[Maserati Storm]

I have points with the op also, when i was in high school. New droids & the 3GS were all over. Some had blackberries 9700's. Blackberry first and formost was a business phone, with great communication in mind. The iphone was something new and people wanted to try it since it was a full touch screen and they jumped.

I'm not the usual 23 year old male whose, snapchatting, instagramming (seldom) Facebooking, random apps using kind of guy. I had windows phone over a year. (I though that was the shiznit!) WP lacked so many things, and barely did anything right, it was just smooth which for me was the only thing going for it. Then i tried android (LG G2 & Samsung S4) I couldnt deal with the constant back & forth, downloading 3rd party apps to fill gaps. It was just a travesty. Last but not least iOS with a iPhone 5S. I downloaded a bunch of app since i can, then didnt use them. iOS was cumbersome with pressing the back button to go back & forth. I sometimes missed messages! that was like for a month also.

Fast forward to when i tried a Z10, my mind exploded! everything in one place, no cumbersome buttons, soo many built in features. I was in heaven. BB10 is not for everyone just because of apps, or maybe the camera isnt up to snuff. i'm staying with blackberry until they dont exist and maybe even still ill use a BB10 phone until it breaks.

[Blacklatino]

Despite this, I upgraded to the Z30 in December 2013, and none of my friends could understand why. "BlackBerry is awful!" "There's no apps on it!" "Do you have to pull the battery out every hour?" were things I heard a lot when I told people my Z30 was a BlackBerry device. Most often though, people were in disbelief that the Z30 was a BlackBerry, having assumed that BlackBerry still only made BBOS devices/had gone out of business.

LOL. Don't feel bad. At 52, I still get quizzed on why I'm sticking with a "dead company" and still using their smartphones since my late 30's. The best one was someone asking me if I heard that the same company that made Jitter-Bug flip phones (for Senior citizens) were "slightly" interested in BlackBerry.

[Mausje75]

Great post OP.. well written!

While some screaming for more apps... and threatening leaving BlackBerry... and a Google / BlackBerry device would save BlackBerry. BlackBerry phones where never intended to be for consumers. It was welcome though. Imo, BlackBerry devices should be continued te run BB10 and do what they are at best... be a communication enterprise. It's nice to have some apps.. But not necessary.

Google / Android is the next best thing... what will happen in about 5 years from now? Does Android still exist?? Is it bankrupt due to lawsuits, security breaches and spying? ( people will be fed-up with it) Will they fall down by their own success? How about Apple? The same thing?

In those days when BlackBerry ruled.. could anyone forsee that no one would buy a BlackBerry device in a matter of 2 years? No! We will never know what the future brings.

We hope that we can enjoy BlackBerry as it is, and for how long it exist.. maybe they will exist for decades.. But then a smaller enterprise.. who knows??

Posted via my awesome Classic

[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

Great post OP.. well written!

While some screaming for more apps... and threatening leaving BlackBerry... and a Google / BlackBerry device would save BlackBerry. BlackBerry phones where never intended to be for consumers. It was welcome though. Imo, BlackBerry devices should be continued te run BB10 and do what they are at best... be a communication enterprise. It's nice to have some apps.. But not necessary.

Google / Android is the next best thing... what will happen in about 5 years from now? Does Android still exist?? Is it bankrupt due to lawsuits, security breaches and spying? ( people will be fed-up with it) Will they fall down by their own success? How about Apple? The same thing?

In those days when BlackBerry ruled.. could anyone forsee that no one would buy a BlackBerry device in a matter of 2 years? No! We will never know what the future brings.

We hope that we can enjoy BlackBerry as it is, and for how long it exist.. maybe they will exist for decades.. But then a smaller enterprise.. who knows??

Posted via my awesome Classic

Who knows.
Yes
No
No
?
No
No one... except maybe Chen.

[HereticHermit]

Am I the only one who is not affected with all this android rumour mill along-with doomsday naysayers predicting end of BB10 and Blackberry ? They maybe selling under 0.4% and notwithstanding fanboy + crackberry folks there are enough people around who want Blackberry on BB10 in right earnest, going about doing their work and getting things done efficiently. They don't care about app stores because they already have apps needed to get stuff done. Don't have time to play games that nearly overheat their phones. They don't check their FB every 15 mins. They don't wield selfie sticks and post pictures on instagram. The most they fret about is not having a proper Taxi service app, when they are travelling about. They are beyond the mental age where peer pressure make them change their phones based on specs and app stores. If some people cannot live without side loading app store and itching to get a full monty android (even if its a Blackberry made) it is their choice really. Folk using and wanting BB10 and intending to use till it is available will keep plodding on nevertheless.

