[Thunderbuck]

Mark Cuban (@mcuban) had some interesting tweets out this morning:

https://twitter.com/mcuban/statuses/503591075932426240

I revived my old sidekick phone to do email over wifi. Keyboard makes me 100% faster.

And then...
https://twitter.com/mcuban/statuses/503591922020012032

Blackberry only survives because of the keyboard.I prefer a 4 year old sidekick to touch keyboards. Keyboard on Android or IOS anyone? Pls!

And then...
https://twitter.com/mcuban/statuses/503592688420024320

How much productivity is lost autocorrecting autocorrect? I TouchType 55 words per min on sidekick.I'm a - 10 words per min on IOS/Android

If this isn't a serious marketing opportunity for BlackBerry, I don't know what is. John Chen should be on a plane right now to wherever in the world Cuban happens to be to personally present him a Passport.

[Tre Lawrence]

10 wpm? Oh my.

[harryhayde]

CHEN get on this stat!

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[gebco]

He seems to think BlackBerry only still exists bc if PKB. He needs to be educated on BlackBerry 10.

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[WWBlondieDo]

He seems to think BlackBerry only still exists bc if PKB. He needs to be educated on BlackBerry 10.

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BlackBerry does only still exist because of the physical keyboard. That's not at all an outrageous or untrue assertion. I love BlackBerry 10 but if it weren't for the continued sales of their BBOS qwerty phones, RIM/BlackBerry would have been out of business before BB10 ever came out.

VZW STL 100-4 currently running 10.3.0.1052

[theRock1975]

Keven Oleary is a big fan of keyboards as well. I think all of the Sharks and Dragons will end up with the Passport.


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[Supa_Fly1]

LMAO two of those tweets have him praising the Ghetto BlackBerry = Sidekick.

Man that brought back work and friend memories.

? BlackBerry Z30 ? If it Don't Make Dollars, It don't Make Sense ?

[raino]

He isn't exactly the Porsche 998x kind of a guy (although he can afford them many times over.) He should be sent a Passport, or maybe a souped up Classic (built to Passport specs, but just for him lol.) And send it to him on a private jet, in the hands of a guy who can show him the OS.

[matthewgreyling]

Ironically the last version of the Sidekick ran Android and was a terrible phone, if I remember correctly from my days in the T-mobile call centre.

[valleyag]

Interesting and I do agree he would be a great marketer for BlackBerry. Robert about a month ago made the comment about BlackBerry while interviewing someone

Rockin Z30 on 10.3.0.1052 on AT&T

[WWBlondieDo]

Keven Oleary is a big fan of keyboards as well. I think all of the Sharks and Dragons will end up with the Passport.


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That would be awesome. I love that show.

VZW STL 100-4 currently running 10.3.0.1052

[Thunderbuck]

I can't honestly see Cuban bringing back the Sidekick (his later tweets explored buying the IP from Microsoft), but I think this starts to open a discussion. Especially given BlackBerry's victory over Typo in court.

This strikes me as a phenomenal time to introduce an innovative new keyboard phone. Cuban is unwittingly helping set the stage...

[Supa_Fly1]

Ironically the last version of the Sidekick ran Android and was a terrible phone, if I remember correctly from my days in the T-mobile call centre.

Lmao you worked at Tmo too? Which office which level? I was at Toronto for tier II so many lifetimes ago the colour sidekick was going out, SKII was coming in I really wanted it back then but Fido too 9 months for it to show up, by then S60 sparked my cause even the 7290 was boring beyond calls emails and sms.

? BlackBerry Z30 ? If it Don't Make Dollars, It don't Make Sense ?

[matthewgreyling]

Lmao you worked at Tmo too? Which office which level? I was at Toronto for tier II so many lifetimes ago the colour sidekick was going out, SKII was coming in I really wanted it back then but Fido too 9 months for it to show up, by then S60 sparked my cause even the 7290 was boring beyond calls emails and sms.

? BlackBerry Z30 ? If it Don't Make Dollars, It don't Make Sense ?

We did business care in Kingston. They still do. Nice customers mostly, but having to deal with the regular customers at different times was horrible.

My friend and I had a bet once on who could sell the most sidekick phones ($0 on contract). Suffice to say, I never saw a phone with a higher return rate. But those Americans love their "free".

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[Bold_until_Hybrid_Comes]

Thanks for posting Thunderbuck.

I am going back to a BlackBerry classic (99% chance) or passport because I am sick of the touch screen keyboards. And that is with a Z10 keyboard which isn't bad compared to others.

A touchscreen keyboard is like someone taping your mouth shut and then asking you to talk.

[mikeo007]

Honestly, I think the keyboard is the ONLY reason for most folks to buy a Blackberry at this point. Chen made the right call there IMO. It's the one niche where Blackberry still has basically no competition, and even though it's a small niche, it's still a relevant one. I'd probably still be carrying a Q10 at work if my job hadn't changed how and when I need to communicate.

[jonduran86]

Great opportunity indeed for BB to get Cuban a PassPort. Please make something happen BlackBerry!

[belfastdispatcher]

Honestly, I think the keyboard is the ONLY reason for most folks to buy a Blackberry at this point. Chen made the right call there IMO. It's the one niche where Blackberry still has basically no competition, and even though it's a small niche, it's still a relevant one. I'd probably still be carrying a Q10 at work if my job hadn't changed how and when I need to communicate.

I just listened to the last CB podcast and apparently the Passport and Classic were in the pipeline before Chen.

[mikeo007]

I just listened to the last CB podcast and apparently the Passport and Classic were in the pipeline before Chen.

Interesting. Well I won't attribute the upcoming devices to Chen, but he also did make his mission statement pretty clear with the "keyboard centric" quote from a few months back.

[drjames05]

10 wpm? Oh my.

I think he meant " minus 10 words per min".. so 45 words per minute.

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[kevets]

Man... this just makes me think of how badly I coveted the OG sidekick / hiptop thing. That was like, power glove levels of cool back then.
EDIT: dude...

EDIT2: why aren't you on AIM???!

I hooked up to a train of failing phones just to use a slider (Pre / Pre 2 / Pre 3).

Once again the S-word returns to the boards.

Give us the slider, Chen!

[Andy Wijaya]

I'm afraid that I type slower with PKB. I'm typing this with Z30.

[belfastdispatcher]

I'm afraid that I type slower with PKB. I'm typing this with Z30.

Yeah, try doing the same while walking down the street, in a moving car or with one hand.

[prplhze2000]

When will you clowns figure it out?

Plenty of good ideas, phones, and services were in pipeline before Chen.

The difference is he is prioritizing and executing. Managing. Leading. Not the genius in chief but the CEO.

One time at a luncheon, Coach Saban told us that when he came ot LSU, he evaluated each player on athletic ability. Over half of the top 22 athletes were sitting on the bench. No surprise as the defense two years before under another coach was the worst in LSU history - with several players who made NFL rosters. Problem wasn't players, it was the leadership, coaching, and putting the best assets in place to have a chance to make plays and win.

That is what Chen is doing. Missed deadlines are done or if missed, it's by a small amount of time. Ideas are developed. Decision and management trees flattened. People feel like they can actually contribute.

That is the difference.

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[Andy Wijaya]

Yeah, try doing the same while walking down the street, in a moving car or with one hand.

That you can't do with the Passport either. Lol. Texting and walking is dangerous. I don't think typing in a moving car would be more difficult. I'm just letting my auto correct doing its job.