[Simon Ng]

Below is an article written by Singapore mainstream newspaper: Straits Times

No push e-mail, no thanks to new BlackBerry

Which caused many BB users to think twice about switching over to BlackBerry 10. Even Team BlackBerry in Singapore is now fighting fire over this article.

What say you guys? How to counter this article? Below is the article:

BLACKBERRY may have sounded its own death knell among small business users.

The phone maker has ditched a feature that lets them push e-mail messages directly to their devices without having to install expensive software and hardware that bigger companies would need for their staff to access such messages.

The company's new Z10 and Q10 smartphones do not support this BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS), which is hosted by SingTel, StarHub and M1.

For the service, users just need to pay a flat monthly fee to any of the three telcos, which have the tools to hook up with BlackBerry's servers.

There are understood to be 50,000 BIS users in Singapore, who will no longer be able to use the service if they upgrade to the new models.

While BlackBerry said that BIS would continue to be offered on its older devices, some industry watchers felt the game could be up for small business customers.

"If forced to choose, some may not buy a new BlackBerry phone," said one market watcher, who declined to be named.

IT consultancy services boss Khoo Chin Hang, 35, said he may switch to another phone maker when the time comes to change.

"That will probably be the end of the push e-mail service that I've become addicted to," he said.

For now, he plans to hang on to his current BlackBerry to continue using BIS, which he has been relying on for the past six years.

BlackBerry - formerly known as Research In Motion - launched its Z10 touchscreen smartphone on March 7. It sells for about $900.

Q10, which has a physical keyboard, is expected to be released in Singapore in May.

The devices sport the new BlackBerry 10 operating system, in what some analysts say is a last-ditch attempt to save the company following sharp declines in recent years.

It has been threatened by the rise of snazzy smartphones that provide users with a similar push e-mail system.

A BlackBerry spokesman based in Singapore said the company's future is in smartphones with multimedia entertainment capabilities.

"Customers are more inclined to carry smartphones that will keep them entertained while travelling, like watching movies and playing mobile games," he said.

The new BlackBerry 10 operating system is similar to the Google Android and Apple iOS platforms, which offer a plethora of third-party apps.

Users did not expect BlackBerry 10 to discontinue its support for BIS.

Diehards like Mr Khoo are adamant about one key difference: E-mail is automatically downloaded to BlackBerry devices round the clock.

Most smartphones are able to provide instant notification of the latest incoming messages but these are not downloaded until users click on the e-mail app.

Some of these smartphones also allow users to "fetch" their latest e-mail at regular intervals of 15 or 30 minutes.

The automatic e-mail download feature of BIS was a key selling point, and is handy in places where a 3G connection is unreliable.

Lawyer Anil Lalwani, 39, who has been using BIS for seven years, said: "With my BlackBerry, I know I can get my e-mails even if 3G connections are bad."

BIS is offered by all three telcos for as little as $13.90 per month for 1GB of data.

Subscribers must also buy a separate voice plan.

[danieljc]

There has been some discussion about this going on in the forum before. But frankly I still don't quite get the hang of it. Some say it really doesn't make too much difference between the current emailing and BIS in terms of receiving emails in a timely manner. I do seem to get them "Instantly ", at least for Gmail. My business email is offered by yahoo small business, which seems Ok too. But I do sometimes lose emails, and then get them back later.
In short, I can at least feel the new email system is not as reliable as the old fashioned BlackBerry way. 'Feel' not as secure too.

Posted via CB10

[Mister Xiado]

Yeah, I get Gmail messages within seconds of Google Talk notifying me of a new message, but now Yahoo takes forever and two days. Good thing I never used Yahoo for anything other than recovering other email accounts.

[Simon Ng]

I can't really comment much about the speed of delivery now 'cause I am still under contract and will need 3 more months before I can renew and get hold of BBZ10. If there's not much difference , then this article is causing unnecessary alarm and deter potential customers of BB Z10...

[Slamdunc1]

In honesty BIS was a major draw for a lot of people especially if you are running a small business with only a few people on a email platform where you don't have funky things like exchange server etc, perhaps just a basic pop account connected to outlook.

In that case using Gmail, or outlook com is not really an option and you go from a service that had push email to one that doesn't.

For the non technical setting up your email accounts is a lot harder than in the BIS days.

I reckon BlackBerry needs to come up with a similar type of service to BIS for BB10 even if it is an optional subscription service direct to a user like an app. I would pay a couple of dollars a month for it.


Mike posted via CB10

[Slamdunc1]

I have yahoo and outlook.com accounts. Outlook is awesome updates are way fast as good as when I was on my torch.
Yahoo is very unreliable set up to imap but updates are very irregular. That may have something to do with yahoo saying they weren't goung to support blackberry or it may just be that yahoo is crap now.

Mike posted via CB10

[tdleon]

Reading lots of threads about yahoo mail, isn't a problem for me in the UK, the PlayBook is a different story.....

Posted via CB10

[systemvolker]

I guess blackberry can still bring BIS to the new os10 if people really demand or need it.

Posted via BlackBerry z10 (CB)

[Caulibeam]

Was kinda -.- when I saw the article. Sure, push probably ain't as good as when we were on bis, but the major gripe for most sgreans when it came to Bbry was bis charges.

I'm glad that Bbry was able to forgo tt to make the Z10 more viable a buy. But that said, the market for Bbry in a is kinda small

Posted via CB10

[Simon Ng]

I guess blackberry can still bring BIS to the new os10 if people really demand or need it.

