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Part of me think that BlackBerry is nowhere to go in this smartphone industry anymore with the lack of apps being the major factor.
But, the other parts of me said that "well, this is just a new beginning for BlackBerry. A new OS which promises many things in the future."
I would like to know about yours guys. Let's share!
I don't think the OS promises many things in the future.
It has many things right now.
It would be such a shame if the lack of apps ends up being what does BlackBerry in, because for me, the apps do not make the OS. I was full aware that there weren't many apps on BlackBerry 10 when I bought my Z10. I bought a Q10 too. I am in the minority, however, as for many people, it's all about the apps and only about the apps.
What has me holding out hope for BlackBerry though, is the way they seemingly "get" what they need to do to turn things around. They are constantly improving BlackBerry10 as an experience, and as opposed to Apple's "They'll get used to it" approach to their customers, BlackBerry has taken a "We're listening" approach, which I think is exactly what BlackBerry should be doing.
When you're as big and popular as Apple is, I hate to say it, but you can get away with a "They'll get used to it" attitude. When you're fighting for customers and marketshare, a "We're listening" attitude is great to see. It means that BlackBerry cares what its users want and prefer, and works to update their product accordingly.
My one concern is the "Z30" or whatever it will be called. For this entire year, BlackBerry has been moving forward. The Z10 is now priced to sell, and the Q10 is almost out on all 4 major carriers in the U.S. I keep seeing more BlackBerry commercials, and they're doing some cool promotions, like the "Keys To The City" BBM thing.
But from what we've seen, I'm not too keen on the specifications of the Z30 considering it will be competing with the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and other high-end "phablets." It would have been perfect to launch at the beginning of the year, but by the end of 2013.. it seems to be behind the competition. I would have liked to have seen BlackBerry pack the Z30 with more ammunition to fight in the smartphone war, like a better screen and better camera. But, like almost all BlackBerrys, it is still a beautiful device to look at, and hopefully by the time it is released, more quality app developers are onboard, which means there will be more quality apps to attract people, so they can give BlackBerry10 the chance it deserves. It is an OS unlike any other.
To sum up my perspective on BlackBerry, I'd say that BlackBerry10 is ready, more than ready, but many of the apps are not. That's the only thing holding BlackBerry10 back from really taking off.
I see the company as a ship slowly drifting towards an iceberg while the crew bicker over which champagne they should have with their lunch.
Blackberry 10 is a great product but being managed in a terrible manner
Amen
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I think BlackBerry is a victim of it's past inadequacies. It's becoming more and more apparent that the devices coming out this year are just meant to refine and tweak this QNX OS. We early adopters, especially Z10 owners, have tried to spread the word to a certain degree, but I don't think BlackBerry meant for the Z10 to be a blockbuster that would blow the lid off the smartphone market even though most of us wished it. It seems the Z10 was meant to show that BlackBerry has the ability to make a main stream phone that works just as well if not better than all the other phones. It remains to be seen if these devices will keep BlackBerry going so they can take things to the next level. CEO Heins has said that this is going to be a long road, they're probably looking to the devices for next year to really start making a difference. It's hard for us consumers and shareholders who are looking for results now.
I second the observation that BlackBerry is suffering from poor management. I am a practical person and the Z10 is fulfilling all of my communication and organizational needs in a fluid manner. The device itself is gorgeous and works well for me. Having said that, BlackBerry marketing and management is failing the product and its loyal users. BlackBerry has a niche but instead of locking into that market share, it has been distracted lately. Started off strong at the beginning and now it almost feels like management is relying on diehard fans to carry it. I am loyal but not stupid. Everyone has a threshold. For now the Z suits me well. Who knows what the future holds.
Curve 8320, Bold 9780, Bold 9900, PB 64gb, Z10
But the apps can be the attracting factors. While several folks came here in this forum before buying any BlackBerry devices, almost all of them asking about the apps. Not just that, even the BlackBerry device owners/users themselves keep questioning the same thing. There, it can be loyalty factor, for me.
Nice thoughts kayatoka, but in business world the first impression really really matter. Just sayin'
When Apple made their mark in this industry, they didn't try to make a phone that was a lot like the market leaders plus a few extra features. They made a phone that looked and worked completely differently from the popular smartphones in 2007. If you looked at the first iPhone it didn't even look like a smartphone compared to what "smartphone" meant at the time. "Wait it's just one big screen? Whoa". And then in 2008 they created an app store that was like nothing else that existed at the time.
What Apple did not do is look at the then market leader, Blackberry, and try to emulate their products. If they had done that, nobody would have bought the iPhone except the most die-hard Apple fans.
