[CTU2fan]

I don't think I've ever seen a GS3 in person. Saw tons of S2's and S4's.

Posted via CB10

[Bbnivende]

This is spot on. I believe that having that bigger screen has more "weight" as advantage than having a proper keyboard for most people. I personally don't consume much media on my phone, i do A LOT of text input on it and It feels a lot more effortless typing in a physical keyboard, I don't even have to look at the phone to text.

I had to ship my passport to the UK to warranty, so it's going to take some time to arrive back, so i'm using a spare iphone 5 that we had at home. I can type very fast in the iphone, but if I'm walking, or doing somehting else on the mover, you just can't beat Pkb where I can type riding in a bycicle no problem at all. with virtual I have to be more focused, always looking at the screen. Can't wait to have the Passport back.

I much rather have a "real" keyboard in trade for a big screen, but that's me, those are my needs, and I know that most people don't have my comunication needs. I use my phone mostly as a working tool, I don't play much with it, and BB's with Pkb's are the best phones for me, I'm no brand loyalist.

No problem with a basically reliable PKB but the number of warranty returns for BlackBerry must be much higher than normal. That must be a profit zapper.

You wonder how many of the 800,000 sales are replacements.

Posted via CB10

[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

My personal opinion is that the market doesn't have anything particularly against PKB, but more that they value 2 things over it:
1. app ecosystem - BB niche market of PKB is overshadowed by their lack of apps
2. screen size - few people want to sacrifice screen space for a PKB. Building a small device with PKB get's you a small screen (Classic, Q10) or building a big device with PKB, makes it too big (Passport). I really believe the slider would be the best attempt for PKB.

Also, PKB makes a smartphone more prone to mechanical faults which are not as easily fixed as software ones.

Your talking about BlackBerry, and yes there are many reasons that their products have not sold.

But anyone can make a PKB device and have. But slowly everyone has just about phased out their keyboard devices, as this "DESIGN" didn't meet the needs of the overall market... or at least enough of it to support those designs.

• Mechanical Issues
• Smaller Screen size
• Sliders have more moving parts that can fail
• Sliders have to be larger and sometimes smaller batteries.
• Additional cost

But basically for whatever reason, keyboards are not a form factor that a large enough portion of the market demands, so OEM have all but moved away from it.

[idssteve]

For PKBs to remain available for a small and shrinking market, the business will have to turn into a Public Utility. There are so many empty public buses I see on roads that service small districts in Canada. That service, no matter how unprofitable it may be, will continue to run for public service sake.

The multitude of products that you see in stores is Brand Proliferation wherein a company will produce several types of similar toothpaste to hog as much shelf space in the supermarkets to crowd out the competition and reach every type of consumer taste. They are all pretty much the same products with minor enhancements but with eye-catchy packaging. The closest firm that does this type of production in the mobile market IMO is Samsung.

No "Public Utility" necessary. The people that need pkb are willing to pay for it. My company has already justified and authorized $3K each for 26 of 9900s, for example. We don't, thanks to ebay, but that's how important it is to us. That's life in a niche market. Like i said earlier, BB MUST figure out how to sell glass devices to ever hope to capture market share. The PKB niche might help sustain them until they get glass figured out. Once they get a successful foothold in the glass market, they can THEN talk about dumping pkb. Dumping pkb prematurely would be folly, imo.

Additionally, my elderly parents hands are simply too shaky for non-frustrating glass use. They, and quite a few in their community, REALY like 9650s and 9900s i've set up for them. Possible geriatric niche there, IMO. FWIW.

[SunshineStateFlyer]

Thanks RH1Pearl, but I don't want to write with a feather quill and ink any more than I want to use a stylus -- my choice of keyboarding is a matter of ease, accuracy and speed -- not tradition.

I'm not at all begrudging your right to compose short messages of the 13-letter "Hi honey, I'm home" variety. But I do want to know why the market can't or won't allow a few PKB phones to coexist with your videoplayers -- er, slabphones.

The "supreme importance" of PKBs is a matter of personal need and preference. First, I tend to be a bit verbose in my email/texts/FB posts, and second, during my 'busy season' I receive 70-80 emails or more a day -- many of these require a detailed reply, and even 13 letters cranked out on a 7" glass tablet gives me a headache. I also value accuracy, and do my own spellchecking (although I appreciate and use it all the same).

So many of us live in supposedly free societies that promote freedom of choice. For example, at my local drug store I can choose from a selection of over a hundred shampoos, and my supermarket offers dozens of varieties of cereals. I'm just wondering why the cellphone market can't support a small segment of PKBs. Or are we deluding ourselves when we buy into claims of "freedom" and "market choice"?

