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BlackBerry confirms it will end in-house hardware development

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131–140 of 170 posts

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

#131
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.

Imagine if BB would produce hardened-secured-enterprisey version of Android, rather than doing their 'not invented here'.

Isn't that exactly what the Priv was supposed to be?

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

#132

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…

> Blackberry needs to target them

We have a failing hardware business, so lets fix that by targeting a small market segment which also happens to have nothing to do with our core business.

Makes sense.

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

#133
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.

> 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.

Doubt it. People don't care about security. If people cared then other companies would just bother to release security updates and try to actually harden android.

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

#135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't get why the CEO didn't do this as the first thing when he started his Android strategy. I don't think Chen understands device strategy, or cares much for it. Because every BB user has been asking for the exact same thing you just mentioned -- for years -- and they still haven't done it. It'll never beat Apple or Samsung in popularity. But if they just released a single solid high-end Android phone with a re…

I think many Android apps would adapt poorly to the BB aspect ratio.

It's already a similar form factor as a small device in landscape mode.

Nougat's multi-window mode should make developers care even more about it.

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

#136
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.

Get rid of the camera too.

Having an integrated camera got me used to taking more pictures, but now I use an actual camera 99% of the time.

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

#137

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…

Even though I would have really liked to see blackberry have a real try at this, It looks like this is just too small of a niche anyway : http://www.theverge.com/2013/11/15/5104704/i-come-not-to-pra...

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

#138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And the speech to text only works reliably if you speak with the right accent, for most of the planet it's appalling.

Hardware keyboards are even more apalling for people who don't use a standard QWERTY US-English keyboard layout.

It's easier to adapt to another keyboard layout than it is to change your accent. Not to mention that you can remap it in software (or at least you would be able to on rooted Android...) and that most latin layouts aren't that different from US QWERTY, at least compared to the difference in accents.

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

#139

Anyone who did Blackberry development back in the day, before OS 10 and Android, knows why they're now in this state. It was an abysmal experience, and they either didn't care or didn't understand the importance of keeping developers onside once Apple and Google started taking market share. Code-signing servers that were down on a regular basis, sometimes for days, which meant you couldn't deploy your app to real har…

Man, I'm always surprised there aren't more pissed off BB developers. It was a horrible experience, and I agree that it's their stubbornness and unwillingness to improve and go all the NIH-syndrome that ended them up here.

If anything, their hardware wasn't bad, it's their software that was rotten.

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

#140

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…

Yes. As far as productivity is concerned Android or iPhone did not match my blackberry. I remember typing out entire class assignments on my phone during train journeys and sending hundreds of BBM messages every day. I barely do it with iPhone. There are simply too many distractions.

I think Blackberry is a bit like Yahoo! where they focused too much on sales and marketing and did not invest well in engineering and product design. When even Gingerbread Android could detect dates in emails and let me create Calendar events based on that Blackberry could not do such a simple thing.

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