Likewise, Google made an operating system based on a completely different business model than the industry had seen. Phone manufacturers got access to a free operating system that would work at all different price points, freeing them all of the development costs/risks and giving them instant access to a full app catalog. With this strategy, they were able to undercut Apple on price and at the same time offer much broader choices than Apple. So Google very quicky took the lead.
Those are big ideas, not just a couple extra gestures here and a feature or two there. I think Blackberry has a chance to do something big here simply because the current leaders are stuck in their tracks, but BBRY have to think bigger IMO than they are just yet. As I've said before, they unfortunately lost a lot of time with the whole QNX mistake. However I still think there is time to make a mark, it's just that "peek" and "flow" aren't big enough ideas to do it.
App_Dev:
I agree with most of what you stated, but please explain to me how the 'QNX thing' was a mistake?
I think time is Blackberry's biggest enemy right now, because their most precious asset is shareholder patience. I don't see what actual practical advantage the QNX kernel brings to mobile phones (especially on modern ARM processors). On the other hand, Linux was free, already optimized by others for ARM and battery performance, and had a Qt stack running on it as well. Linux also has great drivers for all the common off the shelf components that everyone uses in these phones today. I think BBRY could have saved a tremendous amount of time, effort and money if they had just built BB10 on top of Linux.
The time and effort which BBRY has put into the kernel, which is something the user never sees, could instead have been put into finishing Cascades earlier, working on making the business features like contacts flawless, building some of those cool demos we saw from TAT, etc. In other words, things customers will actually notice!
Either way they had to build all of BB10 outside of the kernel still, but at least they could have started with a foundation that was already highly adapted to mobile devices. They would have also saved a lot of precious time in the future since every new chipset from Qualcomm, etc., already has Linux support by the time they ship.
When Qualcomm comes up with the next new super-duper-quad-core-brushes-your-teeth-for-you chipset, Samsung doesn't have to integrate that with Linux themselves. That work is already done for them, making it a little quicker for Samsung to get that chipset into its phones. Apple, on the other hand, does do their own kernel and even their own chipsets now, and perhaps that was the model BBRY was looking to. The problem with that is that Apple has the engineering resources to pull that off (which BBRY clearly doesn't), and the iPhone team had the advantage of years of secret research and development to work on this before 2007 (whereas BBRY has been in a very accelerated race to just catch up).
EDIT: the most curious thing about this decision was that when it came to choosing a graphics/UI framework, they just went with Qt. They didn't even bother making that in-house. I think that makes sense, but it's strange to me that they would do that but then make their own custom kernel underneath it (and buy a whole company just for a custom kernel)
Having said all of this, though, the technical mistakes like this are I think the lesser issue. The bigger issue is what is the vision?
Doesn't this clearly shows that BlackBerry can't fight for itself anymore and has to cooperate with other company in terms of developing it's hardware or software?
Because the competition amongst the smartphones is really stiff now.
Failure on all fronts.
To me it comes down to one thing: customer satisfaction.
With the legacy BlackBerry OS there were plenty of people that were not happy with their devices. There was really no apps, battery life was poor to mediocre, and many people had to reset their devices regularly.
Today with the Z10 and the Q10 there are a lot of happy customers again. It is true that a lot of people have moved to another platform already and it will be difficult to convince them to come back. However, I believe as long as you have happy customers, you can run a sustainable business. When you have happy customers, their friends and families will see this and over time some of them will be convinced to try out the new BlackBerry as well and the law of averages mean they will likely be happy as well.
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Yesterday,sitting at a table with 7 other people,one of them asked me,how I liked my Z10,she had an iphone, as did 3 others as well .I told her I loved it and offered up a Little challenge ,who's browser could open up faster.Well ,my Z was 5 seconds faster.We did it again, and, then I noticed that the whole table was focused on the results.BB is turning the corner and people are starting to realize there is an alternative to their beloved iphone.It will take time,more snazzy commercials will help!!!
Sorry Sabak, mostly I just see about a handful of owners or future owners complaining about Instacrap, sorry Instagram. I never bought any device in my whole smartphone life because of its apps. I started with a Nokia Communicator and used many smartphones till now, except anything from Jobs. I will never buy a smartphone because of its apps. Maybe others do and that's ok with me but I mostly use my smartphones as communicators, not as toys.
CB10 - Q10
Dear Mo Cat, most of the apps were used to get connected with others. Doesn't that means communication?
The missing legacy features makes me unhappy!
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YES. The Q10 embodies all the things I really want/need in a phone. Great for calls, the best keyboard for typing, and long battery life. The web browser and everything else are just really nice bonuses.
Great company, poor management.
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I like their devices and BB10. Just hate how everything seems to be 2 steps forward and one step back with their seeming inability to execute on time.
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