►the future of blackberry◄

160k iPhone/iPod apps
30k Android apps
5k Blackberry apps

I saw this and thought to myself, if blackberry owns about 40% of the market over Android and iPhone....and with a blog stating that a certain amount of blackberry users were willing to make a switch over to either one of the two due to business/ more user-friendliness really soon. I really believe user friendliness and appeal is the key, so one would think or at least i hope that with OS 6.0 along with the new browser, would convince RIM's install base to stay for the longrun, and sway more great developers over to the blackberry platform.

Share your thoughts on if you think RIM is taking the right steps, or what you think RIM is going to have to do to keep it's consumers around.

RIM is catering to their first and most lucrative clientele first. Business and Government. Apps are secondary, and the app development is left to those outside of the company. I do not think any security conscious business and definitely few if ANY large government agency is going to step away from RIM any time soon.

Consumers on the other hand, is a whole new ballpark for RIM. They WILL need to find a way to stimulate app development or they will lose significant market share in this arena. As the age of smart phone users decreases, and more and more "kids" have the devices, RIM needs to see this potential for growth. OpenGL is a big step in the right direction (need for speed for instance) and you will see MANY more games come out in this platform as the new BlackBerry devices support this.

Originally Posted by SPACE-AGE-INC

160k iPhone/iPod apps
30k Android apps
5k Blackberry apps

I saw this and thought to myself, if blackberry owns about 40% of the market over Android and iPhone....and with a blog stating that a certain amount of blackberry users were willing to make a switch over to either one of the two due to business/ more user-friendliness really soon. I really believe user friendliness and appeal is the key, so one would think or at least i hope that with OS 6.0 along with the new browser, would convince RIM's install base to stay for the longrun, and sway more great developers over to the blackberry platform.

Share your thoughts on if you think RIM is taking the right steps, or what you think RIM is going to have to do to keep it's consumers around.

They have a lot of great developers, a lot more than the iPhone in fact. Apple has been alienating the best developers since day one and that is the reason BB's get the high end apps and Apple gets mostly silly beer pouring programs.

RIM's platform is more attractive as it allows high end developers to make real products without having months of development thrown out when Apple decides to can the app because it is a competitor to an app form a commercial vendor.

Make BlackBerry available to everyone without the requirement of having a BlackBerry data plan. Make everything work over WiFi. Profit.

Originally Posted by afropoika

Make BlackBerry available to everyone without the requirement of having a BlackBerry data plan. Make everything work over WiFi. Profit.

Blackberries are available to everyone, every market from all the way around the world supports RIM and Blackberries.

The problem, that i see, with your idea is this. then you make blackberry like every other cell phone out there and nothing makes them stand out.

Without $$$ you have no BIS and without BIS you have no blackberry.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

http://storage.pardot.com/1742/19507/Android_Study.pdf

Here is the actual survey all the blog echos are on about.

Originally Posted by mjneid

Blackberries are available to everyone, every market from all the way around the world supports RIM and Blackberries.

Wrong and I am living proof that is incorrect. NO carrier supports BlackBerry in Finland. Period. I live in Finland. Now tell me how to get proper BlackBerry service. You can't. Certainly there is something wrong, either in the country I live in or RIM.

When asked for comment, the canned reply from Research in Motion spokespersons are: "Over 160 countries..."

I guess Finland is one of few.

Originally Posted by Radius

They have a lot of great developers, a lot more than the iPhone in fact. Apple has been alienating the best developers since day one and that is the reason BB's get the high end apps and Apple gets mostly silly beer pouring programs.

RIM's platform is more attractive as it allows high end developers to make real products without having months of development thrown out when Apple decides to can the app because it is a competitor to an app form a commercial vendor.

For arguments sake, ;). While Apple does get lots of useless, silly apps, there are quite a few excellent ones. I am in the medical field and there is no comparison between the two. The iPhone apps are miles better than BB. Same with weather, twitter, yellowpages, sports, etc. Not to say they all are better, but it seems some people think the iPhone apps are all about the silly ones.

i mean i gotta say i dont see any iphones being released with the option of ptt, thats a pretty cool app that theyve integrated into blackberrys. I agree there should def be more Apps, but think about it, you have a blackberry that besides the apps does about 10,000,000 more things than an iphone does, I <3 Blackberry

This is totally false. Of course developers will choose the iPhone - the platform (hardware and software) is so much more versatile. Furthermore, basically every iPhone user downloads apps whereas many BB users do not. I have about 20 very useful apps on my iPhone and one on my BB (BB Weather).

Face it, RIM is never going to be able to compete with Apple in the consumer market, unless they completely overhaul the OS, which they will not do in the short-term becuase, as said above, RIM's first priority will always be corporate and government users.

Originally Posted by Radius

They have a lot of great developers, a lot more than the iPhone in fact. Apple has been alienating the best developers since day one and that is the reason BB's get the high end apps and Apple gets mostly silly beer pouring programs.

RIM's platform is more attractive as it allows high end developers to make real products without having months of development thrown out when Apple decides to can the app because it is a competitor to an app form a commercial vendor.

Originally Posted by afropoika

Make BlackBerry available to everyone without the requirement of having a BlackBerry data plan. Make everything work over WiFi. Profit.

RIM does not care in the least if you have a BB Data feature or not. If you buy their device they have their revenue. It is the individual carrier that is imposing the data feature.

The future of blackberry is really a blur at this point no one actually knows what's in store for blackberry, but in my opinion blackberry is really behind compared to other devices.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

Originally Posted by MobileMadness002

RIM does not care in the least if you have a BB Data feature or not. If you buy their device they have their revenue. It is the individual carrier that is imposing the data feature.

They do care in a sense, because apps are written by them (and others) to utilize BB servers. It takes a lot more work to make every single app work with AND without any sort of BB server/push apis (which is new)/BIS email notifications, etc.

Pushing to use a server-based phone without the server is beating a dead horse... It's a similar situation to that of trying to get sidekicks to work without the danger servers several years back...

And that is false that RIM only profits from handsets, RIM Profits From BlackBerry Service Fees -- Seeking Alpha

Well what is RIM going to do hardware wise and software wise? I hope majors improvements are on the horizon.

Originally Posted by afropoika

Wrong and I am living proof that is incorrect. NO carrier supports BlackBerry in Finland. Period. I live in Finland. Now tell me how to get proper BlackBerry service. You can't. Certainly there is something wrong, either in the country I live in or RIM.

It is not the fault of RIM that carriers choose not to offer a BlackBerry service.

It might be a coincidence that Finland is home to one of BlackBerry's major rivals. Nah... Nokia wouldn't apply anti-competitive pressure to the local providers... would they?

RIM will never give a crap about the kiddie market.