Originally Posted by
TheBirdDog Well, for me personally, the software needs to be offered to complete the package. Security - how secure is the phone if someone else's software is managing my files?
I understand that they are probably trying to get more Android users than they are BB10 users (larger market there, why wouldn't they)... but they can't leave their 'core' behind and expect it to keep working for them. That core, to me, is beautiful hardware that is loaded with brilliant software. Form meets function. That's what I fell in love with about my first BlackBerry and have continued to admire to now. It's not because I don't like apps that I'm still on BB10...
But, to be completely honest, I don't have the same attraction to their Android offerings because there isn't enough of that uniquely BlackBerry flavour added to it *yet*. The "function" part is still lacking.
At this point, a wait-and-see approach still makes sense for us. I don't really understand how so many people are in an uproar about the speed at which they receive the latest version of Android (or if the update will make it to their device at all). I'm far more concerned to see what BlackBerry adds to their own existing software suite and how much they can build on that differentiation from the rest of the Android world. If all we hear over the next year and a half is about more clients added to the Hub, that's great and all but not enough.
Maybe TCL thinks that they'll ride the BlackBerry brand into the sunset on the physical keyboard alone... and maybe that is actually enough to keep the BlackBerry brand viable in the mobile landscape. But at this point, when it comes to the software side of things, BlackBerry Android is not much more enticing over 'regular Android' than, dare I say it, iOS might be.
For me, BlackBerry has to prove that they are still somehow committed to the mobile software in their branded devices.
Otherwise, I see history repeating itself once again.