[lnichols]

A10 what I think:
5″ OLED, HD/WXGA, 1280�768, 24-bit color, S-Stripe Pixel Arrangement, 355ppi
2GB Ram
13MP
CPU - Dual-core 1.9 GHz Krait
Quad-Core GPU

You can't have 355ppi with 1280x768, 5" screen. The PPI is determined by the number of pixels and the number of square inches of screen.

[rally5464]

I have heard and seen decent marketing here in Canada for the Z10. But that has tapered off dramatically once the S4 came on to the scene. The A10 marketing needs the same treatment and not rely on word of mouth. New phones need all the media and positive reviews so people can get them in their hands and show off to their friends and family which may become potential buyers.

[letmein13]

A message to people who don't need to have 4 core CPU in their BB phone,

You may not see the significant of having a 4 core CPU in your phone right now, but you'll realize its important after OS 10.2 is released and many apps run as headless apps in your phone.

When it happens, your phone performance will take a hit. I hope you don't ask me why BB allow headless apps to run when their phone's CPU is only dual core.

[StutterStep]

Not any different than android really in that aspect about headless apps and it works fine on android. I'm more concerned about the ram. Also BlackBerry 10 can definitely use more horsepower because it is not lag free.

[Jaguarandine]

A message to people who don't need to have 4 core CPU in their BB phone,

You may not see the significant of having a 4 core CPU in your phone right now, but you'll realize its important after OS 10.2 is released and many apps run as headless apps in your phone.

When it happens, your phone performance will take a hit. I hope you don't ask me why BB allow headless apps to run when their phone's CPU is only dual core.

BlackBerry phones have been running headless apps for years in OS 5, 6, and 7. It won't be a problem.

[MisterMe11]

I really hope so too, but we had Playbook launch at too high a price, then Z10,Q10, and now Q5
They're not counting the immaturity of the ecosystem when they set the launch price, and they are being punished with poor sales (conjecture on the Q5, but look at all the reviews warning prospective buyers about the price/value)

They need to be reasonable with the pricing. I hope they learn sooner rather than later

[nt300]

What percentage of S4 and S3 sales did Samsung achieve with their 5" star the Note 2? That will tell you roughly how many A10's BlackBerry will sell. Just use that percentage on the Z10's sales numbers.

Approx: 5 Million in as of November 2012. were sold. The A10 shouldn't have a problem beating that sales number IMO.

[MisterMe11]

iPhone's performance is excellent, and their internally designed CPU is very competive, especially so on graphics.
Apple is certainly not lacking in any meaningful spec except screen size and some features such as NFC, etc (e.g. later than Android to LTE, 11ac Wifi..).

Exactly! It isn't all about specs most Android fans dwell on that but if it was all about raw specs, Apple would be in last place (and we clearly know that's not the case).

[nt300]

MARKETING please??!!!!!

Agreed, BlackBerry 10 is the best mobile platform ever released in this world, yet BlackBerry fails to explain to people why it is the best. Marketing is the number 1 thing they've messed up IMO. But things can change, they only need to start proper advertising or even hire a pro marketing firm to assist them.

iPhone's performance is excellent, and their internally designed CPU is very competive, especially so on graphics.
Apple is certainly not lacking in any meaningful spec except screen size and some features such as NFC, etc (e.g. later than Android to LTE, 11ac Wifi..).

Agreed, but why is the A10 getting hammered on its rumoured specs? The Z10 runs great with it's current specs.

[MisterMe11]

If they launch it at 'flagship pricing', I think it will sell a small fraction of that - even though I think it will be an excellent phone and run quite well on the rumored specs. Engineering wise it will be adequate (Blackberry think like engineers). Public perception-wise, they have a steep hill (a cliff, really) to climb with the marketing, particularly if they price it at the level of the competition which have far stronger ecosystems. That's the unfortunate reality as I see it.

Approx: 5 Million in as of November 2012. were sold. The A10 shouldn't have a problem beating that sales number IMO.

[MisterMe11]

Agreed, but why is the A10 getting hammered on its rumoured specs? The Z10 runs great with it's current specs.

