Five Essential Ways to Save the BlackBerry

[stevelord]

How many times has Rim said "This version of BB OS is sooo much faster!"? Browsing is still nasty and it takes a full 5 min to reboot their phones.

Also the Playbook was the little tablet that couldn't.

 

[CPU666d1]

Let the companies try to save the blackberry,after all they do buy their employees these non essential devices,don't they.

 

[fulle]

[citation][nom]t-pain[/nom]In the real world, you can run BES Express for free. Also, it doesn't get much easier than inputing your company email address to get synchronized with the BES server.[/citation]

*sigh* If you go the BES Express route, it defeats the supposed purpose of having a blackberry to begin with, that being security. Also, you can't do OTA activation using a BIS plan the same way you can if you had an overpriced BES server requiring users to be on overpriced Enterprise Data plans.... so.....

No. IRL companies that want to do Blackberry properly pay out the ass in licensing fees, and extra data fees, so that they can have an extra point of failure for IT to deal with and minimal security benefit.

Blackberry sucks man.

 

[extremepcs]

# 1 should be drop BES and adopt ActiveSync.

 

[Guest]

Well, I have a BB and and am happy with it. My phone is for ease of communication, not to say "look, I have angry birds on it". A pocket full of internet isn't what I bought my phone for and it's not for playing video games like some punk eighth grader who's waiting for his mommy to pick him up from the mall. "Cool factor" is for those people who are trying to fit in with those who can't make their own decisions. Most the people who say they want BB to go under are no better than high school cliques that want the "other guy" to be put down. There's nothing wrong with BB or those who use their products. I find it funny when some of you compare BB users to "silver haired" executives, as if that's some kind of insult. The whole android touchscreen trend bores me. People line up in droves for the next smartphone that can do less than a cheap netbook and costs twice the price. If BB is so old and outdated, why does Motorola PRO and Samsung Pro M do such a wonderful job copying the BB form factor? There is a place for BB in the smartphone world.

 

[Reynod]

I am a BB fan and love my Curve.

The BB does exactly what you need for a business phone - phone, secure e-mail, appoinment calendar that works well, web access, and documents to go etc ... plus the media player is good.

It is tough and reliable.

The keypad is just big enough to type functional e-mails and even write a basic letter.

I use my BB a lot for work and would be lost without it.

Keypads on touch phones / tablets have come a long way but I am more comfortable typing on the curve.

BB will not die as I have seen other managers try the current alternatives and then go back ... even the Nokia copy of the BB (flattering) does not quite do the job well enough as the keyboard buttons are too wide.

BB4Life ... i-phone4Wife !!!

 

[hhut]

I can see Apple All I....stuff will soon will be gone. No new IOS come out, this IOS is 30 year old stoperating system. For Jobs is a good marketing guy. Samsung will kil Apple in time to come.

 

[hhut]

I can see Apple All I....stuff will soon will be gone. No new IOS come out, this IOS is 30 year old stoperating system. For Jobs is a good marketing guy. Samsung will kil Apple in time to come.

 

[killerclick]

Physical keyboard? That's so 20th century. Also BBs have tiny screens, are too heavy, too thick and too expensive (for what they are). Good luck catching up to Samsung Galaxy S II.

 

[spentshells]

the bold 9000 was the first ever real smartphone they just need to do that again.
I use mine and its still primo, trackball is simple and just plain better
simply wash your hands

 

[rmmil978]

Let it die. If a product / line fails, it is the company behind its fault.

 

[belardo]

I was perfectly happy with the device for the first six months, after which I tried to figure out ways to prevent the phone from falling apart until I qualified for the discount upgrade price from my carrier.

(From article)
At one of the small companies I work for, the people went through blackberry after blackberry every 6~9 months. We've had to do almost monthly hardware resets (remove the battery, remove various APPs, reset settings) to get the damn device to re-download email-app. Phones would simply die. Finding settings was difficult. Yes, they were sexy looking hones -, but the GUI sucked, it was usually a fight to use the thing. Each new model was slightly improved, added color, etc.

When the iPhone 2 came out, everyone - one after another dump the blackberries for iPhones. The number of problems went down by a factor 1/100th compared to blackberries. Internet works, email works, apps work. Can't pull the battery - so that better work. Friends who had blackberries... DON'T anymore.

I only know of one person who has a BB and he bought it a month ago or so for some stupid reason. I played with it... was not impressed. And this person isn't very smart and now he's stuck with a phone he can't understand how to use.

I don't see anything today or in the future that'll make me change how I view BB. I think they could have done a lot better with WebOS with their hardware.

[citation][nom]legacy7955[/nom]This!^ Yes, for the overwhelming majority of folks that produce and have serious work to accomplish, BB is the way to go. It still is even if the media pundits wants it to be otherwise.[/citation] And exactly WHAT can a BB do that no other PHONE can do? Their job is to: be a phone, contact manager, calendar and appointments, open documents, email, take photos and video. Even my old dumb SONY can do most of those things... and do it easier than a black berry.

