[jon9999]

I've been a Blackberry user and something of an amateur product evangelist for decades. I've reached the end of my rope. Once my Key2 reaches the end of its useful life about a year from now, I will never buy another Blackberry (or TCL) device.

It pains me to say it, but TCL or Blackberry Mobile or whatever it's currently called has killed the product line. The final straw has been the issue with letters typed on the physical keyboard as capitals coming out as lowercase (see separate thread) and Blackberry's utter failure to address that flaw in core functionality.

But beyond that, I am giving up because the new owners of the Blackberry smartphone brand have also seemed to give up. They no longer seem to care that what sets them apart from other smartphone manufacturers are the physical keyboard and a user community of tech-savvy, business-focused powerusers who expect a premium user experience for the premium price we pay for a device whose only premium features, really, are the physical keyboard and supposedly hardened security.

What I've witnessed is a company that doesn't seem to care when those differentiators are what fail. When monthly Android security patches for Blackberry smartphones lag months behind patches for the Pixel or other phones, Blackberry doesn't seem to care. When long-heralded OS upgrades don't materialize, Blackberry doesn't seem to care. When the physical keyboard types wrong letters, Blackberry doesn't seem to care. (In the case I described separately about physical keyboard failures, Blackberry literally didn't care, characterizing the issue as "a glitch" and telling me that as long as the keyboard works properly "85% of the time," the issue "won't be fixed because it is an expected glitch due to usage and fast typing.")

It's a sad day. The KeyONE and the Key2 allowed me to believe, for just a while, that the Blackberry era had been extended. I was wrong. The Blackberry era is long dead. I'm going to have to learn to type on glass, finally.

And the owners of the Blackberry brand should be very, very ashamed of themselves.

[spARTacus]

Sorry. Just didn't know how to reply. Lots of good personal opinions in there, but I suspect lots of people are just going to tell you "...yeah, what's new?" or something like that. I think the act of venting is a good step to healing and moving on.

Posted via CB10 on Z10

[jon9999]

I think the act of venting is a good step to healing and moving on.

My post isn't about venting or healing. The reason for my post was twofold: to give potential new purchasers some information that might influence their decision, and to convey some voice-of-customer feedback to anyone from TCL/BBM who might read this so they better understand one component of why they are floundering.

[spARTacus]

My post isn't about venting or healing. The reason for my post was twofold: to give potential new purchasers some information that might influence their decision, and to convey some voice-of-customer feedback to anyone from TCL/BBM who might read this so they better understand one component of why they are floundering.

Ok. Hopefully that will be achieved for others that read it. I wasn't meaning to strike you down. Sorry if that is what was achieved.

Posted via CB10 on Z10

[krazyatom]

BlackBerry mobile just couldn't get it done.

[arif b santoso]

I've been a Blackberry user and something of an amateur product evangelist for decades. I've reached the end of my rope. Once my Key2 reaches the end of its useful life about a year from now, I will never buy another Blackberry (or TCL) device.

It pains me to say it, but TCL or Blackberry Mobile or whatever it's currently called has killed the product line. The final straw has been the issue with letters typed on the physical keyboard as capitals coming out as lowercase (see separate thread) and Blackberry's utter failure to address that flaw in core functionality.

But beyond that, I am giving up because the new owners of the Blackberry smartphone brand have also seemed to give up. They no longer seem to care that what sets them apart from other smartphone manufacturers are the physical keyboard and a user community of tech-savvy, business-focused powerusers who expect a premium user experience for the premium price we pay for a device whose only premium features, really, are the physical keyboard and supposedly hardened security.

What I've witnessed is a company that doesn't seem to care when those differentiators are what fail. When monthly Android security patches for Blackberry smartphones lag months behind patches for the Pixel or other phones, Blackberry doesn't seem to care. When long-heralded OS upgrades don't materialize, Blackberry doesn't seem to care. When the physical keyboard types wrong letters, Blackberry doesn't seem to care. (In the case I described separately about physical keyboard failures, Blackberry literally didn't care, characterizing the issue as "a glitch" and telling me that as long as the keyboard works properly "85% of the time," the issue "won't be fixed because it is an expected glitch due to usage and fast typing.")

It's a sad day. The KeyONE and the Key2 allowed me to believe, for just a while, that the Blackberry era had been extended. I was wrong. The Blackberry era is long dead. I'm going to have to learn to type on glass, finally.