A few people have expressed it better than me. Apple has strong brand cachet. Samsung is getting close. Any other competitor has to show the consumer a compelling reason to choose it over Apple or Samsung.
BB10 is a very nice OS, but Blackberry has had difficulty convincing the masses of this. It's not sufficiently differentiated to current iPhone and Android users to switch. Compound that with the immature app selection, and Blackberry is a tough sell.
A lot of people feel that Blackberry has to step it up spec-wise to overcome the other disadvantages (including their tendancy to launch at high prices to try to regain profitability).

I think the A10 is shaping up to be a fine phone, but it will be difficult to convince the mass-market of this based on what we think we know so far...

[lnichols]

Approx: 5 Million in as of November 2012. were sold. The A10 shouldn't have a problem beating that sales number IMO.

Yes but he was talking about percentage. Samsung sold 5 Million Note2 (using your number won't look it up), but sold way more GS3, 40 Million as of January 2013. That means that the Note2 sold at about 12.5% of what the GS3 did. If you apply this to BlackBerry 2.7 Million SHIPPED, this means that they would SHIP 337,500 A10s if you consider sales to work out about the same as the GS3 to Note2 comparison.

[nt300]

Yes but he was talking about percentage. Samsung sold 5 Million Note2 (using your number won't look it up), but sold way more GS3, 40 Million as of January 2013. That means that the Note2 sold at about 12.5% of what the GS3 did. If you apply this to BlackBerry 2.7 Million SHIPPED, this means that they would SHIP 337,500 A10s if you consider sales to work out about the same as the GS3 to Note2 comparison.

Well that isn't really a fair comparison, because Samsung's GN and S3/4 are much better known to people (Samsung's Aggressive Marketing) versus BlackBerry's Z10/Q10. I still get people thinking BlackBerry 10 is nothing more than a basic upgrade to BB7, that is until they try it.

Though we do all agree BlackBerry's marketing really needs work, where did all that $500M advertising money went to? I would love to know lol,

[SDTRMG]

The need better marketing, better customer service, better ecosystem, and rebuild the name BlackBerry from all the negativity associated with it today before they can even think about pricing like Apple, or even Samsung!

I agree to an extent(look at Nokia selling 7.4 million lumias but not making a profit, blackberry doesn't have the luxury of giving phones away, when hardware is there only source of income.), and adding unneeded specs to the a10 won't help them sell more phones when what you mentioned is what really needs to be addressed.

[SDTRMG]

A message to people who don't need to have 4 core CPU in their BB phone,

You may not see the significant of having a 4 core CPU in your phone right now, but you'll realize its important after OS 10.2 is released and many apps run as headless apps in your phone.

When it happens, your phone performance will take a hit. I hope you don't ask me why BB allow headless apps to run when their phone's CPU is only dual core.

That still won't matter, 90% of android apps and phones don't even utilize quadcore, its all for show.

[SDTRMG]

Approx: 5 Million in as of November 2012. were sold. The A10 shouldn't have a problem beating that sales number IMO.

If they launch it at 'flagship pricing', I think it will sell a small fraction of that - even though I think it will be an excellent phone and run quite well on the rumored specs. Engineering wise it will be adequate (Blackberry think like engineers). Public perception-wise, they have a steep hill (a cliff, really) to climb with the marketing, particularly if they price it at the level of the competition which have far stronger ecosystems. That's the unfortunate reality as I see it.

The a10 will do fine especially being the only 5" none android device on the market. I know people who want bigger phones then there iPhone, but don't wanna use android. The a10 is gonna fit that market perfectly.

[tjseaman]

I really like the way you think! Not because you're right or wrong, but because you're thinking on the other side of the table. I don't believe BlackBerry made the A10 with the mindset of "yea, let's make a crap phone! That's what will do it!" They probably have to balance efficiencies with their products. Can't bet it all on Red.
Someone also mentioned, BlackBerry may not be in it for the flagships... that's an interesting POV. Maybe the goal isn't to have the most popular phone on the market, but to give BlackBerry users the best experience possible. The Z10 & Q10 were standard "sweet spot" phones for those who wanted an updated BlackBerry, but didn't want the hooplah other devices are pushing. The Q5 is for the lower end of users, and the A10 is for those who simply want a bigger phone. Everyone who uses BlackBerry will have a device for them. Instead of trying to play in Android's game, BBY is creating its own league. And whomever is on BlackBerry's team will have the best experience for them

...just a theory.

Yet a very possible one!

[Duzzer3]

Maybe they toned down the screen resolution to conserve battery power. This would be a much appreciated move if the results proved it.

