[joshualebowitz]

Kevin works his *** off to keep the BlackBerry brand alive. He does a sensational job and is extremely active both here and on social media. Am sure that Kevin is just as disappointed as the rest of us. It isn't fair, at all, to place any blame on him or anyone at CrackBerry for the weak leadership at TCL. TCL's dramatic failure must be extremely hard for everyone at CrackBerry. How were they to know that their partner would be such a disappointment? No matter what, we should be thanking CrackBerry for allowing us to come together as a community.

[anon(7979562)]

I hold no blame on CBK. All he did was like the device and promote it.

Sure the Keyone launch was an absolute bust and I was one of the first ones to abandon ship and swore I'd never use a BB again! I was so disappointed in the launch that I went out and bought a Galaxy S8 + on launch day lol.

I just happened to be browsing these forums one day and saw that the Keyone was available on Amazon and ordered one. It came the next day and I've been blown away since!! I have zero complaints.

The great thing about the Keyone is that it's only gonna get better with tweaks and updates.

I have since sold off my iPhone 7 Plus and Galaxy S8+.

What makes you think the Keyone is going to get tweaks and updates? While not technically under the BBMo umbrella, the DTEK line (TCL designed and manufactured, powered by Blackberry Android) appears to be end of life with regards to getting a substantial OS update. All this less than a year after releasing both devices. With no communication from Blackberry proper, or any form of investigation journalism from Crackberry, who knows how long the support train for any of these devices will remain on the tracks.

[papped]

Blackberry itself lost credibility long before they ever had an android phone...

[anon(5364777)]

What makes you think the Keyone is going to get tweaks and updates? While not technically under the BBMo umbrella, the DTEK line (TCL designed and manufactured, powered by Blackberry Android) appears to be end of life with regards to getting a substantial OS update. All this less than a year after releasing both devices. With no communication from Blackberry proper, or any form of investigation journalism from Crackberry, who knows how long the support train for any of these devices will remain on the tracks.

Legitimate concern that we should have.

[Drenegade]

What makes you think the Keyone is going to get tweaks and updates? While not technically under the BBMo umbrella, the DTEK line (TCL designed and manufactured, powered by Blackberry Android) appears to be end of life with regards to getting a substantial OS update. All this less than a year after releasing both devices. With no communication from Blackberry proper, or any form of investigation journalism from Crackberry, who knows how long the support train for any of these devices will remain on the tracks.

Exactly the reason why people shouldn't buy from BlackBerry anymore. They've got to learn that they can't keep abandoning projects and screwing over customers. Let them be around in the background doing whatever they do and disappear from the mobile phone world.

Posted via CB10

[Tim-ANC]

Exactly the reason why people shouldn't buy from BlackBerry anymore. They've got to learn that they can't keep abandoning projects and screwing over customers. Let them be around in the background doing whatever they do and disappear from the mobile phone world.

Posted via CB10

I think Microsoft wins the prize for abandoning projects. However, they can afford to do it.

[anon(5364777)]

Exactly the reason why people shouldn't buy from BlackBerry anymore. They've got to learn that they can't keep abandoning projects and screwing over customers. Let them be around in the background doing whatever they do and disappear from the mobile phone world.

Posted via CB10

Hold the Phone. People here are already selling their latest iPhones and galaxies for phones they have not yet received or tried.

Aside for initial positive reviews I wish there were some follow up youtube reviewer segments on their devices. Or were there?

[evodevo69]

What makes you think the Keyone is going to get tweaks and updates? While not technically under the BBMo umbrella, the DTEK line (TCL designed and manufactured, powered by Blackberry Android) appears to be end of life with regards to getting a substantial OS update. All this less than a year after releasing both devices. With no communication from Blackberry proper, or any form of investigation journalism from Crackberry, who knows how long the support train for any of these devices will remain on the tracks.

When the dtek50 didn't receive their officially promised monthly security updates within a few short months after launch, and then basically permannently slashed the price from $429 to $299 cad, I already knew something wasn't right - especially given this was supposed to be their enterprise fleet phone.

But everyone kept making excuses for the company like there was any legitimate excuse other than the obvious fact BlackBerry is not that invested in hardware anymore at all. This means the software that goes into it as well.

When JC mentions software he's talking about the MDM and car systems stuff, not phones. That should be pretty obvious.

What's the excuse for the dtek60? That it was a limited production niche device...for whom? I'm not sure. I guess it isn't for enterprises either? Is that the excuse for why it might not receive nougat?

Edit: oh and the fact that their stock has surged recently after dumping hardware and the analysts pretty much only talk about their radar system and car qnx, etc as being the driver for their future growth, you would be naive to believe they're going to expend more than the minimum requirements for their phone partnerships.

[anon(5364777)]

^ funny enough you still still a few trying to sell the used or slightly used dtek50's much higher than retail channels over pride.

