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All reasonable questions IMO. Different devices work well for different people. As a former iPhone v.1 and v.2 user who switched to the Storm 1 last year, and upgraded to the S2 in October 2009, I can only speak from my experience. Simply put, my experience with the S2 is lightyears beyond the iPhone 3G, which I get to have my hands on on a daily basis. Why? Because, for me, the functionality it provides me, coupled with the Enhanced SurePress touch screen, allow me to effectively and efficiently both take care of my business, while having some fun too.
Too your suggestions: 1) Browser. Without a doubt the BB native browser is inferior to phones running webkit browsers. There are options for 3rd party browsers such as Bolt, which you mention, and Opera, but a consumer really should be forced to resort to a 3rd party app solely because the manufacturer can't turn out a competent native one. The good news is that, with RIM's acquisition of Torch Mobile and their Iris webkit browser we will likely see a new, native browser in 2010. I don't do a ton of browsing on my phone... pretty much confine myself to news sites and CB mobile
but given the shift RIM has seen from "corp" users to "consumer" (read: pure-BIS users), as evidenced by their own statements in their financial reports, this is plainly something that's a swing factor for many consumers in deciding what device to purchase; 2) I can't really speak to BB Maps v. VZNav v. Google. I'm really directionally challenged, and can't find my way around to save my life. So I decided a couple of years ago to have my dealer install their factory nav package. I'd literally and figuratively be lost without it. I mean seriously: I use the "Home" button to get from the office to my house (4 mile drive.) If I'm going to a meeting out of the office at a location I'm not familiar with I just go to maps.google.com, enter the starting & ending locations, and then plug the street address into my car's nav. Again here, I realize that my approach is more costly than using my phone for turn-by-turn voice nav, but it works for me. Additionally, I am an optimist, and believe that we'll see a version of GOOG's turn-by-turn for BlackBerry in the near future; 3) I was a mix between a touch (Palm + stylus) and physical (BB 7xxx series) user for a long time. I liked the fact that I could easily enter contacts and cal info on the fly with the BB, as opposed to the cumbersome process required on the Palm, but the Palm did have features I liked, which is why it was my personal line. I'm personally not a fan of touch + slider devices. I'm constantly worried that I'm going to crack the slider off the case of the device if I type too hard on it. Also, in order to achieve the form factor of the Droid, MOTO and GOOG had to make compromises. One compromise apparently was that they wanted to keep the device as thin as they could, while integrating a slider. The end result, in my experience, is a totally flat slider keyboard that's challenging to type quickly and accurately on, and difficult to see what I'm typing on screen as a function of the design. I'm sure future touch + sliders running Android will look to this design an improve upon it, but that's one reason I elected not to swap to the Droid.
As far as the S2 is concerned, it was always intended to be an enhanced S1. Just watching the vids over the summer proved that. RIM wasn't looking to revolutionize the touchscreen world with the S2; rather, I believe that their plan was to make incremental improvements to the existing touch product. Touch doesn't represent a big segment of their total sales, but that may be more a function of their not offerring any choice other than the Storm line. Kind of like the old Tylenol scare, the press and user reports at launch on the S1 were so horrendous that they likely scared scores of potential S2 customers away. What I find most interesting is VZW's marketing plan. As the only carrier officially offering the S2 right now they've largely elected to avoid publicizing and marketing it, although they appear to have begun to push more S2 ads recently. Rather, they put their Thanksgiving eggs in the Android basket, getting GOOG and Lucas Films on board to dump a pile of money into advertising the Droid and, to a lesser extent, the Eris (which I personally find to be a superior device to the Droid.) Was VZW burned so badly by the S1 launch, in spite of its impressive early sales, that they elected to shy away from marketing the S2's launch? Remember, we didn't even have an official announcement from VZW about the S2 launch until (as I recall) 3-4 days before launch. While release date information was available on CB, and through VZW ccare if you got the right rep, I wonder if this marketing decision was simply designed to keep expectations at a minimum, or if it represents more of a concerted shift by VZW away from the RIM devices.
There are rumors floating that the S3 will have a slider. We'll see in a year probably. In the meantime, I have come to believe that RIM is simply designing and offering too many variations on their devices right now. I couldn't tell you the differences in the 8xxx series devices between carries without going to blackberry.com. APPL's advantage is that they only offer one form factor, which is largely unchanged from the original iPhone (they added some chrome, 3G, memory, etc), but without the AppStore (which was a stroke of brilliance) it's pretty much the same device it was 3 years ago. If I got to play Jim Basille for a day I'd review sales info for the past 24 months and EOL everything that's underperforming. I would demand from my design/build teams consistency across each line. I would mandate that the remaining lineup, which in my world would be comprised of a Curve-like device, a Tour-like device, a Bold-like device, and (for now) a Storm-like device, be based on just two operating systems: one for touch and one for non-touch devices. I would direct the OS dev teams to create operating systems in partnership with design/build, to ensure that an 8xxx sold to VZW runs the same OS as one sold to T-Mo. Two operating systems would allow the OS dev group to focus on making substantive improvements and changes, as opposed to the incremental changes we see now, which are, I believe, largely a result of their having to push out god knows how many versions worldwide. They should leverage their power in the marketplace to consolidate device lineup and OSs, freeing the developers up to get creative and develop and OS that takes advantage of the superior hardware.
