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That was a low-cost device for price-sensitive markets, since BB couldn't figure out how to make a cheap BB10 phone. Till the firesales, anyways.
You forgot about the Style 2 running BBOS 8 that's also coming down the pipeline"More BlackBerry devices next year? (Speculation)"
Brace yourselves for the BlackBerry Z50 coming out on April 4, 2017 and then the BlackBerry Passport 2 coming on June 24, 2017. Both will be running OS 10.4.
09-24-16 12:17 AM - I'm not sure that BB is really "in the game" though.
They're certainly not in the game that gives all the gold and glory - which is the consumer space that BB have turned their backs on.
Instead, BB has decided to focus on providing Android handsets for the tiny niche of buyers who are so security-obsessed that they are willing to pay an $x00 premium for a re-badged, low/mid-range Android handset with BB Apps. Moreover, a handset that has close to zero visibility in carrier stores and can pretty much be bought only from BB directly.
So, with a potential market consisting of those who refuse to buy the widely available (and considerably cheaper) Idol on which it is based, and who are willing to pay $x00 extra per handset for the BB special sauce, with a sub-market of a few CB'ers who want to replicate the BB10 experience as closely as they can on Android through the BB10-lite Apps; BB's Android experiment is inevitably doomed.
That potential market is so tiny that it will not be sustainable even though I suspect it might currently be a break-even cost for BB. That already tiny market will inevitably shrink still further as the BB10'ers decide Android isn't really that bad after all, and the market-leading Android handsets become more feature-packed (oh sorry, the term is "gimmick-laden" round here isn't it?). The attractive alternatives to what BB can offer will shrink their market to an ever smaller size... which at some point will become unsustainable for BB to maintain.
TL,DR; BB10 is dead. BB Android is doomed.09-24-16 04:44 AM - Hence the quotation marks.I'm not sure that BB is really "in the game" though.
They're certainly not in the game that gives all the gold and glory - which is the consumer space that BB have turned their backs on.
Instead, BB has decided to focus on providing Android handsets for the tiny niche of buyers who are so security-obsessed that they are willing to pay an $x00 premium for a re-badged, low/mid-range Android handset with BB Apps. Moreover, a handset that has close to zero visibility in carrier stores and can pretty much be bought only from BB directly.
So, with a potential market consisting of those who refuse to buy the widely available (and considerably cheaper) Idol on which it is based, and who are willing to pay $x00 extra per handset for the BB special sauce, with a sub-market of a few CB'ers who want to replicate the BB10 experience as closely as they can on Android through the BB10-lite Apps; BB's Android experiment is inevitably doomed.
That potential market is so tiny that it will not be sustainable even though I suspect it might currently be a break-even cost for BB. That already tiny market will inevitably shrink still further as the BB10'ers decide Android isn't really that bad after all, and the market-leading Android handsets become more feature-packed (oh sorry, the term is "gimmick-laden" round here isn't it?). The attractive alternatives to what BB can offer will shrink their market to an ever smaller size... which at some point will become unsustainable for BB to maintain.
TL,DR; BB10 is dead. BB Android is doomed.09-24-16 06:18 AM - Yes, I understood that you weren't supporting the proposition that BB is in any way, shape or form a serious competitor in the "game" that Apple and Samsung "win" every day. It's why I liked your post, I agree with you.
The "game" was probably over for BB some time around 2013, though historians will no doubt argue over that. What is certain is that the game is most definitely over, and has been for some time, here at the tail-end of 2016.
However, there are several posters here who seem to think that BB does have everything still to play for, and that the game isn't over. It's why we see threads such as this clutching at straws offering a new BB10 device, or threads that ask the question (in apparent seriousness!) of whether to buy the S7 or a DTEK50, or that BB should be promoting the DTEK50 in order to capture disillusioned Note 7 owners.
It is those posters, many of whom also seem to believe a new BB10 handset lies just around the corner, whom I think my post was aimed at.
In a few days, we'll get the quarterly sales figures. I expect those figures to quantify just how small is the niche for BB devices - a niche which, as I've said above, will only get smaller.
I realise that my words will make no difference to those posters living in a different reality to me - a place where unicorns frolic between the rainbows and where new BB10 handsets and aggressive marketing can still produce a "win" for BB; I'm mostly posting to get it off my chest. LOL
So, yes, I agree with you. The game is over. Apple/Samsung have won.
There will undoubtedly be another/different game in future - if I knew what the next big thing was going to be, I certainly wouldn't be posting that information here! - but I don't see BB having any kind of competitive edge over other players and so winning those future games either. 09-24-16 09:29 AM
More BlackBerry devices next year? (Speculation)
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