Posted via BlackBerry z10 (CB)

But if the telco decided to cut it off, what can consumers do? Besides, if there's not much difference in speed of delivery which is No.1 reason why people use BlackBerry, BIS would not be necessary as it implies additional cost. These days data plan is capped at 4Gb, 6Gb etc and never unlimited as how it use to be.

[yansen7533]

My BB10 is linked to my yahoo mail account and I can definitely see the difference in speed emails arrive as compared to my previous 9900

I just wonder why, if they have the infra already, they choose not to use it

Posted via CB10

[hannibalmoot]

I have all the same email, calender, and contact accounts on my Z10 as I had on my Torch and Bold before that and I haven't noticed any difference at all. I have Gmail, Outlook/Hotmail, and Icloud/MobileMe...no delays with receiving or any other problems. I can't speak for Yahoo mail because I fight that account on my computer already so I never bothered using it on my phone. I really can't say there has been any detriment for not having BIS thus far.

[Simon Ng]

I have all the same email, calender, and contact accounts on my Z10 as I had on my Torch and Bold before that and I haven't noticed any difference at all. I have Gmail, Outlook/Hotmail, and Icloud/MobileMe...no delays with receiving or any other problems. I can't speak for Yahoo mail because I fight that account on my computer already so I never bothered using it on my phone. I really can't say there has been any detriment for not having BIS thus far.

Precisely, that is why this article is giving wrong impression to the readers and deter people from purchasing BlackBerry 10 devices. Even to distract other existing BB users to other OS platform instead.

[jesse_h]

All my emails, gmail and work emails come through right away. I've tested this several times by sending an email from a computer to my email address, it's instant.

Posted via CB10 from my Zed

[kbz1960]

Precisely, that is why this article is giving wrong impression to the readers and deter people from purchasing BlackBerry 10 devices. Even to distract other existing BB users to other OS platform instead.

Won't the users have the same issues on other OS platforms as well?

[bobauckland]

I have a lot of Gmail accounts set to Active Sync.
Yesterday I had an important email in which I was cced.
One of the other cced people responded and copied me in.
I received this reply first.
10 minutes later I received the original sent email.

That would NEVER happen on my 9900.
If you don't depend on email, and you don't have a Z10, I'm not sure why you think the author is wrong. I'd pay extra for BIS and dependable push email, neither of which I have on my Z10.

[Simon Ng]

Won't the users have the same issues on other OS platforms as well?

If BlackBerry 10 devices offer the same speed of delivery like other OS platforms, of course, they might consider moving away since BlackBerry was known for almost instant receiving..

[Simon Ng]

I have a lot of Gmail accounts set to Active Sync.
Yesterday I had an important email in which I was cced.
One of the other cced people responded and copied me in.
I received this reply first.
10 minutes later I received the original sent email.

That would NEVER happen on my 9900.
If you don't depend on email, and you don't have a Z10, I'm not sure why you think the author is wrong. I'd pay extra for BIS and dependable push email, neither of which I have on my Z10.

I'm not 100% sure that is why I post this article and ask you guys for opinion. If only there is an option to retain BIS by our Service Provider.

[jegitoe]

I'm moving from an iPhone to the z10 and I'm finding no issues. Have noticed a couple times email will come through on my playbook before the z10. But I always get them... remember when we use to have to turn on a computer then go to which ever site you used/outlook to view anything. then your likely to get a virus.. quite happy with it all in all. even if they are ~30 seconds late...

Posted via CB10

[AmigaDude]

I'm not 100% sure that is why I post this article and ask you guys for opinion. If only there is an option to retain BIS by our Service Provider.

I'm curious,
1. BB will continue to support the current BIS infrastructure, (for older devices?)
2. If you already have the BIS plan and keep it then you are OK with the service providers.

But, the Z10 probably does not have the service books needed to actually associate email with the BB servers, so it implies that the issue is really with BB and not with your service providers?

[kbz1960]

If BlackBerry 10 devices offer the same speed of delivery like other OS platforms, of course, they might consider moving away since BlackBerry was known for almost instant receiving..

I guess, then the one and only reason they had a bb to begin with was BIS and for no other feature of the phone. In that case they could just stay with the older ones which doesn't help the new ones sell.

[Amit Oberoi]

I am only using gmail and Google business apps mail, total 6 mail ids, and when push is on in the mail settings, I have noticed that the mail is received first in my device and then after a few seconds in the laptop, and the laptop is also set to receive immediately. So I think this is a biased article and misleading too as I am not facing any problem with mails, but that is my experience and others may vary as posted by some.

Posted via CB10

[sportline]

Its a misleading article which serves no purpose but negative campaign against BB 10. Waste of time.

Z10, Indonesia

[ichpen]

I'm curious,
1. BB will continue to support the current BIS infrastructure, (for older devices?)
2. If you already have the BIS plan and keep it then you are OK with the service providers.

But, the Z10 probably does not have the service books needed to actually associate email with the BB servers, so it implies that the issue is really with BB and not with your service providers?

This is true. Issue is with BlackBerry natively supporting and provisioning bis which it does not do

Posted via CB10

[paulinVA]

Without BIS, you are no longer tied to the Blackberry network, are you? That means no more multi-day outages, I hope.

My business uses pop mail hosted by XO. The Z10 only checks it every 15 minutes at the most frequent setting. That is not acceptable.