[consv93]

Do you even have a physical phone in your hands or do you ground your opinion solely on the issues reported here?

out of a million sold phones, a handful of people report their issues here.
The quiet, very satisfied people do not write anything here.
The Crackberry forums do not resemble all of the K1 buyers and users.

delete this thread it's not worth spending any more thoughts or word on mental diarrhea like this.

LOL, a million sold phones? That's a delusion if I've ever heard one. I would bet money that they haven't sold more than 20,000 worldwide.

[PantherBlitz]

the DTEK line (TCL designed and manufactured, powered by Blackberry Android) appears to be end of life with regards to getting a substantial OS update.

Because TCL is not on the hook for those. BlackBerry was (past tense - they are no longer on ShopBB). BlackBerry has little incentive to upgrade their legacy devices. The best that we can hope for is security patches for another year.

As far as the K1 goes, only time will tell. My guess is that if TCL is making sufficient profit on BBRY branded phones they will want to keep the brand fresh in order to continue selling more phones.

[qwerty4ever]

Seems like ballpark of 5k from inventory numbers we have seen here.

I will say this is not the device to fight over or defend. For the pricetag they delivered us a product that has a strong cosmetic presence but lacks a quality component presence.

Its not a finished product, or they picked a wrong partner, or it was the only company that took on the task.

The price is a relative bargain if you buy it on contract instead of paying full retail. While TCL could have ramped up production between the UK release date and CA+US release date based on reservation orders for wireless carriers and pre-orders for Amazon, in Canada and the United States of America, the lack of availability is going to hurt adoption of the BlackBerry KEYone.

Let's hope BlackBerry Mobile gets its act together as well so this smartphone is available for purchase from their partners.

[Drenegade]

LOL, a million sold phones? That's a delusion if I've ever heard one. I would bet money that they haven't sold more than 20,000 worldwide.

I'd bet even less. Maybe 5000 total worldwide. That's what makes all these build quality issues so alarming.

Posted via CB10

[anon(5364777)]

The price is a relative bargain if you buy it on contract instead of paying full retail. While TCL could have ramped up production between the UK release date and CA+US release date based on reservation orders for wireless carriers and pre-orders for Amazon, in Canada and the United States of America, the lack of availability is going to hurt adoption of the BlackBerry KEYone.

Let's hope BlackBerry Mobile gets its act together as well so this smartphone is available for purchase from their partners.

100% ... specially when we are so close to iPhone 8 and note 8. Niche or not. will a person take finance a new iPhone 30/month or shell out $600...which in America that is plenty of dough for the majority.

[anon(7979562)]

Because TCL is not on the hook for those. BlackBerry was (past tense - they are no longer on ShopBB). BlackBerry has little incentive to upgrade their legacy devices. The best that we can hope for is security patches for another year.

As far as the K1 goes, only time will tell. My guess is that if TCL is making sufficient profit on BBRY branded phones they will want to keep the brand fresh in order to continue selling more phones.

Does TCL have a hand in the decision making process tied to the Blackberry brand? My understanding was that BBMo was the only entity driving the Blackberry bus.

Additionally, allowing Blackberry proper to essentially abandon the DTEK line of devices with regards to Android revisions is a very short sighted position for the new brand licensee, BBMo, to take. The vast majority of consumers (call them whatever you want: prosumers, enterprise, etc.) don't know and don't care that a newly formed company in BBMo is running the Blackberry show now, and that the Keyone is the first device to launch under their watchful eye. What most potential Keyone customers will quickly come to realize via any sort of focused Google search, is that Blackberry left all of their early Android converts out to dry with respect to OS upgrades on devices that were not even a year old. If I'm BBMo, this potential association is troubling. If I was truly invested in trying to make an honest run at revitalizing the Blackberry name, I would force Blackberry proper to continue their support of Android for the DTEK line to limit any associative fallout.

[CrackBerry Kevin]

Hey All,

Wow, this thread gained steam quickly! Love how much passion everybody has for speculating on CBK and whether he's the saviour or destroyer of all things.

A few things...

A) CBK Activity: I haven't been quiet. If you actually pay attention to me everywhere, quite the opposite. Finishing up a blog post shortly announcing our US meetups, and will have an Editor's Desk post coming later today too. As I've said, don't just look for me on CB these days... it's 2017 - you also gotta follow me on the twitters and instagrams. I'm finally home this week and in the office, so will pick up on written/video content more (and we'll definitely do a podcast). When I'm traveling, it's harder to do all of that.

