BlackBerry confirms it will end in-house hardware development

Post by jonknee » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 5:11 PM UTC

pwthornton wrote: post #72

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 keyboar…

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 5:15 PM UTC

JohnTHaller wrote: post #75

I'd still pay good money for an Android phone with a proper landscape slide out keyboard. Think an updated G1/Dream or G2/Desire Z but with a nice 5"+ screen and top tier specs.

Post by nixos » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 5:18 PM UTC

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…

Post by bdavisx » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 5:23 PM UTC

jonknee wrote: post #81

pwthornton wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 keyboar…

> 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. For some people email is all they're looking to do and that's why it feels so much more productive. Unfortunately for BlackBerry it's a pretty small niche.

Post by cmc31 » Wed, Sep 28, 2016, 5:29 PM UTC

camelNotation wrote: post #50

laumars wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.