Who Would Buy a BlackBerry?
I used to own a BlackBerry, but no more. I gave it up for an iPhone and have been deeply in love ever since. Apparently I’m not alone. As Jessica E Vascellaro and Amir Efrati reported in the Wall Street Journal yesterday in their article, “Google, Apple Tighten Grip on Smartphone Market,” Apple and Google are dominating the smartphone market, leaving RIM and Nokia in the dust, bleeding and on life support.
Nokia, RIM and others "really underestimated what Apple and Google could do," said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at research firm Gartner Inc. While Apple and Google have built up a "tremendous lead" thanks to their ability to offer books, music and hundreds of thousands of mobile apps, he said the mobile market is accelerating so much that "anything could change very quickly."
RIM tried to keep up when they introduced their BlackBerry Torch, but their technology was so far behind Apple’s that when it came time to renew my contract last fall, my decision was easy.
As most of us know, RIM used to be the leader in cell phones for business. What can RIM do now to get some of their old business back?
Would any of you consider buying a BlackBerry at this point? Or a Nokia phone?
I only switched to the iPhone recently, but can't believe i sticked with a blackberry for that long. The way I can quickly access data through apps like FT, WSJ or even twitter is unimaginable with a blackberry. Heck on the blackberry the only thing that really worked smoothly was email yet it was not really able to display formatted messages well. RIM is so far behind it's hard to imagine that they can come back. If you think about it, for a user to switch from BB to iPhone / droid and then consider switching back to BB, RIM would have to come out with a product that's infinitely better than the competition. Markets today generally only allow you to lose market share once.
I recently switched to Nexus Galaxy...it is a beast! It destroys the blackberry. I only held onto the BB for this long because I enjoyed the keyboard. I am clumsy on the touch screen but I just respond and write messages less often now which I enjoy.
I'm sure if someone on WSO had the answer to this question RIM would already be paying them lots of $$...
If Apple is a sit-down restaurant, and Android phones are the Halal carts with rice and lamb, RIMM is now the hot dog vendor: unsatisfying, a far cry to the 90's and for $3 more, you can just get rice and lamb from Android.
RIM has refused to innovate. They literally REFUSE to release a product that challenges anyone. It's as if management agreed to lag behind the competition.
They haven't released any significant software updates for their phones in the last 6 years, their phones are sub-par and the only perk they really held over everyone - Exchange - was obliterated with the advent of the consumer smartphone.
Even their Enterprise Server is completely useless since MSFT added ActiveSync functionality to their Exchange servers, which allows many of the same features, and for the most part all the relevant features, that are needed for a corporate technology policy to be effective.
RIMM has become as irrelevant as a company can be.
EDIT: forgot to answer the question lol.
RIMM needs to hire Leo Apotheker and do something absolutely crazy, just like he tried to do with HPQ.
My contract is running out and I need a new phone as well. I have an old Blackberry Tour, but was thinking of getting an iPhone. Does anyone with an iPhone have problems typing quickly? I want to use it for emails and texting and stuff, and I type pretty fast on a blackberry keyboard since it feels just like my computer keyboard. The main thing holding me back is the touch screen since it feels a lot slower than a physical keyboard.
I came from Blackberry to iPhone in 2008 and thought it was slow as hell at first. Within a few days I forgot all about what a real keyboard was like. You won't remember how to use physical phone keyboards after a while, and for me learning to type quickly was easy, too.
I agree with FSC. I thought the touch screen would take a lot of getting used to, but after a day or so of using it, I liked it more than the BlackBerry keyboard.
I went back to BB after getting an iPhone from my company... having to type work emails on iPhone was a truly miserable experience. I will miss having a quality keyboard in a year or two when RIM dies. Clearly, I'm part of a shrinking minority but I really don't understand how people can enjoy typing on a plate of glass without tactile feedback. If it's so great then why has it not replaced real keyboards?
Kingb, it is true that we don't get tactile feedback with the iPhone, but we get the next best thing. We get a sound that is reminiscent of keys being struck on an old manual typewriter. And the letter being typed pops up, almost as if the key is moving. This more than makes up for the lack of tactile feedback. Apple has designed a phone that replicates that feedback (in much the same way that a call option can be replicated by buying a put option with a share of stock while selling a bond).
I'm still on a Blackberry and I'm thinking of upgrading soon as well. Here's my issue. When I'm on the road, the most important thing for me is responding to emails quickly. I just don't see how removing a physical keyboard will speed me up. Yes, there is a sound and yes the key pops up, but when you're typing on a physical keyboard, you dont have to look at the keyboard...maybe over time you'd get to be ~90% as fast as the blackberry as a touchscreen, but it's tough for me to let go of the physical keyborad (only thing+enterprise clients keeping RIM alive).
If I was to go to an Android device / touch screen, what is the best?
I don't have to look on an iPhone anymore either. Trust me I felt the same way about leaving my BB, I had a Bold and a Tour and thought I'd never be able to join the iPhone bandwagon. You become just as fast on an iPhone that you are on a BB you are a human being you adjust.
I went from a Droid RAZR to a Tour. 1) The battery life is great, if I forget to charge it, it's not the end of the world. 2) The keyboard is better than the Droid even with Swype. 3) I like the trackpad, it is a lot more accurate than is the touch screen especially for websites, it can be a bear to click on one of the small icons without blowing up the screen ridiculously.
They should come out with a bold-type of phone that can support the latest andriod software.
RIM is dead in the operating system area....the only thing holding them above water is their hardware design (which i think its slick, and so do many other people).
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