[quizm]

In two years BlackBerry OS 10 has come a very long way. I really like this OS. I really do. But for BlackBerry it has been a mistake for the company. I am sorry to say this. Not that the alternatives are better OSs. Pursuing bb10 has cost the company too much time. In addition to this, BlackBerry focus on enterprise has been a mistake too... not in itself, but it has really lost the consumer in the processs, and the context of consumers as both employees and private people. BlackBerry phones can make good sense to enterprise, but mediocre sense to their employees. It doesn't work. The phones, like my z30 are really good, but underspecked in an age where competition is fierce. The leap is really a two year old phone or more - go figure.. Finally on software and such. BBM is arguably the best. We all love BlackBerry security. And channels has lots of potential, particularly for corporate information. But these are too connected to the OS itself, and suffers along with it. It's a long hard road for a small company who revenues are so singly focused. What solutions exist?

Posted via CB10

[ozdezignr]

The phones, like my z30 are really good, but underspecked in an age where competition is fierce.

Hmmmm.......have you compared latest iPhone 6 specs to your Z30 that is not so recent? The one area iPhone wins is ecosystems. No Usb on the go, no Micro Sd card..... I could go on...Have you tried to connect an iPhone to a monitor and use a bluetooth keyboard and mouse transferring files to and from a powered 1TB drive? Good luck.

[serbanescu]

The phones, like my z30 are really good, but underspecked in an age where competition is fierce.

In what respects do you feel your Z30 phone is "underspecked"?

[muindor]

There are two mistakes I can see.

1. (and the biggest mistake):
They have changed the 10.2.1 calendar and introduced these stupid dots and non-growing numbers in the 10.3.1 calendar.

2. They don't really listen to their customers, instead they listen to a few companies they're working with.

These problems are quite related so if they change no. 2 they should change no. 1.

If they continue with no. 2 it'll all be fine with BlackBerry.



[Joshu42]

1. (and the biggest mistake):
They have changed the 10.2.1 calendar and introduced these stupid dots and non-growing numbers in the 10.3.1 calendar.

2. They don't really listen to their customers, instead they listen to a few companies they're working with.

1. is back in 10.3.2, so 2. is not an issue

[quizm]

In what respects do you feel your Z30 phone is "underspecked"?

Screen, camera, processor speed, primarily. I was really referring to the Leap, which mostly replaces the z30 almost two years on.

Posted via CB10

[anon(9188202)]

Just as human beings use one-tenth of their brain power, they often use only a fraction of the capabilities of their mobile devices, laptops and desktops. Yet, many are lead to believe that their hardware is under-specced because of the marketing hype used to sell more devices and the need of human beings to feel superior to other human beings (bragging rights). IMHO, the fundamental question for those who feel that their (or someone else's) hardware isn't good enough should be, "what would I/they actually be able to do better with different specs?"

Personally, I believe that the hardware on my Z30 does everything (and more) the average consumer needs the device to do. Increasing the processor speed or changing the screen would be of little real and practical benefit to the majority of users.

[baarn]

1. is back in 10.3.2, so 2. is not an issue

Well lots of people on here will be pleased to read that. I do wonder though, with all the things that could be improved upon in OS10, why BlackBerry choose to wreck perfectly functional existing and differentiating features.

[ArtForm]

The spec wars thing is over. If the phone runs everything well, then what does it matter if it has a 64-bit processor, or if its benchmarks comes out well? 10.3.1 works great, even on the Z10 and Q10. BB10 is the best OS on the market, hands down. The ecosystem has its problems, and without question Blackberry has made huge mistakes in their implementation, but it is what it is. Just like computers, most people don't use their phones to their full potential. They browse the web and social media, take silly photos, navigate, and make phone calls. How does BB10 compete against ecosystems when this is what people want to do? They can't, because the app developers will focus on the numbers, not the technical superiority of an OS. So Blackberry instead focuses upon the corporate side of things, and finds a market of people who are really concerned with getting things done and security. Consumers are notoriously fickle, any company that focuses on consumers runs a great risk of being displaced simply because perception of them changes. But the business world is stable, careful, and deliberate. If they can keep the business world, they'll be OK

[Pcmx]

OP, you make some good points.. While I LOVE BB10 and QNX under the hood, something I seen in a video from 30 years ago made me think of the major players in operating systems, developers, and how that could relate, today and into the future..