And the owners of the Blackberry brand should be very, very ashamed of themselves.

Totally agree

[the_boon]

I've been a Blackberry user and something of an amateur product evangelist for decades. I've reached the end of my rope. Once my Key2 reaches the end of its useful life about a year from now, I will never buy another Blackberry (or TCL) device.

It pains me to say it, but TCL or Blackberry Mobile or whatever it's currently called has killed the product line. The final straw has been the issue with letters typed on the physical keyboard as capitals coming out as lowercase (see separate thread) and Blackberry's utter failure to address that flaw in core functionality.

But beyond that, I am giving up because the new owners of the Blackberry smartphone brand have also seemed to give up. They no longer seem to care that what sets them apart from other smartphone manufacturers are the physical keyboard and a user community of tech-savvy, business-focused powerusers who expect a premium user experience for the premium price we pay for a device whose only premium features, really, are the physical keyboard and supposedly hardened security.

What I've witnessed is a company that doesn't seem to care when those differentiators are what fail. When monthly Android security patches for Blackberry smartphones lag months behind patches for the Pixel or other phones, Blackberry doesn't seem to care. When long-heralded OS upgrades don't materialize, Blackberry doesn't seem to care. When the physical keyboard types wrong letters, Blackberry doesn't seem to care. (In the case I described separately about physical keyboard failures, Blackberry literally didn't care, characterizing the issue as "a glitch" and telling me that as long as the keyboard works properly "85% of the time," the issue "won't be fixed because it is an expected glitch due to usage and fast typing.")

It's a sad day. The KeyONE and the Key2 allowed me to believe, for just a while, that the Blackberry era had been extended. I was wrong. The Blackberry era is long dead. I'm going to have to learn to type on glass, finally.

And the owners of the Blackberry brand should be very, very ashamed of themselves.

I didn't have that issue myself, so I can't fully relate, but I understand your frustration.

In your case, I would just ask yourself if the frustration of typing on glass will be greater than staying with your particular unit which doesn't correctly switch to or from capital letters.

Also, yes BBMo has had issues with its PKB's, but at least they're trying to serve that market and deliver that feature, while all the other OEM's force users to type on glass, giving them NO options whatsoever in ANY of the price points for a PKB.

[Grungni]

I've been a Blackberry user and something of an amateur product evangelist for decades. I've reached the end of my rope. Once my Key2 reaches the end of its useful life about a year from now, I will never buy another Blackberry (or TCL) device.

It pains me to say it, but TCL or Blackberry Mobile or whatever it's currently called has killed the product line. The final straw has been the issue with letters typed on the physical keyboard as capitals coming out as lowercase (see separate thread) and Blackberry's utter failure to address that flaw in core functionality.

But beyond that, I am giving up because the new owners of the Blackberry smartphone brand have also seemed to give up. They no longer seem to care that what sets them apart from other smartphone manufacturers are the physical keyboard and a user community of tech-savvy, business-focused powerusers who expect a premium user experience for the premium price we pay for a device whose only premium features, really, are the physical keyboard and supposedly hardened security.

What I've witnessed is a company that doesn't seem to care when those differentiators are what fail. When monthly Android security patches for Blackberry smartphones lag months behind patches for the Pixel or other phones, Blackberry doesn't seem to care. When long-heralded OS upgrades don't materialize, Blackberry doesn't seem to care. When the physical keyboard types wrong letters, Blackberry doesn't seem to care. (In the case I described separately about physical keyboard failures, Blackberry literally didn't care, characterizing the issue as "a glitch" and telling me that as long as the keyboard works properly "85% of the time," the issue "won't be fixed because it is an expected glitch due to usage and fast typing.")

It's a sad day. The KeyONE and the Key2 allowed me to believe, for just a while, that the Blackberry era had been extended. I was wrong. The Blackberry era is long dead. I'm going to have to learn to type on glass, finally.

And the owners of the Blackberry brand should be very, very ashamed of themselves.

Sorry to hear about your issues... I've had no issues with my KeyOne BE... I much prefer my pkb over typing on glass especially as I compose a lot of emails on the move... Good luck with your new phone...

[conite]

Well, for me, the KEY² is the best pkb game in town, and I wouldn't trade it for ANY other device in the market.

