> The Passport, when bought without a carrier subsidy or large corporate buyer’s discount, will cost $600 in the United States, $50 less than the basic iPhone 6.
Where is the market for a $600 handset that isn't an iPhone 6?
BlackBerry, Under New Leadership, Unveils Its Newest Smartphone
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Re: BlackBerry, Under New Leadership, Unveils Its Newest Smartphone
#12Please blackberry just get in to the one market where your sunk investment in physical keyboards and good industrial design is still relevant - low cost chromebook killers. Or even just similiarly priced, but able to run ubuntu linux arm and bb10.
Is anyone in business using Chromebooks? If not, it isn't going to be in Blackberry's sights.
Samsung[1] and Sony have literally just pulled out of the market due to declining sales.
[1] http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/laptop/3573470/samsung-exits...
Re: BlackBerry, Under New Leadership, Unveils Its Newest Smartphone
#13If a brand is out of fashion, of course everyone loves to join in the fun and pile on, and any innovation, good or bad, is automatically thrown onto the bonfire.
It's too bad because I think the screen is innovative, and I wish others would follow suit. Some extra space on the side is more valuable to me than more at the top. I tried a squarish LG phablet a couple years ago and loved it. Unhappily the software was poor and I had to switch to something with a more standard aspect ratio.
Also, I trust Blackberry shares my priorities about productivity and security; anything to save me a few seconds each time I use it would be great. I hardly ever use my phones for anything else, other than occasional maps and web browsing. If it works well, I'm tempted, though its potential in the marketplace is worrying. And no, I don't care if you think my phone is unfashionable.
EDIT: Added a couple words to the first paragraph to clarify.
Re: BlackBerry, Under New Leadership, Unveils Its Newest Smartphone
#14[deleted]
Re: BlackBerry, Under New Leadership, Unveils Its Newest Smartphone
#15> The Passport, when bought without a carrier subsidy or large corporate buyer’s discount, will cost $600 in the United States, $50 less than the basic iPhone 6. Where is the market for a $600 handset that isn't an iPhone 6?
Expecting a Fire Sale on these soon.
Re: BlackBerry, Under New Leadership, Unveils Its Newest Smartphone
#16If a brand is out of fashion, of course everyone loves to join in the fun and pile on, and any innovation, good or bad, is automatically thrown onto the bonfire. It's too bad because I think the screen is innovative, and I wish others would follow suit. Some extra space on the side is more valuable to me than more at the top. I tried a squarish LG phablet a couple years ago and loved it. Unhappily the software was po…
> Some extra space on the side is more valuable to me than more at the top
Serious question: doesn't the landscape mode of rectangular screens sufficiently address this?
Re: BlackBerry, Under New Leadership, Unveils Its Newest Smartphone
#17There are going to be so many jokes about this waffle...
Re: BlackBerry, Under New Leadership, Unveils Its Newest Smartphone
#18> The Passport, when bought without a carrier subsidy or large corporate buyer’s discount, will cost $600 in the United States, $50 less than the basic iPhone 6. Where is the market for a $600 handset that isn't an iPhone 6?
The market is: businesses and governments that cannot afford to use anything less secure. For this niche, their phone could be $1000, they're still going to buy BlackBerry because it is the only thing that checks all the boxes and provides the security processes necessary.
This might not be a tens of a billions of dollar revenue per quarter business like top consumer electronics manufacturers are, but it is a great niche to be in since the security needs are always there for those types of customers.
Re: BlackBerry, Under New Leadership, Unveils Its Newest Smartphone
#19> The Passport, when bought without a carrier subsidy or large corporate buyer’s discount, will cost $600 in the United States, $50 less than the basic iPhone 6. Where is the market for a $600 handset that isn't an iPhone 6?
> Where is the market for a $600 handset that isn't an iPhone 6?
In the $600+ Android flagships? (e.g., Galaxy Note 4 is $699 - $825 w/o subsidy, depending on carrier.)
Re: BlackBerry, Under New Leadership, Unveils Its Newest Smartphone
#20I never understood how Blackberry hardware designers can be so bad. I'm glad they realized that the keyboard is where the Blackberry shines but, a square design!? They should've stuck with something more similar to the Q10.
The keyboard doubles as a track pad. I imagine the phone will shine when reading content in landscape mode, and scrolling using the track pad. Supposedly works well for lefties too. I understand that the BlackBerry displays around 66 lines of text, compared with the iPhones 31-odd. I'd like very much to play with one before I wrote the device off. Given that I use my phone primarily for reading this could find a niche.
There's a pretty decent cursory review on The Register - http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/09/24/blackberry_passport_...