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BlackBerry confirms it will end in-house hardware development

venturebeat.com

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Re: BlackBerry confirms it will end in-house hardware development

#41

Post by roymurdock »

dan1234 wrote: post #17
maxsilver wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Just kill it in entirety already (snip) a BlackBerry operating system doesn't stand a chance. They did that already. BlackBerry's last two phones were 100% pure Android devices, with full access to Play Store apps, Gmail, Google Maps, Google Docs, etc, just like every other major Android phone has.

If they're not making BBOS and they're not designing new hardware, what are they doing now? Are they now just app developers?

They have a strong embedded OS/tools/middleware (QNX) and cryptography (Certicom) portfolio with QNX in particular being a major player in the automotive embedded software/middleware market and they are moving into the medical market.

They are reorganizing around the IoT movement as their software assets can be retooled for more lucrative "connected devices" markets outside of smartphones.

Re: BlackBerry confirms it will end in-house hardware development

#42

Post by laumars »

camelNotation wrote: post #35

There is a growing market for "dumb phones" among those of us that are disillusioned with the smartphone lifestyle. It's not enormous, but it's out there. Blackberry needs to target them. If you buy a dumb phone, you not only give up the life-sucking abyss of social media and mobile gaming, but you also give up decent cameras and useful tools like navigation, group messages, and keyboard typing. For those that want t…

What you described there is a middle ground few people want. Those that buy "dumb" phones do so because they want to uncomplicate the basics. eg a real keypad for dialing. Those that want GPS, a web browser and group messaging want a smart phone.

The simplest solution if you don't want social networks et al is to just not install them. Or if you want to avoid "app hell" is to not install mobile apps for websites. These days the only 3rd party apps I commonly use is Google Authenticator, Facebook, Subsonic and LG TV Remote (I have a 2 year old so my actual TV remote often becomes an item of folklore). Even in the case of YouTube I often find myself using the YouTube mobile website instead of the app.

Re: BlackBerry confirms it will end in-house hardware development

#43

Post by jkot »

They should have done this 5 years ago. Dozens Chinese companies can produce quality phones with keyboard.

Imagine if BB would produce hardened-secured-enterprisey version of Android, rather than doing their 'not invented here'. They could had 30% of market by now.

Re: BlackBerry confirms it will end in-house hardware development

#44

Post by laumars »

camelNotation wrote: post #40
alex_c wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Blackberry needs to target them. Why? Dumb phones are more or less a commodity - margins are tiny, and volumes are likely small. If Blackberry lost at the high-end smartphone game, then switching to enterprise security or whatever they're working on makes way more sense than shipping a few hundred thousand units of $100 dumb phones.

If you read my full post, I'm arguing for them to change the paradigm of the "dumb phone." A dumb phone as it stands now is a commodity. I'm arguing that there exists an untapped market of people who want a hybrid, capable of filling the multi-functional tool role of a smartphone WITHOUT the focus on social media, video, music, and other entertainment roles. Why do I need to buy a flagship smartphone to get the best…

There's already a pretty wide spectrum of smart phones on the market. You don't have to spend half your monthly income on a handset to get navigation, messaging, etc.

Re: BlackBerry confirms it will end in-house hardware development

#45

Post by wreft »

jkot wrote: post #43

They should have done this 5 years ago. Dozens Chinese companies can produce quality phones with keyboard. Imagine if BB would produce hardened-secured-enterprisey version of Android, rather than doing their 'not invented here'. They could had 30% of market by now.

They do provide an android phone.

Re: BlackBerry confirms it will end in-house hardware development

#47

Post by jkot »

wreft wrote: post #45
jkot wrote: post #43

They should have done this 5 years ago. Dozens Chinese companies can produce quality phones with keyboard. Imagine if BB would produce hardened-secured-enterprisey version of Android, rather than doing their 'not invented here'. They could had 30% of market by now.

They do provide an android phone.

too little, too late

Re: BlackBerry confirms it will end in-house hardware development

#48

Post by imglorp »

jagermo wrote: post #34
PhantomGremlin wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The BB's keyboards are still unmatched. Yeah, but does that really matter any more? I've found that my iPhone's speech-to-text is pretty darned good, as long as I speak with a slightly staccato cadence to make it clear where the word divisions are. I can do that much more quickly than I can type. Generally I only have problems when the connection to the server doing the conversion is poor. I've never used Android's s…

Does it work without Internet? Tbh, I find it kind of creepy to have Apple, Google, Microsoft or Amazon listen to everything I say. I prefer keyboards

Anything typed can probably get scarfed up in a dozen ways, anyway, because you don't know what's going on in the apps, platform, or malware. So speech and kbd are probably around the same privacy.

Re: BlackBerry confirms it will end in-house hardware development

#50

Post by camelNotation »

laumars wrote: post #44
camelNotation wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you read my full post, I'm arguing for them to change the paradigm of the "dumb phone." A dumb phone as it stands now is a commodity. I'm arguing that there exists an untapped market of people who want a hybrid, capable of filling the multi-functional tool role of a smartphone WITHOUT the focus on social media, video, music, and other entertainment roles. Why do I need to buy a flagship smartphone to get the best…

There's already a pretty wide spectrum of smart phones on the market. You don't have to spend half your monthly income on a handset to get navigation, messaging, etc.

True, but then you sacrifice other features in the package. You can't pay with NFC on a cheap phone. The cameras suck on cheap phones. The screen quality sucks. The build quality sucks. There are tradeoffs if you just go cheap.

I would pay flagship prices for a hybrid phone that focused on productivity and ignored entertainment.

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