[bh7171]

No hardware or software issues on my BE KeyOne. Perhaps your sentiment will change when the Key 3 hits the market. Slabs are just slabs. I own a great one (S9) but if you want or prefer the physical attributes and efficiency of a PKB Blackberry is the only real credible game in town. Hope an update fixes your capitalisation issue(s). Realize all devices and device software can and do have idiosyncrasies.

[Hazo]

I get your frustration as well, but I'm with Conite on this....not all of us have the same experience.

[RK_BB]

....when the Key 3 hits the market...

At this point IF sounds more accurate.

[zer0ten]

BB has been sh*tting all over it's customers for a decade now. This is nothing new. At this point it's obvious they won't learn their lesson.

[Insync]

I've been a Blackberry user and something of an amateur product evangelist for decades. I've reached the end of my rope. Once my Key2 reaches the end of its useful life about a year from now, I will never buy another Blackberry (or TCL) device.

It pains me to say it, but TCL or Blackberry Mobile or whatever it's currently called has killed the product line. The final straw has been the issue with letters typed on the physical keyboard as capitals coming out as lowercase (see separate thread) and Blackberry's utter failure to address that flaw in core functionality.

But beyond that, I am giving up because the new owners of the Blackberry smartphone brand have also seemed to give up. They no longer seem to care that what sets them apart from other smartphone manufacturers are the physical keyboard and a user community of tech-savvy, business-focused powerusers who expect a premium user experience for the premium price we pay for a device whose only premium features, really, are the physical keyboard and supposedly hardened security.

What I've witnessed is a company that doesn't seem to care when those differentiators are what fail. When monthly Android security patches for Blackberry smartphones lag months behind patches for the Pixel or other phones, Blackberry doesn't seem to care. When long-heralded OS upgrades don't materialize, Blackberry doesn't seem to care. When the physical keyboard types wrong letters, Blackberry doesn't seem to care. (In the case I described separately about physical keyboard failures, Blackberry literally didn't care, characterizing the issue as "a glitch" and telling me that as long as the keyboard works properly "85% of the time," the issue "won't be fixed because it is an expected glitch due to usage and fast typing.")

It's a sad day. The KeyONE and the Key2 allowed me to believe, for just a while, that the Blackberry era had been extended. I was wrong. The Blackberry era is long dead. I'm going to have to learn to type on glass, finally.

And the owners of the Blackberry brand should be very, very ashamed of themselves.

I haven't had this issue. Not knowing if another device is coming on stream is somewhat comforting. At this point I don't know of any additional features I want, except perhaps a little more screen size, and that's not pressing.

[DOCTOREVIL8]

I've been a Blackberry user and something of an amateur product evangelist for decades. I've reached the end of my rope. Once my Key2 reaches the end of its useful life about a year from now, I will never buy another Blackberry (or TCL) device.

It pains me to say it, but TCL or Blackberry Mobile or whatever it's currently called has killed the product line. The final straw has been the issue with letters typed on the physical keyboard as capitals coming out as lowercase (see separate thread) and Blackberry's utter failure to address that flaw in core functionality.

But beyond that, I am giving up because the new owners of the Blackberry smartphone brand have also seemed to give up. They no longer seem to care that what sets them apart from other smartphone manufacturers are the physical keyboard and a user community of tech-savvy, business-focused powerusers who expect a premium user experience for the premium price we pay for a device whose only premium features, really, are the physical keyboard and supposedly hardened security.

What I've witnessed is a company that doesn't seem to care when those differentiators are what fail. When monthly Android security patches for Blackberry smartphones lag months behind patches for the Pixel or other phones, Blackberry doesn't seem to care. When long-heralded OS upgrades don't materialize, Blackberry doesn't seem to care. When the physical keyboard types wrong letters, Blackberry doesn't seem to care. (In the case I described separately about physical keyboard failures, Blackberry literally didn't care, characterizing the issue as "a glitch" and telling me that as long as the keyboard works properly "85% of the time," the issue "won't be fixed because it is an expected glitch due to usage and fast typing.")

It's a sad day. The KeyONE and the Key2 allowed me to believe, for just a while, that the Blackberry era had been extended. I was wrong. The Blackberry era is long dead. I'm going to have to learn to type on glass, finally.

And the owners of the Blackberry brand should be very, very ashamed of themselves.

I use the BE KeyOne, and have not experienced this issue.

