[BBPandy]

My family use to be a BlackBerry Family. We all had BlackBerry's and life was great.

Then younger sister started looking at iPhones. It wasn't that she liked them more, it was that all her friends had iPhones & so she wanted one. So she got an iPhone 5 followed by an iPhone 5s and talks about how much better they are then BlackBerrys (she doesn't seem to care that comparing a 5s with a 9780 is not a fair comparison)

Meanwhile my older sister's Storm finally died. I had been trying to get her to upgrade it for years but she loved her storm (it wasn't even a storm 2) Her boyfriend (now her fianc&#2013265929 is a big Android fan and so she got a Samsung Galaxy. Her son's have since gotten Samsung tablets to replace their PlayBooks, making them a Samsung family. For Christmas I got her a BlackBerry Mini-stareo speaker. She loves it and has been using it constantly all week. BUT, despite loving the speakers, I have noticed that she has been trying to hide that they are made by BlackBerry.

Both sisters are former BlackBerry users, but now are seemingly embarrassed to be associated with the brand. My iPhone loving sister refuses to even run BBM on her phone because it's BlackBerry (this is a bit annoying because our family has a BBM Group that we often use to communicate with and now we have a missing member)

I see this problem wherever I go. These days (at least in Canada & the US) when people see you are on a BlackBerry they make fun of you. I have even had a girl (who was using an old feature phone that can only make calls & send txt msgs) make fun of my BlackBerry & claim that my Q10 isn't a "smartphone"! I have no idea how BlackBerry is going to fix this problem of public perception, but it's a HUGE problem and they need to find a way to fix it ASAP.

Rant Over

PS
Both my Parents are still huge BlackBerry fans and plan on replacing their 9900s with Q30's (or whatever windermere will be called) when they come out.

Posted via CB10

[qbnkelt]

Yup, people like what they like and their personal reasons vary. Very annoying I'm sure that the one sister won't use BBM, not even for the family BBM group.

[Dave Bourque]

Compare the Z30 to her 5S ))))

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[Dave Bourque]

5S only wins with apps and stronger cpu/gpu. I think Z30 wins the rest of its categories.

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[geoffsdad]

It is brutal. I believe one of BlackBerry's biggest errors was either they were unaware or they underestimated the hatred/embarrassment for the brand. I too have no clue how they overcome it in North America. Now people won't even give the great OS a chance. QNX really needs to do something that no other platform can do and be demonstrated in a 30 second commercial. Maybe the TAT team can develop an app that can read your pet's thoughts and translates them on your BlackBerry. :P Ridiculous I know, but They almost need something that ridiculous to get back into the consumer game.

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[Dave Bourque]

The trick is to show off features that she couldn't possibly do on her iPhone.

Z10STL100-3/10.2.1.1925

[ChainPunch]

There is nothing Blackberry can do about people that cave to peer-pressure or have such low self-esteem they have to mock someone else's device, which keep in mind that did not pay for.

Blackberry should work on making devices that work for their user base and once they have done that, then they can work on converting people from other devices.

People have mock me for having a blackberry and I could care less. I tell them it works for me and their is nothing that could do to change my mind on the device that I carry.

[Dave Bourque]

Switch apps game. Who can switch between apps the fastest. That A7 won't help them lol.

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[Dave Bourque]

Nobody mocked me over my Z10 because every time they attempt to. I amaze them and they give up.

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[mvpcrossxover]

My friends make fun of me because I use a BlackBerry. Make fun of me all they want, I don't care.
I'm not going to let other people's opinions affect my decisions.

[Laura Knotek]

It's really silly to argue over just a phone. Maybe it's just me, but my family and friends don't even discuss phones in regular conversations. We argue more about sports.



Sent from my Lumia 900 using Tapatalk

[BBPandy]

Nobody mocked me over my Z10 because every time they attempt to. I amaze them and they give up.

Z10STL100-3/10.2.1.1925

This girl had no interest in listening to reason. The worst part about it was that I had to put up with her & her constant snide remarks all night. (was out with friends & one of them brought her)

Posted via CB10

[fmb8]

OP makes a valid point. Even if you were to show people that BB10 is not the same old BlackBerry the brand is tarnished! I've been in similar scenarios & so many people just don't care how good or bad BlackBerry is today, they just want nothing to do with them, especially the youth! THAT is what they have to overcome in both the consumer & enterprise markets & it's worse in North America than the rest of the world IMO. Their delays in upgrading to a modern OS has much bigger consequences than most people can imagine!
The few people that prefer BlackBerry the way they were don't really matter because all your valid points are overshadowed by the masses that don't give a damn.
Even though the horrendous marketing didn't help any, I really thought BB10 would have been better received than it is.
They are certainly facing a steep uphill battle! I hope John Chen knows how to turn it around because they can't afford any delays or mistakes at this point. They can't accept that being at par with the competition is going to move them forward, they need to play their cards NOW! If they have some kind of 'mobile computing ' vision they best unleash it asap!