Around 23:42 in

[quizm]

Just as human beings use one-tenth of their brain power, they often use only a fraction of the capabilities of their mobile devices, laptops and desktops. Yet, many are lead to believe that their hardware is under-specced because of the marketing hype used to sell more devices and the need of human beings to feel superior to other human beings (bragging rights). IMHO, the fundamental question for those who feel that their (or someone else's) hardware isn't good enough should be, "what would I/they actually be able to do better with different specs?"

Personally, I believe that the hardware on my Z30 does everything (and more) the average consumer needs the device to do. Increasing the processor speed or changing the screen would be of little real and practical benefit to the majority of users.

I would agree with you. But in running android, I think a faster processor would do better. Image and press remarks are important in selling phones. A bit sad, I know. But people buy phones for several years and want them to keep up.

Posted via CB10

[Eddie Lee4158]

Honestly, I can't see a point in your post. I have two Passports and a Z30,and I owned practically every BlackBerry10 device except for Z3. How satisfies with these devices is beyond description. Truly, there is plenty of room for BlackBerry 10 to improve,but is any of the OS on the market perfect? No. None of them is. I can't help but think of the other day when I finally tried to use an iPhone 5s,and it turned out to be a disaster and I went immediately back to my Z30 and Passport( I was using both then). Compared to any device on the market, BlackBerry isn't the best when it comes to apps,camera, multimedia or specs,but it does no harm to it being the best productive phone in the market. I am with BlackBerry coming up with the idea sticking to business users since it is where it began at first. Not to mention its effort on security which makes me comfortable when I use my Passport to do any websurfing and downloading.

Posted via CB10

[early2bed]

The mistakes were made almost 10 years ago when BlackBerry failed to make the changes necessary to continue to dominate the smartphone market. The other stuff aren't mistakes - they are a result of being behind.


Development of a new operating system does take way too long when you start way too late late.
The focus on enterprise happens automatically if you are killed in the consumer market.
The adoption of the Android runtime is a response to having you platform dismissed by developers.
Keyboard phones happen when carriers refuse to add your undifferentiated slab phone to their lineup.

About the only big decision that John Chen has made that may be considered a mistake is staying in the hardware business. He definitely has a choice, here.

[quizm]

Honestly, I can't see a point in your post. I have two Passports and a Z30,and I owned practically every BlackBerry10 device except for Z3. How satisfies with these devices is beyond description. Truly, there is plenty of room for BlackBerry 10 to improve,but is any of the OS on the market perfect? No. None of them is. I can't help but think of the other day when I finally tried to use an iPhone 5s,and it turned out to be a disaster and I went immediately back to my Z30 and Passport( I was using both then). Compared to any device on the market, BlackBerry isn't the best when it comes to apps,camera, multimedia or specs,but it does no harm to it being the best productive phone in the market. I am with BlackBerry coming up with the idea sticking to business users since it is where it began at first. Not to mention its effort on security which makes me comfortable when I use my Passport to do any websurfing and downloading.

Posted via CB10

I fully understand your position. The point of my post was to generate some discussion on mistakes, and what people think are options...

Posted via CB10

[Sir Reaper]

I really don't think you can claim the Z30 is underpowered as it runs BB10 smoothly and I've had no problems running any of the apps or games.

Why Blackberry? Because I can!

[Thalestr]

I really don't think you can claim the Z30 is underpowered as it runs BB10 smoothly and I've had no problems running any of the apps or games.

Why Blackberry? Because I can!

My Z10 has even less power than the 30 and it still hums along just fine. My Q5 has even less than that and it does just fine too.

The demand for fast processors
leaves me scratching my head. They are not needed to run this OS.



Posted via Z10

[RichardHBB]

In two years BlackBerry OS 10 has come a very long way. I really like this OS. I really do. But for BlackBerry it has been a mistake for the company. I am sorry to say this. Not that the alternatives are better OSs. Pursuing bb10 has cost the company too much time.

Yeah; clearly they should have stuck with the winning BBOS for the foreseeable future. LOL

Richard

[Thunderbuck]

Screen, camera, processor speed, primarily. I was really referring to the Leap, which mostly replaces the z30 almost two years on.

Posted via CB10

The Leap is NOT a Z30 replacement. More of a Z10 with a better battery.

[lift]

The Leap is NOT a Z30 replacement. More of a Z10 with a better battery.

Agreed. I wish people would stop calling the leap an "old" and "outdated" device. It's not supposed to be a top of the line phone. It's supposed to fill an all touch, long battery life and larger screen enterprise market. Many companies are moving to Apple and Android devices because many of their employees want an all touch device with a larger screen instead of a QWERTY with a small screen.
The Leap is a great phone for what it is. It is not supposed to be an upgrade for a Z10 or Z30. It is a fairly low cost all touch device with a great battery for enterprise's that want to replace aging OS7 devices with all touch devices. I think BlackBerry will see very good sales of the Leap because of it's all day battery and fairly low cost.