I don't intend to rub anyone's nose in it when I say that some of us create content (clarify assignments, send directives to committees, etc.) as well as absorb it. Yes, the bulk of my writing is done on a computer keyboard, but I need a portable option. I'm just surprised that so many are denigrating PKBs as dated, rather than simply regarding it as "another way of being."

Posted via CB10

I do understand your point but supply comes through demand and if that is low, you won't have much choice.

I personally believe that, as long as BlackBerry does exist, they will always offer some physical keyboard options. Even though that market is very small and constantly on the decline, it is an existing niche so why shouldn't they cover it? Especially as BlackBerry has tremendous experience in pkb phones.

To add some personal thoughts. Yes, physical keyboards are amazing for a good amount of tasks and I love my Passport's keyboard - if it wasn't for it, I probably wouldn't write so much on my phone still enjoying it. Yet, there is a trade off to this. It costs quite an amount of screen size, the keyboard is not customizable (language switch etc), and as we have seen it is more prone to problems like double typing. Virtual keyboards are getting better every day while physical keyboards have reached a peak where they cannot be improved massively anymore. Plus, people have become used to the typing experience on a virtual keyboard. That's why the initially mentioned demand is constantly on the decline.

Posted via CB10

[tkulthenoble]

I don't think I've ever seen a GS3 in person. Saw tons of S2's and S4's.

Posted via CB10

Exactly what I'm talking about even you don't need to ask anybody to find out that samsung came big into the game with the S4.

Samsung made a lot of failed phones even a lot of PKB phones and double sim phones.

I remember LG made and started a glass phone before samsung they failed too.

The problem with BlackBerry right now is not PKB and not making of square phone. But is the app problem.

Posted via CB10

[Bbnivende]

I think that BlackBerry PKB's can be made reasonably reliable. That would be an improvement. The Q5 has a more reliable keyboard. A plug in keyboard that could be replaced like a battery would be a great innovation.

Posted via CB10

[KingOfQwerty]

I think that BlackBerry PKB's can be made reasonably reliable. That would be an improvement. The Q5 has a more reliable keyboard. A plug in keyboard that could be replaced like a battery would be a great innovation.

Posted via CB10

Lol, cross platform PKB

[Joao Oliveira]

No problem with a basically reliable PKB but the number of warranty returns for BlackBerry must be much higher than normal. That must be a profit zapper.

You wonder how many of the 800,000 sales are replacements.

Posted via CB10

I personally never had a single double typing with any blackberry, and i had a few, maybe I was just lucky that i had reliable phones, except for the passport that had a "memory module" fault. Surely that's a problem, a lot of people here in the forums complaining.

But anyway, I think in this thread we are discussing the practical side of using the keyboard, no so much the business side of blackberry.

[gabbleratchet]

My Q10 died a couple of weeks ago, so I'm using a cheap but modern Android phone for now (moto x).

My experience so far is that the vkb (especially with swiping) is faster than the pkb, most of the time.

Where it falls down is when I want to type something that's not in the dictionary. Then, typing with a vkb comes screeching to a halt as I try to clean up the autocorrect mess, often making things much, much worse before I make them better. That's when my blood pressure goes up, especially if I'm in a hurry.

For me, the comfort of the pkb is about confidence, and knowing that what I type is what gets on the screen. And low blood pressure.

Plus, I can type on a pkb without looking at the keyboard, or even looking at the phone for that matter, which makes typing while walking possible.

Posted via the CrackBerry App for Android

[Jerry A]

I might want to disagree with you, but only a bit.

<Snip, snip, snip>

But all of those things apparently don't seem to worry anyone.
The worth of eloquent wording, to have a feeling for a language and tone, is seemingly disappearing into the ether.

When something like 50 Shades of Grey is becoming a bestseller, you know that the world probably doesn't give an eff anymore.
I think that technology is at least partly to blame though.

I think we're in complete agreement. Thank you for your eloquent post...

[pantlesspenguin]

I still can't believe gallant s3 with no camera flash sold that much and I'm talking about bold 9900

Posted via CB10

You have to be thinking of a different phone. The Samsung Galaxy S3 sold 50 million devices and does indeed have a camera flash.

[MarsupilamiX]

Exactly what I'm talking about even you don't need to ask anybody to find out that samsung came big into the game with the S4.

Samsung made a lot of failed phones even a lot of PKB phones and double sim phones.

I remember LG made and started a glass phone before samsung they failed too.

The problem with BlackBerry right now is not PKB and not making of square phone. But is the app problem.