B) CBK Retirement in 3, 2, 1: Nahh.... Despite the teething problems some customers are seeing, I think every reviewer will continue to agree that this is the best BlackBerry ever delivered in terms of overall package and experience. As mentioned on this thread, CrackBerry is the place where anything bad tends to be reported so you need to normalize for that loudness vs. what you're not necessarily hearing about (the number of devices with no issues). I'm definitely tracking all of the hardware issues that are getting reported. With all of my KEYone units I have yet to experience any hardware issues such as dead pixels or screen lifting (I've probably had 15 units cross my hands already). I don't have any numbers on how many KEYones have been produced/sold/etc., but it still relatively early days - hopefully any issues on the production line have already been fixed. Feel bad obviously for anybody who picked up a KEYone and has had issues - hopefully you can get it fixed/replaced without hassle.

C) Blame CBK for any KEYone issues! Lol. Sure. I'll take all the blame. It's clearly my fault. Just came home from Taiwan where I was at Computex, but maybe I should fly back to China and stand at the end of the KEYone production line and inspect every unit myself! [Hey.. that's almost so crazy of an idea I *would* do that!] Look, pretty much every BlackBerry that has ever launched has had some type of issues follow it... from overheating PRIVs to BlackBerry Storms that we're slow as molasses to BlackBerry Bold 9000s that shipped with unusable web browsers. It's not a new thing to see issues, though of course, I'd rather it be polished and perfect, and as mentioned above, I feel the pain for anybody who's facing issues. Hopefully it'll be rectified asap.

Overall, I'm more excited now than I was back in February when I came out of retirement to celebrate 10 Years of CrackBerry and cover the heck out of the KEYone launch. At that point, I wasn't sure how the KEYone would be received... by tech media, by reviewers, by retailers and by end users. I loved the phone from minute one, but maybe others would think I was crazy. Rather, the opposite happened - lots of love for the KEYone. It's been the most positive launch I've seen for BlackBerry since the early days. Considering the alternative was that John Chen would just quit making BlackBerry phones altogether, I think that we have the KEYone right now in our hands is an incredible turn of events, and that more devices are coming is even better. Obviously we have expectations from BlackBerry and BlackBerry Mobile that the hardware and software is going to be well built and reliable. I'm still completely optimistic that will be the case.

Alright, I'll quit typing now. Carry on with the CBK debate!

[CrackBerry Kevin]

And CrackBerry Meetups in Boston, Wasington, Atlanta, Dallas and Chicago announced!

https://crackberry.com/rsvp-now-crac...xEobWbgwIy2.97

[Captain Kitchener]

I was waiting to catch Kevin's response.

It was everything I hoped it would be.

Some people need to stop whining and complaining. Expecting everything to be perfect all the time isn't realistic or practical.

If you have a device that isn't working, contact BBMobile or the retailer where you bought it. Things happen. It's part of living.

[CrackBerry Kevin]

Phhheewww... glad I met your expectations on my response!

I was waiting to catch Kevin's response.

It was everything I hoped it would be.

Some people need to stop whining and complaining. Expecting everything to be perfect all the time isn't realistic or practical.

If you have a device that isn't working, contact BBMobile or the retailer where you bought it. Things happen. It's part of living.

[CrackBerry Kevin]

Oh yeah.. and I've purchased a few retail units as well. Got two off Amazon before they sold out (gave to our local Winnipeg Meetup winners - they'll keep me in the loop how those units are performing), and also have a Rogers unit I'm going to pick up right now. Going to buy a few more KEYones as I can just to see how those units hold up. Will maybe do some drop tests, etc. too to see how they take abuse.

[lower90]

Thanks. Are you even allowed to speculate why no CDMA devices have been distributed? That is what has me so puzzled, not frustrated or mad, just puzzled.

[falbo]

Oh yeah.. and I've purchased a few retail units as well. Got two off Amazon before they sold out (gave to our local Winnipeg Meetup winners - they'll keep me in the loop how those units are performing), and also have a Rogers unit I'm going to pick up right now. Going to buy a few more KEYones as I can just to see how those units hold up. Will maybe do some drop tests, etc. too to see how they take abuse.

Hi Kevin, if you want to drop one (k1 ) over this direction I would be more than pleased to put it through the paces. ;-)

[DrunkAttorney]

What is the deal with cdma? As our liaison to BB you seem to be the only person who can put this to rest. I'm frustrated not at the delay but at the fact that they refuse to acknowledge it to so many customers who were let down. I could stomach a July 1st delivery date if they just addressed the inconsistencies with the announced release date and the actual availability. It would be nice if you, as BBs middle man between the company and the consumers, gave us some kind of explanation so that so many people weren't speculating and grasping at straws with no idea of when we'll be able to get the phone we've waited so long for.

[Elephant_Canyon]

Welcome to gaming. Where major companies sell you half a finished product that wasn't properlyy checked for Hugh's and issues.

Who is Hugh and what are these "and issues" that he's putting into products?

[cgk]

Does TCL have a hand in the decision making process tied to the Blackberry brand? My understanding was that BBMo was the only entity driving the Blackberry bus.

Blackberry Mobile is just a trading name for TCL.