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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

#71

Post by Osiris »

bobajeff wrote: post #14
whitecarpet wrote: post #9

I've been never more productive with my smartphones than with a Blackberry. The BB's keyboards are still unmatched. While I can type as fast with my iPhone 7 where cursor control is thanks to 3D touch great a BB Classic is still better—reasons why: - You can rest your fingers on the keyboard like on a real keyboard without pressing the keys (you can't do that on a touch screen) - After a short time you start to touch…

By any chance have you ever used any feature like Swype or Speech to Text? I see many older folks still use it like those 2-ways of yesteryear. Unsurprisingly they aren't too comfortable responding via text.

Android speech to text works phenomenally well in my experience. It's much faster than typing. However, in most circumstances it's socially awkward to use it.

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

#72

Post by pwthornton »

whitecarpet wrote: post #9

I've been never more productive with my smartphones than with a Blackberry. The BB's keyboards are still unmatched. While I can type as fast with my iPhone 7 where cursor control is thanks to 3D touch great a BB Classic is still better—reasons why: - You can rest your fingers on the keyboard like on a real keyboard without pressing the keys (you can't do that on a touch screen) - After a short time you start to touch…

You're defining productivity as pure typing speed. This is exactly why the iPhone killed Blackberry.

All the Blackberry had was a hardware keyboard. Everything else about the platform and OS was vastly weaker. Apple and Google have real, full-fledged OSes (Blackberry eventually got this, but it was really a feature phone with QWERTY keyboard). I do all kinds of productivity and work tasks on my iPhone and the keyboard text input is a small part of that.

Having a real Web browser is mission critical for the work that I do. When the iPhone first came out, that was the No. 1 reason I went with the iPhone over a Blackberry.

The iPhone also has a very robust application ecosystem that is powered by the fact that all iPhones have come with large (by Blackberry standards) responsive touchscreens. I use project management software on my phone. I have note taking programs that sync with desktop. I can even SSH into a server and update html files.

Apple put real computers in users' pockets. Blackberry just made texting and writing emails (not even full-fledged emails either!) easier to write. That's it.

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

#73

Post by Osiris »

whitecarpet wrote: post #18
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…

There is more than just creating text. The BB keyboard is also essential part of the UI, you trigger stuff through the keyboard all the time (think of VIM or terminal based apps). Even if just talk about text creation which involves editing. Speech-to-text is impressive but once you start to edit your text you need a keyboard and perfect cursor control.

I really liked the clicking ball on the T-mobile G1. You used the ball to move the cursor and then could click it to select. It was useful for one-handed operation and fine text editing.

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

#74

Post by camelNotation »

laumars wrote: post #54
camelNotation wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure why it makes more sense for a company like ZTE or OnePlus to sell a handful of cheap flagships as opposed to one of these smaller firms producing the hybrid niche device I describe.

I think you answered your own question when you said "niche device". Cheap flagships would naturally have a bigger market than an expensive smartphone with crippled app support.

I don't think you understand the market I'm describing.

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

#76

Post by wNk6A23YB »

pwthornton wrote: post #66
amenghra wrote: post #60

BlackBerry had a fine product for a specific market segment until the press/media started comparing them to consumer devices. What if they had focused on what they were good at?

It eventually became a point where the iPhone was a better consumer and professional device. The Blackberry simply wasn't a real smartphone with a real OS.

The iPhone is not a better professional device than a BB OS device from an organizational standpoint. For instance as an MDM administrator you can't control the OS version of company devices other than saying it must be within a range for the device to connect to company resources. This creates a risk that users will update the OS before a required app supports the new version. You also can not capture SMS/iMessage data which leaves regulated industries needing third party solutions which are not carrier agnostic (eg Smarsh). Apple is slowly catching up with features like DEP, VPP, and supervised mode but it has a long way to go.

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

#78

Post by bobajeff »

Osiris wrote: post #71
bobajeff wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By any chance have you ever used any feature like Swype or Speech to Text? I see many older folks still use it like those 2-ways of yesteryear. Unsurprisingly they aren't too comfortable responding via text.

Android speech to text works phenomenally well in my experience. It's much faster than typing. However, in most circumstances it's socially awkward to use it.

Is it also socially awkward to use a gesture typing function like Swype? Because that's what many used before Speech to Text was so good and it's still faster than thumb typing.

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

#79

Post by ndesaulniers »

whitecarpet wrote: post #9

I've been never more productive with my smartphones than with a Blackberry. The BB's keyboards are still unmatched. While I can type as fast with my iPhone 7 where cursor control is thanks to 3D touch great a BB Classic is still better—reasons why: - You can rest your fingers on the keyboard like on a real keyboard without pressing the keys (you can't do that on a touch screen) - After a short time you start to touch…

> After a short time you start to touch type; although it's possible with an iPhone too

On my Android phone, I've even begun "touch swiping," using swipe gestures without looking while leaning heavily on the autocompleter.

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

#80

Post by dradtke »

IshKebab wrote: post #32

Someone at work had a Blackberry Android phone that I had a brief play with. Hardware seemed nice and it had the latest security updates. Maybe they just need to rebrand.

Yeah, even BB10 was pretty solid. It was a completely different operating system that kept the name, and the result was that nobody realized how much it had changed.
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