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[sentimentGX4]

These stories are funny to me because outside of anecdotes on these forums, you'd be hard pressed to find them IRL. I mean, some people may remark about your phone, but it doesn't happen much more than the occasional chide to the iPhone user about being sheep or overpaying for their device. It certainly isn't enough to qualify as "peer pressure". Outside of tech blogs and forums, no one really cares what phone you use.

[donnation]

These stories are funny to me because outside of anecdotes on these forums, you'd be hard pressed to find them IRL. I mean, some people may remark about your phone, but it doesn't happen much more than the occasional chide to the iPhone user about being sheep or overpaying for their device. It certainly isn't enough to qualify as "peer pressure". Outside of tech blogs and forums, no one really cares what phone you use.

Truer words were never spoken.

[southlander]

These stories are funny to me because outside of anecdotes on these forums, you'd be hard pressed to find them IRL. I mean, some people may remark about your phone, but it doesn't happen much more than the occasional chide to the iPhone user about being sheep or overpaying for their device. It certainly isn't enough to qualify as "peer pressure". Outside of tech blogs and forums, no one really cares what phone you use.

I guess it depends on how much you notice it and how much "pressure" you define it as.

But I easily could recount multiple instances among co-workers/family and friends where I'd call it some kind of pressure, even if it is simple poking fun and jabs, etc.

[propeller10]

I've been seeing these types of of threads a lot lately where family members/friends move away Blackberry to another platform. Honestly, if a different platform works for them and if they are happy with it, why get in the way? It doesn't hurt to show them the strengths of BB10 platform but IMO they are not strong enough to make someone change their mind especially when those other platforms have stronger app ecosystems. Now it's up to Blackberry to let consumers know that they are still thriving by pushing out better products and kick-a$s ad campaigns.

[Wiki Cydia]

It's really silly to argue over just a phone. Maybe it's just me, but my family and friends don't even discuss phones in regular conversations. We argue more about sports.

Exactly. I wouldn't know these "my device is better than yours" family discussions occurred if not for this forum. It all seems alien to me.

[kbz1960]

Yes the BlackBerry name is hated by many in the USA. As for pressure, I've never experienced it but maybe because most of my friends and family are still using dumb phones.

And sorry to keep asking but, for the mention of advertising to consumers.................. I thought they weren't concerned at this time with consumers so why would they spend any money advertising to them?

[southlander]

Exactly. I wouldn't know these "my device is better than yours" family discussions occurred if not for this forum. It all seems alien to me.

I know two co-workers that are married. He got her to move to Android when her iPhone broke. He doesn't like Apple products. She later moved back to the iPhone and he said to her that's fine -- iPhones are better suited to stupid people. Or something to that effect.

Does that count?

[bombastic]

Exactly. I wouldn't know these "my device is better than yours" family discussions occurred if not for this forum. It all seems alien to me.

You're lucky. I see this happening at work, where I'm the only one with a BB Legacy phone (Z10 coming soon) and everyone else uses either a S3 or iPhone. And then constantly terrorizing me for my choice of brand. Hearing the nonsense stories about how BB sold itself and BBM was sold to Google(!).

Finally I just laugh and keep my mouth shut. And when my Ztormtrooper finally arrives, I will still shut up while enjoying my BB10 to the fullest. Might even install a leak and put Android apps on my Z10 when the time comes

[southlander]

I also remember seeing Robert Scoble (iPhone user) on TWIT one week going on and on about how whenever he sees someone using a BlackBerry, he asks "why are you still using that thing!". Like it is his personal mission. Ridiculous.

[anon62607]

I sometimes think I'm in an alternate world when I see posts like this. I would even say that its not that blackberry is disliked here, it just doesn't pop up as desirable so is more or less ignored by those with something of a fashion sense.

The cellphone case library seems almost as important to them as the phone and I strongly doubt the CPU or even operating system mean anything to them.

I suspect my wife wouldn't give up her iPhone in part because of the peer "admiration" among her friends - but she could. She uses the phone for instagram, email, text messages and now and then as an actual phone. Any platform that can do that fulfill the requirements from a technical aspect. From a fashion aspect it needs to have distinctive colors available, have a large selection of cases available and it can't be a "worse" phone than her friends phones. iPhone is seen as the top of the brands right now so it is a safe choice.

That said, when I got a curve 9315 to try out BBM she didn't hide her face in shame when I went out in public with it.


Its sort of weird that people are actually made fun of for having blackberrys though.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4

[Wiki Cydia]

I know two co-workers that are married. He got her to move to Android when her iPhone broke. He doesn't like Apple products. She later moved back to the iPhone and he said to her that's fine -- iPhones are better suited to stupid people. Or something to that effect.

Does that count?

Only if she then says "of course I'm stupid. I married you, didn't I?"

[ED1209]

Are you kidding, I love to show off my Z10 and I'm getting my kids hooked the my BlackBerry...

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