[Jerry A]

And hurting BB10 sales in the process. BlackBerry sales are horrible since the for sale sign. No one has confidence BB10 will be around, even if BlackBerry is around. They need to either confirm the rumor or deny it, and soon. If by the new iPhone they are still playing games and not clear what their near term intentions are for phones and BB10, I will be moving to iOS. I have given BlackBerry since the PlayBook and all of BB10 to get their **** squared away and they just can't do it, and the new leadership is just a shady with the truth as the old. I can't even think about dropping any more money on them unless they can show a commitment to hardware and BB10.

Posted via Z30

BB10 sales were horrible from the get-go. That's what led to the "for sale" sign.

[lnichols]

BB10 sales were horrible from the get-go. That's what led to the "for sale" sign.

They were much better then than now! They sold about 4 Million BB10 devices in first 5 months, now they won't hit that in a full year.

Posted via Z30

[Jerry A]

They were much better then than now! They sold about 4 Million BB10 devices in first 5 months, now they won't hit that in a full year.

Posted via Z30

They're selling less now because of an aging product portfolio and an ever-shrinking ecosystem.

At launch they needed a much greater uptake. We saw that they sold less in a quarter than the competition sold over a weekend.

[Batibreaker]

Guys, let's face it, chen does NOT care about you, me or anything but trying to make money for the shareholders, plain and simple, if he has to kiss some ashes to do so, he WILL do it, forget about loyalty to the customers and EVEN to the brand, and we have to be mature enough to (or be prepared to) accept we are in a platform likely doomed to disappear or at least to be abandoned, don't get me wrong, I like BlackBerry, but we need to be realistic.

Posted via CB10

Posted via CB10

[lnichols]

They're selling less now because of an aging product portfolio and an ever-shrinking ecosystem.

At launch they needed a much greater uptake. We saw that they sold less in a quarter than the competition sold over a weekend.

Their new devices, the Leap and Classic, we're just released and already two year old retreads. The product portfolio that exists now is 100% Chen's doing. The Z10 was a phone designed to be released in Summer 2012, but didn't launch till 6+ months later, but still sold OK given its beta level OS and rebooting issues in the 10.0 and early 10.1 OS versions. When they missed the launch windows they should have scrapped the Z10 and accelerated the Z30, or even redesign the Z30 to have a 1080 screen. Instead they launched phones at Flagship pricing with previous years flagship specs, no apps, and beta OS. And still sold more than Chen's current pathetic lineup....

Posted via Z30

[bhoqeem]

Their new devices, the Leap and Classic, we're just released and already two year old retreads. The product portfolio that exists now is 100% Chen's doing. The Z10 was a phone designed to be released in Summer 2012, but didn't launch till 6+ months later, but still sold OK given its beta level OS and rebooting issues in the 10.0 and early 10.1 OS versions. When they missed the launch windows they should have scrapped the Z10 and accelerated the Z30, or even redesign the Z30 to have a 1080 screen. Instead they launched phones at Flagship pricing with previous years flagship specs, no apps, and beta OS. And still sold more than Chen's current pathetic lineup....

Posted via Z30

Hey, watch it! Leap might be sucks, but Passport is completely a different story. The OS was good when it was released, and the Classic is not so bad, either. What truly bad is the odd logic that makes BlackBerry doesn't market their own merchandises. That's a fact, and THAT is the problem!

BlackBerry Passport SQW100-1/10.3.2.2339 on Telkomsel Network

[JakieWolf]

If the rumoured Android device is real then I'm hoping for it to have at least the same specs as the Passport. Z30 owners (me included) will be leaving their contracts starting October, and if BlackBerry wishes to keep any customers on board from the Z30 then they should aim to release the Android device around then. Whether that will happen...I don't know.

I've been considering the Slider/Android device but I keep thinking...what if it does the same as the other BlackBerry devices I've had, and stops working/functioning as it should halfway through the contract? It's a risk I'm not particularly willing to take.