[citation][nom]otacon72[/nom]Dying?..lol My company won't allow anything with the name Apple or Android in it touch our servers.~ There are reasons why RIM devices are the only ones certified for use by government employees. Enjoy playing Angry Birds...lol[/citation]

1) So what happens when RIM/BB dies next year in 2012? Think Google or Apple is going to buy them? So in a year or so later... when all your BB devices are dead, what are you going to use then? WebOS... nope. WP7?

2) As you SHOULD know, you're incorrect about the govt. certification.

3) Angry birds is a good game... whatever, who cares? We know you want to play it!

 

[Guest]

"Yes, dying. The numbers consistently show that" -- the *real* numbers show that BlackBerry has at least doubled its worldwide customer base every year for the last decade, and shows no sign of slowing.

 

[belardo]

[citation][nom]Gwalachmai[/nom]"Yes, dying. The numbers consistently show that" -- the *real* numbers show that BlackBerry has at least doubled its worldwide customer base every year for the last decade, and shows no sign of slowing.[/citation]

What about 2011~2012? Looking at data from 2010~2011, in the USA - BB has drop from about 32% to 11% market share. In other parts of the world, it has gained in countries where Apple and Android are just starting out.

Apple and Android has undone 10 years of growth from BB in 2 years. And in the USA, not many people are buying them anymore.

 

[Guest]

Hopefully they dont burn out like WebOS did. They should give a free playbook for every $199 blackberry phone they sell. At least they could cover most if not all the hardware cost involved (with carrier subsidies). Its going to take something extraordinary to make the average consumer look at blackberries today instead of Android or IOS.

 

[joebob2000]

Everyone loves to look at stats that show BB usage declining, and you just figure "hey Rim is dying" instead of looking a little deeper. Presented with similar data, you would come to the same conclusion about home sales in the US; they have declined so much in the past few years that you would have to be an idiot to not see that all homes will be GONE by 2013.

RIM benefited from the smartphone bubble and their sales ballooned before the new wave of smartphones came around. Now that there is something shinier out there, people are flocking away. Does that mean RIM is going to be dead soon? Sure, but only if you think that "non-corporate smartphone consumer" is the only category out there. There will always be a demand for RIM, they will always have ups and downs like every other company (how Apple fanboys can gobble up iphone 4s and ipads faster than they can be produced, despite them lacking any 4g capability is beyond me.)

 

[eddieroolz]

BlackBerry isn't so "dead" outside of the United States however. It's still wildly popular elsewhere and it isn't a shame to be seen with one either.

 

[Guest]

blackberry's is the ideal girls phone, no?
what girl doesn't love to text and what does the BB do best... thats probably about it

 

[belardo]

Then where are the hot pink and glossy white models of BB then... ?

 

[belardo]

[citation][nom]joebob2000[/nom]Everyone loves to look at stats that show BB usage declining, and you just figure "hey Rim is dying" instead of looking a little deeper. ~~ There will always be a demand for RIM, they will always have ups and downs like every other company (how Apple fanboys can gobble up iphone 4s and ipads faster than they can be produced, despite them lacking any 4g capability is beyond me.)[/citation]

You sir, make some very valid points.

RIM may survive for many years as a niche product, maybe to rise again... who knows? That'll depend on the company, its shareholders and the customers.

But keep in mind of these things... At about 20% world-wide marketshare, RIM is threatened and feels it. Don't think they are too big to go belly up - what happened on Wall Street a few years ago should prove that. Look at the talk of HP imploding. The discontinued WebOS was a small hit, but them serious about leaving the PC business (the Number 1 seller of PC units) has already caused them problems. HP desktops helps sells servers... Nobody wants to buy their desktops. A company that threw in the towel so quick on WebOS and PCs so suddenly is not a sign of stability or good management. They are NOT IBM.
They will not be missed in the PC market.

Apple is not a DOS/WIN PC company. Yes, they were pretty close to being in a very bad place. But unlike the rest of the PC business, they aren't generic with their products (yeah yeah, its all PC under the hood). They have millions of customers who'll would be UPSET for Apple to go away. With HP, Blackberry... not many people would notice. RIM today is NOT in the same position as it was 3 years ago.

As in this article and person experience from many people... BB was far from perfect. There is NOTHING cool and fun in having to spend 20 minutes on tech support (at&t and RIM) to go through various steps to remove modules and update packs, reboot then re-download updates in order to make the damn thing work.

That is WHY Apple's iPhone kicked RIM in the nuts and even my Android is not nearly that stupid of a device. BB was top of the game (below Nokia) for advance features because there wasn't much competition. When it became available - many people were happy to be rid of RIM.

- 4G? Who in the USA has true 4G? I can DL data with 3G at around 3000Mbps... much faster than T1... the latency and processing lag is the issues on our devices. So Apple and everyone else is supposed to hold back and wait until 4G is fully operational in the USA? Its not that big of a deal... compared to data caps on our devices.

- Unless RIM can do something that makes people go "Oh WOW!", RIM can go away and very few people will care.
Apple has the EASY and SEXY factor.
Android has the open-system, customization factor (Mine looks like WP7)
Wp7 has a retro-slick and easy factor.
RIM has the..... was very popular 4 years ago factor?