Sometimes I think...
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| caitlyn Apr 07, 2012 2:09 PM EDT |
Sometimes I think the negative press and hype is why RIM and BlackBerry are sinking in the market. Oh, it's terrible, they *only* sold 11 million units last quarter. Only. I still love my circa 2010 BlackBerry Curve and I have no plans to get rid of it unless RIM follows this sort of advice and ditches their loyal customers. May they NEVER listen to The VAR Guy. |
| helios Apr 08, 2012 7:09 AM EDT |
Yeah, I just passed my year one anniversary with my HTC Hero Android Caitlyn and I still curse and mutter to myself when texting on the onboard keyboard. I still despise the autocheck and built-in morality check most androids insist on using. If I type in the word smarfleshi***r, dont make me type it in 6 times before offering me the option to save it as a word in the near future. I miss the tactile feel of the blackberry keyboard...however I do not miss the lousy internet representation my Bold offered me. Besides, since I live and die by Gmail and google has discontinued support for Gmail in all things Blackberry, going back was a pipe dream anyway. Still, I gotta agree. Sometimes technology stepping forward isn't necessarily a step up. |
| dinotrac Apr 08, 2012 9:06 AM EDT |
Yup, y'all. When my blackberry died, I did make the move to android, but still use the original G-1, complete with slide-out keyboard. |
| Khamul Apr 08, 2012 3:18 PM EDT |
There's a bunch of Android devices with slide-out keyboards if you insist on having one of those. It's a matter of what kind of compromise you want: the ones with keyboards are generally bulkier and have smaller screens, but if you do a lot of typing it might be worth it to you. The ones without keyboards frequently have bigger screens and are thinner and not so bulky, but then they suck to type a lot on. Personally, I don't do much typing on my Android phone, I just use it for navigation, checking things on the internet when I'm away from home, and some games (and of course talking); I don't do text messaging except in rare instances, and I might read emails on my device, but almost never respond to them, so I really don't care much about having a keyboard. Blackberries suck because they don't have apps. I can get all kinds of weird apps for my Android. Are there any aviation weather apps for BB, where I can see all the latest NOTAMs? I doubt it, but there's a bunch for my Android. How about an RPN scientific calculator? I got a nice one for free for my Android. RIM never thought third-party apps were important, and they're reaping the results of that decision now. |
| dinotrac Apr 08, 2012 5:09 PM EDT |
@khamul... Apps matter only if you want them -- and that's not a dismissal. If you love your apps and must have them, you really can't live with a phone that doesn't support them. I'm happy with my ancient phone because I use my tablet for apps, not my phone. I use my phone to make calls and to text, to look up contacts, to check things on the internet, and to act as a wireless hub for my tablet. |
| Khamul Apr 08, 2012 7:16 PM EDT |
Tablets don't exactly fit in your pocket. If that works for you, great, but for most people, they want a phone that fits in their pocket, and they like having apps. RIM never was very good for 3rd-party apps, so when a platform came out that supported them well (iPhone), people flocked to it. Then, when another platform came out that supported them well (better even, since they didn't exercise so much control over the market, kicking out apps they didn't like or which competed with their own--Android), people flocked to that one. RIM is just a has-been; they didn't keep up with the times or with what customers wanted. RIM's whole claim to fame was having the ultimate business phone; by most accounts, theirs is the best for just doing business stuff--corporate email, etc. Well, there aren't many people who want that. There's lots of people who want phones that they can check their email with, but they also want to be able to play Angry Birds and run other apps. What they definitely don't want is to have to carry around two phones: one for business and one for pleasure. So, they'll instead pick a phone that isn't quite as good for the business stuff, but does the pleasure stuff well. As for checking stuff on the internet, from what I've read, RIM phones were never that good at that. |
| caitlyn Apr 08, 2012 8:16 PM EDT |
@Khamul: Funny, for the things I want and like I found apps on my Blackberry, ranging from Tune In Radio and Stitcher, which are great for long trips when fed through my car stereo, to weather apps and all sorts of news apps. I've even found apps specific to the Jewish community. The Facebook app works well too. So does the voice activated GPS software, Telenav. I dunno.... maybe my taste in apps is pedestrian enough that Blackberry fits my needs. Oh, and yeah, I do a lot of e-mail and that is where the Blackberry Curve keyboard is a winner for me. I can actually get a response out quickly. @Helios: I have two GMail accounts on my front Blackberry screen and I use them all the time. Everything works. I don't know what you ran into but I've had no problems at all. |
| dinotrac Apr 08, 2012 8:30 PM EDT |
@caitlyn -- That's the key, though, and it mirrors the story for the Linux desktop: if it has the apps you want and does the things you need, you are happy with it. If you have to have some Windows apps, you can't live with it (alone). |
| Khamul Apr 08, 2012 10:38 PM EDT |
Exactly, and while the BB might have some apps, it clearly doesn't have remotely as many as iOS and Android. They just haven't done much to court 3rd-party development, and it seems like they did do more after iOS started eating their lunch, but by then it was "too little too late". |
| caitlyn Apr 09, 2012 1:18 AM EDT |
I don't think RIM has failed to try and court developers. I think the press has convinced developers that iPhone and Android are "sexy" and are where you make money. It's a chicken and egg sort of things. As far as the number of apps are concerned, that's kind of like a cable company telling me they'll give me lots more channels. It's true. When I had cable I had lots more channels filled with absolutely nothing I wanted to watch. The number of apps is kind of the same thing. Gee, if I have 12 weather apps to chose from instead of 6 is that really better? |
| Khamul Apr 09, 2012 3:44 PM EDT |
@caitlyn: The iPhone didn't exist for much of the time that RIM was dominating the smartphone market. What were they doing to court developers in that time? Where was their app store? Apple was the first one to popularize that concept. RIM and WinCE/Mo were around for ages before the iPhone ever appeared, but it took the iPhone to make smartphones into something that regular people wanted; RIM was only ever popular with corporate types, and WinMo was never popular at all. I don't recall either one of them having any kind of app store until Apple came along. It wasn't the press that convinced anyone that iPhone and Android are "sexy"; the developers decided that for themselves based on market statistics. If they had listened to the press, they would have gone all-out on every Microsoft platform that was released, and they didn't: WinMo was a flop, and WinPhone7 is a flop too, despite all the efforts of the press, paid off by MS, to convince people otherwise. |
| caitlyn Apr 09, 2012 7:19 PM EDT |
Sorry, Khamul, not convinced. The apps were there even if it wasn't called an "app store". The roots of Blackberry and the original customers were enterprise/business. The idea of a consumer market for this sort of stuff wasn't there because it wasn't cost effective at the time. As costs came down RIM did try to complete but the press was all agog over iPhone and Android. |
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