[Dave Bourque]

Agreed. I wish people would stop calling the leap an "old" and "outdated" device. It's not supposed to be a top of the line phone. It's supposed to fill an all touch, long battery life and larger screen enterprise market. Many companies are moving to Apple and Android devices because many of their employees want an all touch device with a larger screen instead of a QWERTY with a small screen.
The Leap is a great phone for what it is. It is not supposed to be an upgrade for a Z10 or Z30. It is a fairly low cost all touch device with a great battery for enterprise's that want to replace aging OS7 devices with all touch devices. I think BlackBerry will see very good sales of the Leap because of it's all day battery and fairly low cost.

At 0$ on contract it should get some traction, especially with their target market which is enterprise.

Posted via CB10

[Witmen]

Yeah; clearly they should have stuck with the winning BBOS for the foreseeable future. LOL

Richard

Nah, they should have switched to Android. BlackBerry started building their new platform over 5 years ago. Back on April 10th of 2010, they bought QNX for $200 million dollars. Just think where they could have been now had they of just switched to Android back then instead of wasting so much resources on BB10.

I'm sure BlackBerry would have still screwed it up some how. Even using the world's most popular mobile operating system wouldn't be enough to save them from their incompetence, but at least the damage wouldn't have been so costly had they used Android instead of building a new platform from the ground up. BlackBerry could have made their own custom skin for Android that included the Hub and their keyboard all for a tiny fraction of what they spent on making BB10. Going that route would have also meant that the devices could have launched much quicker. BlackBerry could have launched a Android device way back in late 2010, back when they still had a big chunk of the smartphone market and back before Samsung completely took over in Android land.

Who knows what could have been had they just done that.

[lift]

Nah, they should have switched to Android. BlackBerry started building their new platform over 5 years ago. Back on April 10th of 2010, they bought QNX for $200 million dollars. Just think where they could have been now had they of just switched to Android back then instead of wasting so much resources on BB10.

I'm sure BlackBerry would have still screwed it up some how. Even using the world's most popular mobile operating system wouldn't be enough to save them from their incompetence, but at least the damage wouldn't have been so costly had they used Android instead of building a new platform from the ground up. BlackBerry could have made their own custom skin for Android that included the Hub and their keyboard all for a tiny fraction of what they spent on making BB10. Going that route would have also meant that the devices could have launched much quicker. BlackBerry could have launched a Android device way back in late 2010, back when they still had a big chunk of the smartphone market and back before Samsung completely took over in Android land.

Who knows what could have been had they just done that.

I'm sorry but I am glad BlackBerry did not switch to android. Android is nothing but a tracking, profiling and data mining OS. Look it up. It was built that way for google to improve on their profiling so they could grow their advertising business. That's what they do to make money and that's what they use your information for. It takes hours of fine tuning to keep every app and program from trying to data mine and track everything you do. Also, it's a huge mess and has no flow like BB10. I can see you are a big android fan and that's fine. You should use what's right for you. But your reasoning for thinking BlackBerry should have switched to android is just nothing but ridiculous.

[Superdupont 2_0]

BlackBerry 's biggest mistake is for two years that they have the best OS in the market for very reasonable prices, but no marketing.

I do see the Blackphone moving aggressively in the right direction, but I just don't like the counterintuitive Android GUI.


Posted via CB10

[RichardHBB]

Nah, they should have switched to Android.

So they could be a different kind of also-ran: instead of unique...another "me too" in an already overcrowded market. Wise choice!

Richard

[Witmen]

So they could be a different kind of also-ran: instead of unique...another "me too" in an already overcrowded market. Wise choice!

Richard

Maybe you're right!

Being unique sure has helped BB10 capture the market hasn't it? I mean just look at those sell figures. BB10 hardware shipments steadily declining quarter after quarter, the company completely gave up on native 3rd party app development, BB10 features going cross platform to try to raise revenue and BlackBerry now commands a whopping 0.04% of the market (a figure that is mostly made up of BBOS devices, not BB10 devices). Pretty impressive stuff isn't it? Thank goodness BlackBerry made the "wise choice" and went with a unique platform. And of course, we can't forget about how well being unique helped Palm. I mean no one can argue with how well WebOS paid off for them.

Being unique isn't always necessarily a good thing.