Also note, when I type, the majority of my capital letters are the start of sentences. So a double space will enter the period and capitalize the next letter. Other times, when I need a capital, I type lowercase and the predictions will give me the upper case word and I use that.

But in your case, I would completely agree with you in your stance with your issues. If I ran into problems and the OEM says it's normal behaviour, I would not be pleased. The keyboard is the highlight of these devices. I would expect them to try to perfect it. My biggest gripe is when I hold a letter down to capitalize, it takes longer than I would like and it lists a bunch of 'options' for this letter. I just want a capital letter. BB10 (if I recall correctly) could capitalize faster, without a list of optional characters.

[JuiciPatties]

... My biggest gripe is when I hold a letter down to capitalize, it takes longer than I would like and it lists a bunch of 'options' for this letter. I just want a capital letter. BB10 (if I recall correctly) could capitalize faster, without a list of optional characters.

Hmmm ... I'm on the Key2 and I don't have that issue. It actually changes to a capital quite quickly. I do get options for other characters (accents and other weird characters), but it picks the capital of the letter I am typing by default. I only have one language selected, but not sure if that plays a role.

[DOCTOREVIL8]

Hmmm ... I'm on the Key2 and I don't have that issue. It actually changes to a capital quite quickly. I do get options for other characters (accents and other weird characters), but it picks the capital of the letter I am typing by default. I only have one language selected, but not sure if that plays a role.

"Longer than I would like" is just me being picky. The Bold 9900 and BB10 keyboards could capitalize by holding a letter faster than Android. It could be half a second versus one second. Or maybe I remembered the speed incorrectly.

And when I get a suggestion for odd characters, that doesn't help me with my English language in any way. I want word predictions. Is there a way to turn this off?

[joshualebowitz]

Based on their silence, doesn't seem there will ever be another BlackBerry Mobile device. If you like the current devices (and, in my opinion, the KEYone and KEY2 are excellent), makes sense to try to buy a backup version. It is certainly a frustrating situation for passionate fans of BlackBerry devices, but the folks at TCL don't seem too concerned about it.

[anon(5597702)]

Based on their silence, doesn't seem there will ever be another BlackBerry Mobile device. If you like the current devices (and, in my opinion, the KEYone and KEY2 are excellent), makes sense to try to buy a backup version. It is certainly a frustrating situation for passionate fans of BlackBerry devices, but the folks at TCL don't seem too concerned about it.

Yeah, but they're not well known for "communicating out" or anything.

[joshualebowitz]

True, which is why they failed.

[conite]

Based on their silence, doesn't seem there will ever be another BlackBerry Mobile device. If you like the current devices (and, in my opinion, the KEYone and KEY2 are excellent), makes sense to try to buy a backup version. It is certainly a frustrating situation for passionate fans of BlackBerry devices, but the folks at TCL don't seem too concerned about it.

We were told back in Feb not to expect a new device before the end of the year. Apart from not repeating this over and over, I'm not sure what you'd expect to hear.

This panic only exists in this Crackberry bubble.

[the_boon]

We were told back in Feb not to expect a new device before the end of the year. Apart from not repeating this over and over, I'm not sure what you'd expect to hear.

This panic only exists in this Crackberry bubble.

Sure, but what's with the continuous marketing of the LE on instagram?

Did they take hundreds of those shots last year before launch and decided to post them almost every day with some inspirational marketing quote, no matter if the damn device being shown is available to purchase or not??

[PsihoKey2]

Based on their silence, doesn't seem there will ever be another BlackBerry Mobile device. If you like the current devices (and, in my opinion, the KEYone and KEY2 are excellent), makes sense to try to buy a backup version. It is certainly a frustrating situation for passionate fans of BlackBerry devices, but the folks at TCL don't seem too concerned about it.

Agreed, Key2 is excellent.
I hope Key3 comes out too

[RK_BB]

Sure, but what's with the continuous marketing of the LE on instagram?

Did they take hundreds of those shots last year before launch and decided to post them almost every day with some inspirational marketing quote, no matter if the damn device being shown is available to purchase or not??

Hang on. Justification is crafted as we speak!

[conite]

Sure, but what's with the continuous marketing of the LE on instagram?

Did they take hundreds of those shots last year before launch and decided to post them almost every day with some inspirational marketing quote, no matter if the damn device being shown is available to purchase or not??

Social media is international. The LE is available in a number of regions/markets.