[szlevi]

@ szlevi

Says YouTube and says how inefficient Android is. Android doesn't make use of multi-core processors efficiently enough. Though one day it may but until then a Quad-Core CPU on an Android based device is a power hogging battery drain with no performance benefit.

Can we have a "Useless" button next to Thanks and Like...?

[szlevi]

That still won't matter, 90% of android apps and phones don't even utilize quadcore, its all for show.

"useless" <click>

[LWKING]

"useless" <click>

Do you ever have anything constructive to say?

[Gnomesane]

I agree to an extent(look at Nokia selling 7.4 million lumias but not making a profit, blackberry doesn't have the luxury of giving phones away, when hardware is there only source of income.), and adding unneeded specs to the a10 won't help them sell more phones when what you mentioned is what really needs to be addressed.

Well said.

Another thing to consider, and I don't know the answer: Don't Samsung, Nokia, Apple, etc all draw from the same hardware sources when it comes to components to make their phones? Didn't HTC One get delayed because of a shortage of some of the components?

BlackBerry isn't in a position to demand the latest and greatest, they surely have to stand at the back of the line. I think that's part of the reason why they go for a step below the latest in the newer line of BB10 phones. Not to mention that given their market share, I just assume that they don't enjoy volume discounts like Apple or Samsung based on volume orders and therefore pay a higher price for these components. Probably Nokia does as well in fact...

And finally, I think BlackBerry phones are just manufactured in Canada, Mexico and Hungary. I'm not well read on the subject, but I'm curious to know how factory wages in these areas compare to China and other parts of Asia? Are they on par? If not, that's another additional cost.

I know, all things the average consumer won't think about, but something that BlackBerry would need to consider.

[LWKING]

Says who? The "common wisdom" of CB? You really need to pick up a modern, quad-core Android and see how it performs when it does not have apps like BB10 - the problems start when you have 100-200 apps loaded and they all try to run their background services...

...things BB109 do not even offer: background apps and apps, in general.



Oh trust me, we all know that very well - one visit to the app store will make it painfully obvious, not to mention when you try to run Android apps...



Since when does it hold you back from commenting...? See your comments above, they are still there...



Stopped reading it right there - any mentioning of Apple in a BB-related context triggers an immediate quit on my part because I got to the point when I am not willing to engage in a discussion about BlackBerry if someone even remotely considers Apple to be relevant to the topic, sorry.

Let me tell you something about myself. I try my best to refrain from posting about areas that I don't really know much about. That way, when I do post, I'm right roughly 95 - 100% of the time. So, unless you can disprove me, what I say stands and whatever you say is quite humorous from my end.

Based on your comment about Apple, you're not willing to reason so this post will fall on deaf ears. Take care szlevi.

[LWKING]

*** I copied my post from another thread. I think the real issue is that people were looking for a Z10 upgrade.

Don't get me wrong, I wish that the A10 had the Snapdragon 800 just like everyone else. Blackberry doesn't seem to be going that route though. I also don't think it's required just yet. However, there is a rumor that there will be multiple versions of the A10 to be released. I'm crossing my fingers for a Snapdragon 800 version for the US. From a user experience point of view my point is this; The A10 will have a fantastic user experience. It will in no way be laggy, and I feel that if the people that are complaining actually used the phone when it came out, they would be happy with it! That is fundamentally my only point.

As far as compelling people to upgrade from the Z10, I don't think that's what this phone is for. Here's how I see it.

Three different user groups -> Six different devices (high/mid tier versions for each)

1. QWERTY group
-Q10
-Q5

2. The Keep it moving group
-Z10
-Z5

3. The Frankenfingered/ Power user group
-A10
-A5

I think each of these devices will see a replacement in 2014 with upgraded specs. The Frankenfingered group will have slightly higher specced phones than the Keep it moving group because they need to get things done in a different way.

I think the real issue here is that people were expecting an upgrade to the Z10/ Keep it moving group. That's not happening quite yet. Notice Z10 users don't want this phone. Well, they're not supposed to haha.

***

With this being said, there will likely be a Z10 upgrade (Are they calling it the King?) come January based on the general yearly upgrade cycle. I think 2014 will be a great year for Blackberry with the more polished OS and hardware kinks worked out.

[jedibeeftrix]

what is the "quad core GPU" business?

has an adreno GPU ever been described as having quad cores, or even single or dual cores for that matter?