Why sales or BB10 devices are so bad.
I think BlackBerry need to look at why the die-hard BB users are not flocking to take up the Q10. I don't mean people like us who use CrackBerry but the millions of business users who use their OS6 & 7 devices all day every day.
Having used the Z10 since launch and played with a Q10, I think I understand why traditional BB users are not making the switch in big numbers.
In their desire to keep up with the apples and androids, BB has lost some of what made it a hit with business users. The all touch screens that are now standard across most devices in the industry are really not well suited to those who need to type large amounts of text. Therefore, the good looking Q10 with its excellent keyboard should be perfect so, why isn�t it? There are a few good reasons why the Q10 is not as good as it should be. Primarily, it doesn�t have a trackpad. This is a much-debated topic but the lack of a trackpad is probably the single biggest turn-off for the long-term blackberry user. Don�t forget I�m talking about BB users not BB fans. I would suspect that the lack of apps is an annoyance to many in this core of BB users but is probably not that much of a big deal.
I believe that the biggest single barrier to the transition from happy BB7 user to ecstatic BB10 user is the lack of the trackpad. Sure, you can just press your great big smudgy finger on the screen to set where you want to start typing. Sometimes, you can even get it in the right place- as long as it is not close to the edge of the screen. If you get it wrong, you can move the big circle around a bit and as long as you have a transparent finger then you can get it in exactly the right place. Joking aside, pressing on the screen and the insertion point circle are never going to be as quick and easy to use as the trackpad. Some say this is the price of progress but I don�t see how it can be progress if even after months of practice I still find editing text a slow and frustrating process. I�ve pretty much stopped doing it.
I used to use my old 9800 for writing all kinds of stuff. People would marvel at how much and how quickly I could write on it. I would modify text, move sentences and paragraphs around- it was effortless. I rarely do this on my Z10 and when I do, it is a slow and frustrating process. It is not a learning curve issue- more of a learning wall- you soon find the limitations and these cannot be overcome.
There also continues to be a good number of websites that don�t work on apple, android or BB10 phones but you could operate effectively on BB6 and BB7. Many sites rely on the mouse-over function to show menus. On phones with a trackpad these work great, on BB10 they do not. Ok, bad website design but there are a number of them and it is a frustration when it is just another thing that I used to be able to do on my old BB phone.
Is there an answer? Maybe there is. I have used a very nice and simple app that gives you an onscreen track pad. It works really well, much like the original. Unfortunately, it only works within its own text editor, so although it is good for writing, having it separate from the OS means it is not that useful. If BB could build this into the interface somehow that might just be a simple quick and cheap fix. If you could use it when editing emails, BBM, and text messages, and also allows you to have a cursor for the browser and for selecting text then many of the hard-core BB users would not be so put off by the transition from BB6 and 7 to the Q10 and Z10.
Therefore, come on BB give us back some of the things that made BB great. Right now, there is little point in getting a Z10 over an android or apple product. Yes, peek and flow is somewhat nice but it is not that much better than android or apple notifications. Who genuinely cares about Multitasking? People can say how clever the QNX kernel is but it really doesn�t do much to distinguish BB from the competition. Until there is a compelling reason sales will continue to be sluggish at best. We need the blackberry magic back and to that end, let�s start with an on-screen trackpad.
P.S.
I got my Z10 at launch in the UK. It is a really good phone and there is a lot about it that I like. I knew I would miss the keyboard so when I got it so, I fully intended to swap to a Q10 when my contract is up for renewal in November. Now I am not so sure. I know I miss the keyboard but I think I actually miss the trackpad more. For this one single reason, my current Z10 may be the last in a long line of BlackBerrys that I have owned.
Flaming ******** underpants locked and loaded�.. :)