Wow, that got long, sorry....12-20-09 10:06 AM - Let's start with the last and make it first. "If you don't like what I say, please don't comment...", wtf kind of discussion would that be then? That's really kind of the purpose of these forums, you know; the free and open exchange of information; not the broadcasting of opinions in a vacuum.
What kind of site would CrackBerry be if we all just tacitly sat by whilst others blathered on about topics and didn't post a contrary point of view? It definitely wouldn't be the site that I visited every day, multiple times a day.
So, getting to the meat of your post... I see your device is listed as the Curve 8330, and you write about owing a Tour 9630, but nowhere do I see any information about your current or prior ownership of either the Storm or Storm2, hmmmm. Are you basing your (it seems to me, somewhat less than) expert opinion on the viability of the 95XX series of devices on personal knowledge/experience, or on unreliable, apocryphal, second and third hand information?
Just from reading your post I get the feeling that you've not used either the Storm or Storm2 in any kind of real-world setting. I've used both. The Storm was my introduction to the world of Blackberries, and while the memory of the original Storm was clearly insufficient for what RIM intended, the device itself, flawed as it was, was clearly a major step forward. I loved my Storm experience, and when the Storm2 debuted I immediately upgraded.
The S2 is what the Storm should have been in the first place, the processor is fast, the memory is great, and the screen "clickability" is even better than in the original. Aside from that, but there are so many things just over the horizon, OpenGL2, native PDF support, a new webkit browser, widgets, etc, etc, etc...
So, switch to the Droid (a "1.0" device for Motorola, btw), if your antipathy for the 95XX series of devices aren't for you. But as some others are finding out, those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. How you could fail to recognize the parallels between the Droid and the original Storm is completely beyond me. Both are/were 1.0 devices for their respective manufacturers, both have/had software and firmware issues, both have/had hardware issue etc.
If you don't care for RIM and their products, that's fine, that's what a free market is all about. You're free to vote with your wallet and let the market take care of itself, but let's not start making blanket statements that are so blatantly skewed.
12-20-09 11:24 AM - Sorry I have not changed it from curve to tour. But I did upgrade to the Tour. My friend has the Storm and I've used it quite a bit. I mean I don't have to own the thing to know it's not my thing. I mean I can tell I wouldn't want the Iphone either and I've never used one of those. If you see a movie preview do you go see everyone of them to see if you like them? Or sometimes do you automatically know if that would be something you wouldn't go see?Let's start with the last and make it first. "If you don't like what I say, please don't comment...", wtf kind of discussion would that be then? That's really kind of the purpose of these forums, you know; the free and open exchange of information; not the broadcasting of opinions in a vacuum.
What kind of site would CrackBerry be if we all just tacitly sat by whilst others blathered on about topics and didn't post a contrary point of view? It definitely wouldn't be the site that I visited every day, multiple times a day.
So, getting to the meat of your post... I see your device is listed as the Curve 8330, and you write about owing a Tour 9630, but nowhere do I see any information about your current or prior ownership of either the Storm or Storm2, hmmmm. Are you basing your (it seems to me, somewhat less than) expert opinion on the viability of the 95XX series of devices on personal knowledge/experience, or on unreliable, apocryphal, second and third hand information?
Just from reading your post I get the feeling that you've not used either the Storm or Storm2 in any kind of real-world setting. I've used both. The Storm was my introduction to the world of Blackberries, and while the memory of the original Storm was clearly insufficient for what RIM intended, the device itself, flawed as it was, was clearly a major step forward. I loved my Storm experience, and when the Storm2 debuted I immediately upgraded.
The S2 is what the Storm should have been in the first place, the processor is fast, the memory is great, and the screen "clickability" is even better than in the original. Aside from that, but there are so many things just over the horizon, OpenGL2, native PDF support, a new webkit browser, widgets, etc, etc, etc...
So, switch to the Droid (a "1.0" device for Motorola, btw), if your antipathy for the 95XX series of devices aren't for you. But as some others are finding out, those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. How you could fail to recognize the parallels between the Droid and the original Storm is completely beyond me. Both are/were 1.0 devices for their respective manufacturers, both have/had software and firmware issues, both have/had hardware issue etc.
If you don't care for RIM and their products, that's fine, that's what a free market is all about. You're free to vote with your wallet and let the market take care of itself, but let's not start making blanket statements that are so blatantly skewed.
And what I meant about that was simply I didn't feel like a big argument like some of these threads get. I mean if you disagree that's okay.
And i never said I didn't care for RIM products. See this is the thing, you're assuming all kinds of stuff that I clearly wasn't saying. That's what I wanted to avoid. Theres always someone who can't read who does this.
Lastly, you're telling me to get a droid. What did I say about the droid? Read it AGAIN.
Gah! Thanks to the other people though. Good reads. Post more!12-20-09 02:17 PM