Posted via CB10

What the hell are you talking about?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_Galaxy_S_III

"Following an 18-month development phase, Samsung unveiled the S III on 3 May 2012.[13] The device was released in 28 European and Middle Eastern countries on 29 May 2012, before being progressively released in other major markets in June 2012. Prior to release, 9 million pre-orders were placed by more than 100 carriers globally.[14] The S III was released by approximately 300 carriers in nearly 150 countries at the end of July 2012.[4] More than 20 million units of the S III were sold within the first 100 days of release.[15] Samsung has since sold more than 50 million units.[5]"

BlackBerry as a whole sold some 40 million phones (all models combined) in the same time in which the S3 alone sold 50 million.

If you can prove it (it's impossible to prove because it is factually incorrect) that BlackBerry sold more Bolds than Samsung did sell S3s from 2012 to 2013, please share your sources.

[donnation]

You have to be thinking of a different phone. The Samsung Galaxy S3 sold 50 million devices and does indeed have a camera flash.

Lol the Original Galaxy S and the S2 even had a camera flash.

[Tre Lawrence]

You have to be thinking of a different phone. The Samsung Galaxy S3 sold 50 million devices and does indeed have a camera flash.

The S3 is what really catapulted Samsung to device prominence. It was a hit, and still fetches a decent resale value.

[MarsupilamiX]

The S3 is what really catapulted Samsung to device prominence. It was a hit, and still fetches a decent resale value.

Interestingly enough, Samsung sold 50 million in one year (till mid 2013) and sold over 80 million until today.

Seems as though the phone has been able to keep quite a few people interested.

Funny side fact: The highest subscriber base BlackBerry ever had, was in the 80 millions. All models included ever sold. Samsung just needed one single phone to get there.

[21stNow]

I still can't believe gallant s3 with no camera flash sold that much and I'm talking about bold 9900

Posted via CB10

What country are you in? The Samsung Galaxy S III had a camera flash on it. Unless there was some special model released in your country only, you may be mixing the Galaxy S III up with another phone.

Lol the Original Galaxy S and the S2 even had a camera flash.

All models of the original Galaxy S did not have a camera flash. The UK version, the Captivate on AT&T and the Vibrant on T-Mobile US didn't have a camera flash. The Epic 4G and Fascinate (both came out later) did have a camera flash.

[Bbnivende]

I personally never had a single double typing with any blackberry, and i had a few, maybe I was just lucky that i had reliable phones, except for the passport that had a "memory module" fault. Surely that's a problem, a lot of people here in the forums complaining.

But anyway, I think in this thread we are discussing the practical side of using the keyboard, no so much the business side of blackberry.

No Q10? My 9900 was good too. BlackBerry has lost their mojo.

Posted via CB10

[21stNow]

The S3 is what really catapulted Samsung to device prominence. It was a hit, and still fetches a decent resale value.

I agree with you on this. The ad campaign that Samsung started poking fun at those who wait in lines for iPhones caught a lot of attention. I knew some diehard iPhone users that switched to the Galaxy S III.

[CTU2fan]

No Q10? My 9900 was good too. BlackBerry has lost their mojo.

Posted via CB10

Yea I only had double typing on my Q10. I know the Classic and Passport do it too but none of my BBOS devices ever had that issue. Or any other for that matter, short of somebody spilling crap on them.

Posted via CB10

[jmr1015]

Bold sold more than S3. If I can remember not the s3 with no camera flash? Please do your research again. Samsung came into the game with galaxy s4 not 3.

Posted via CB10

Galaxy S3 sold 40,000,000 in about 6 months

Samsung Galaxy S3 breezes past 40 million sales mark - CNET

[Joao Oliveira]

No Q10? My 9900 was good too. BlackBerry has lost their mojo.

Posted via CB10

I had a Q10, but didn't have that problem. I guess I got a good batch, or been very lucky, I never had an issue... not saying they don't exist, I know they do and there's a lot of people with that problem unfortunatly.

[tkulthenoble]

Galaxy S3 sold 40,000,000 in about 6 months

Samsung Galaxy S3 breezes past 40 million sales mark - CNET

I can't believe this.

Posted via CB10

[donnation]

No "Public Utility" necessary. The people that need pkb are willing to pay for it. My company has already justified and authorized $3K each for 26 of 9900s, for example.

Wait, they did what?

[21stNow]

I can't believe this.

Posted via CB10

Why? People have posted several links that show that the Galaxy S III sold in the 10s of millions. Your disbelief prompted me to check Samsung's financial report. There were 213 million total Samsung smartphone units sold in 2012. The Galaxy S III was just one of those models, but it was probably the most popular of all of Samsung's models.

https://forums.crackberry.com/e?link...token=5IfrNEp4