible.
    BlackBerry Guy likes this.
    01-09-14 03:41 PM
  6. milo53's Avatar
    I had a similar idea.

    I believe BBRY should have teams of testers using other platforms' flagship devices as daily drivers. These teams would stay "up" on news & rumours in the smartphone world, as well as just simply using these other devices for messaging, apps, games, media, syncing, and whatever else.

    These teams should have the ear of someone with power to influence decisions on future devices and OS development. Future BB device concepts would be reviewed with these users, as would planned OS features.

    I believe too many people that matter in Waterloo are out of touch with the competition and the smartphone market in general. This has shown signs of improvement, but BB is still perpetually playing catch-up it seems. Hopefully this idea, if well executed, could help them better understand the market and close the gap, or even leapfrog the competition when possible.
    It's going to be incredibly difficult to catch up, almost impossible to leapfrog technologies. BB now has 4-5k employees, worldwide. That's not many, to keep this thing rolling.A very small portion of them are R&D. Around 6 months ago BB targeted 300 in R&D specifically, in Waterloo for elimination. Many others have left due to poaching. Remember TAT, those folks are not doing much, most have left. Think about it, Chen says nice things, but the brain drain must be colossal.

    Remember CB Kevin visited Samsung in So. Korea, he noticed buildings, floors, cubicles full of engineers working R&D. I don't see how BB, realistically, can catch up or leapfrog any of these companies.

    Chen is focused on Sales, understandably so. IMO, he will sell the company at some point, for patents and customer lists, govt,, etc...

    I bet the Corporate Jet gets it's upgrades on time!
    01-09-14 10:06 PM
  7. ocgltd's Avatar
    Interesting point - but I wonder if we need to load the phone up with more new stuff, as opposed to just making an efficient, high quality phone targeting core needs. As pointed out in other threads, the 9900 is a powerhouse phone and (seemingly) preferred for business users that want to get core tasks done quickly (and one handidly) - at the expense of OS10 apps like angry birds, instagram, etc.

    There have been some great suggestions (eg: add a laser pointer, add back charging contacts, add back physical buttons, add back feature buttons, make trackpad vs touchscreen a user choice, inductive charging, fingerprint scanner, etc). So many of these user demands don't need a whole lot of R&D...just a focus on the RIGHT stuff.
    01-10-14 01:33 AM
  8. Dave Bourque's Avatar
    It's called betazone use it....

    Z10STL100-3/10.2.1.1925
    01-10-14 02:21 AM
  9. kellyTKD's Avatar
    I doubt Blackberry's problems with smartphones arise from the lack of input regarding new features. Every employee at Blackberry is a smartphone user as well as their families and friends. I'm sure they have ideas coming out the wazoo. What's lacking is the resources to implement them in a timely manner.

    I'm thinking about the recent Verge article on webOS by Dieter that described ending up with a Touchpad that was DOA by the time it was launched because of the iPad 2. If you think about it, what the OP is suggesting is the opposite of what drove the design of the iPhone and the iPad. There, it was Steve Jobs and a couple of guys who seemed to have the final say on practically everything.
    01-10-14 09:29 AM
  10. Dave Bourque's Avatar
    I doubt Blackberry's problems with smartphones arise from the lack of input regarding new features. Every employee at Blackberry is a smartphone user as well as their families and friends. I'm sure they have ideas coming out the wazoo. What's lacking is the resources to implement them in a timely manner.

    I'm thinking about the recent Verge article on webOS by Dieter that described ending up with a Touchpad that was DOA by the time it was launched because of the iPad 2. If you think about it, what the OP is suggesting is the opposite of what drove the design of the iPhone and the iPad. There, it was Steve Jobs and a couple of guys who seemed to have the final say on practically everything.
    I've read that Steve Jobs did not look what people wanted but what they should want. Similar to how Henry Ford said he would not ask what customers want because they would say "faster horses"...

    Z10STL100-3/10.2.1.1925
    Haytham Hamad likes this.
    01-10-14 02:21 PM
  11. aniym's Avatar
    I've read that Steve Jobs did not look what people wanted but what they should want. Similar to how Henry Ford said he would not ask what customers want because they would say "faster horses"...

    Z10STL100-3/10.2.1.1925
    Exactly. Consumer opinion for the most part is based on what they know already exists in the market. They aren't insiders at Apple, Samsung or IBM, they don't know what future technologies these companies are working on. Consumer opinion in the technology market is a lagging indicator, not a leading one. Ultimately it will be something in the vein of "something better than what I have now". That's not particularly helpful.

    Just take a look at the forum topics posted here. Many of them can be boiled down to "I want BB to be more like Apple/Google". Those people are better off simply using those companies' products rather than goading a company to be more like them. Different companies have different strengths and weaknesses.
    01-10-14 07:09 PM
  12. Whyareallthegoodnamestaken's Avatar
    If cb is anything to go by it'd just end up in the users council trying to run the company ;-)

    Posted via CB10
    01-12-14 08:40 AM
  13. southlander's Avatar
    I am not sure the main issue is BlackBerry getting "lists" of ideas for needed features. They probably have those running out of their ears.

    I think the anecdotal evidence points more to their inability to execute their vision quickly and completely.

    Corporate "culture" issues, lack of resources with talented individuals being stretched too thin, un-certain/mis-guided leadership -- that kind of thing.
    TGR1 likes this.
    01-12-14 08:44 AM
  14. lnichols's Avatar
    I've read that Steve Jobs did not look what people wanted but what they should want. Similar to how Henry Ford said he would not ask what customers want because they would say "faster horses"...

    Z10STL100-3/10.2.1.1925
    Customers want the world for cheap. It is up to good engineering and clever marketing to make them want what you can deliver now at the price the market will support. IMO BB10 is a good OS, but BlackBerry has out zero effort to market it, to both consumer or business, and expected it to work like 2006 through 2008 when the name brand was enough, and respected, to move devices. Henry Ford made the automobile affordable, much like Android has made the powerful, modern, smartphone affordable to Millions, and gained success that way. Apple has the premium and luxury part of that same market covered. Both Apple and Google advertise even though they are at the top. BlackBerry must find and define its specialty (maybe the work truck of the Smartphone segment) and market the hell out of it to the public and businesses. Take pages out if the Scroogled campaign from Microsoft where you tell people how Google uses data collected from Android phones to target you for ads. They have to do something because we see the results of doing nothing.

    Posted via CB10
    01-12-14 09:38 AM
  15. Haytham Hamad's Avatar
    Exactly. Consumer opinion for the most part is based on what they know already exists in the market. They aren't insiders at Apple, Samsung or IBM, they don't know what future technologies these companies are working on. Consumer opinion in the technology market is a lagging indicator, not a leading one. Ultimately it will be something in the vein of "something better than what I have now". That's not particularly helpful.

    Just take a look at the forum topics posted here. Many of them can be boiled down to "I want BB to be more like Apple/Google". Those people are better off simply using those companies' products rather than goading a company to be more like them. Different companies have different strengths and weaknesses.
    You can see that Apple is still following Steve's vision, almost all successful apps and tweaks which has been developed by the Jailbreak community are being implemented by every new OS being released.
    01-20-14 08:03 AM
  16. Bbnivende's Avatar
    BlackBerry users are not a unified group and many of their wants are contradictory. BB leaks the OS for beta testing. They should really have a beta software site.

    They should do more consumer testing on the hardware side.


    I do think that many CB ers would agree that we need a bigger screened qwerty model.

    Sent from my Nexus 7 using CB Forums mobile app
    01-20-14 03:12 PM

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