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A new company promises a 5G keyboarded BlackBerry in 2021

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Re: A new company promises a 5G keyboarded BlackBerry in 2021

#41

Post by 908B64B197 »

walterbell wrote: post #33
arch-ninja wrote: post #29

God I wish BB10 was open sourced. Today the biggest problem with phones is their bloated runtimes, android being the largest offender. I want something with the form factor of the q10 running a QNX-based os I can ssh to and use rsync to copy music, contacts, and a calendar to.

BB10 had the opportunity to support security and the open web, instead of chasing the app store quagmire. WebOS is now open-source and based on OpenEmbedded, which can be minimized. Blackberry has already ported some of their special sauce to Android, they could do the same for WebOS, extracting suitable components from both BB10 and QNX/automotive. Instead of worrying about apps (previous war), they could invest in…

Truth is, the company should have abandoned it's OS before they released their first touch screen device and go with Android. I remember playing with it (the Storm?). It was 2 years after the iPhone was released and it was two years behind the original iPhone.

The only moat to keep users they had was their messaging app, but Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp killed it with interop. And it's not like their userbase was as valuable as, let's say, Bloomberg chat.

Re: A new company promises a 5G keyboarded BlackBerry in 2021

#42

Post by protomyth »

walterbell wrote: post #33
arch-ninja wrote: post #29

God I wish BB10 was open sourced. Today the biggest problem with phones is their bloated runtimes, android being the largest offender. I want something with the form factor of the q10 running a QNX-based os I can ssh to and use rsync to copy music, contacts, and a calendar to.

BB10 had the opportunity to support security and the open web, instead of chasing the app store quagmire. WebOS is now open-source and based on OpenEmbedded, which can be minimized. Blackberry has already ported some of their special sauce to Android, they could do the same for WebOS, extracting suitable components from both BB10 and QNX/automotive. Instead of worrying about apps (previous war), they could invest in…

There developer story was way too confusing. Adobe Air just wasn't a good idea. Blackberry had been Java, and I wonder what made that a pain. The Runtime for Android was a good idea, but they really needed to pick something.

QNX is doing fine in cars, shame it never really got a chance. The 2 screen Doom and rebooting drivers over the network showed some amazing stuff.

Re: A new company promises a 5G keyboarded BlackBerry in 2021

#43

Post by as1mov »

gburdell3 wrote: post #22
as1mov wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh, they've butchered the T and X series. Aping the Macbooks will be their downfall.

What did they do to butcher them in your opinion? I just recently picked up a new X390 and it's a great machine for the price, with better specs in just about every area than a Macbook for half the price. Only thing I would improve is the screen, 1080p doesn't cut it these days.

I've used the older T420/30/X220/30 series laptops, and they are generally regarded to be well built modular machines that can last for a long time and can be upgraded with minimal fuss. They had 2 non-soldered RAM slots, removable storage, easily swappable batteries. If anyone is looking for cheap refurbished laptops, these are usually the go to suggestions for them.

I think the among the newer Thinkpads, only T480 has these capabilities, except the swappable batteries.

Re: A new company promises a 5G keyboarded BlackBerry in 2021

#44

Post by OlderWhiskey »

derrick_jensen wrote: post #21
OlderWhiskey wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lenovo has done a decent job with ThinkPad. I'm running an X1 Carbon and love it.

I have had nothing but bad experiences with Lenovo ThinkPads, and refuse to buy anything else of theirs (especially in the wake of Superfish). I had a T60 that had the both hinges snap in the case in normal operation, x230 screen broke and it refuses to start without reinserting the battery. I had similar screen issues with an x100e but at least that didn't have a quality persona around it, so I can't say I'm surpris…

I can't speak for anything but the X1 Carbon series. I will say when this thing arrived it had a battery issue, but Lenovo overnighted a box and turned around a fixed machine in less than a week.

Re: A new company promises a 5G keyboarded BlackBerry in 2021

#45

Post by wenc »

VectorLock wrote: post #10

What percentage of the market for phones come with physical keyboards? I know some cling to the idea but I think the technology has progressed far enough to mostly eclipse it in every practical way, certain holdouts not withstanding, and the market reflects that.

A touchscreen keyboard is definitely one of those "good-enough" pieces of technology. It works because fewer and fewer people are into composing long texts these days.

I don't think it has eclipsed physical keyboards though. I make tons of mistakes on my iPhone 11 keyboard and have to backspace and retype, sometimes several times because the predictions are persistently incorrect. It's supposed to learn from my mistakes but I've been training it for a couple of months and it still hasn't figured out my typing habits.

I've accepted that it is what it is. The iPhone is a better phone than any phone with a physical keyboard. But a physical keyboard is incontrovertibly superior to a touch-screen one.

Re: A new company promises a 5G keyboarded BlackBerry in 2021

#46

Post by ajflores1604 »

taylorwc wrote: post #25
xt00 wrote: post #4

Is there a name for the formula that blackberry and others follow? 1) successful consumer business 2) lose in the market so pivot to b2b 3) slow long decline 4) sell brand / assets to somebody else 5) new money results in a “hey we are going back to our roots” and launch products they originally were known for 6) finally go out of business for real, or sell remaining IP to a troll

It's not 1:1 with the narrative you lay out, but there are tons of parallels with Clay Christensen's Disruption Theory[0] ... basically that a successful business misses a new technology that cannibalizes them from the bottom up and they go into a slow death spiral because of their inability and unwillingness to adapt along the innovative axis. [0] https://www.christenseninstitute.org/disruptive-innovations/

Oh man Thank You. I came across this video (https://youtu.be/rpkoCZ4vBSI) years ago and I've haven't been able to find it again since. Your comment gave me enough of a breadcrumb to finally track it down

Re: A new company promises a 5G keyboarded BlackBerry in 2021

#47

Post by dang »

wffurr wrote: post #2

No actual device announced, just a licensing agreement for the Blackberry brand to a Foxconn subsidiary "to deliver a new 5G BlackBerry Android smartphone with physical keyboard, in the first half of 2021 in North America and Europe". Bad title, the original is "OnwardMobility Announces Agreements with BlackBerry and Foxconn Subsidiary FIH Mobile to Bring BlackBerry 5G Smartphones to Market" which I might summarize a…

OK, we've replaced the submitted title ("New BlackBerry with physical keyboard announced") with a substring of the article title.

This thread is pretty good though. Sometimes a lame article generates good comments.

Re: A new company promises a 5G keyboarded BlackBerry in 2021

#48

Post by SuperPaintMan »

otabdeveloper4 wrote: post #8
sharkmerry wrote: post #3

As someone currently with a Key1 and have stubbornly held onto physical keyboards, I am hopeful this pans out. But other phone with physical keyboards have been promised and never come to fruition

I have a Unihertz Titan and it feels like a better Blackberry than Blackberry ever was. (I only ever used Blackberries since BB10 and later.)

A Key2 is my daily, but there's a backup unlocked Titan running Lineage ready to take over if it dies. Now the question is, once this hardware becomes available will I still need it or will the Key2 power though.

Although being able to load GSIs on the Titan feels amazing!

Re: A new company promises a 5G keyboarded BlackBerry in 2021

#49

Post by robotnikman »

mothsonasloth wrote: post #6
xt00 wrote: post #4

Is there a name for the formula that blackberry and others follow? 1) successful consumer business 2) lose in the market so pivot to b2b 3) slow long decline 4) sell brand / assets to somebody else 5) new money results in a “hey we are going back to our roots” and launch products they originally were known for 6) finally go out of business for real, or sell remaining IP to a troll

I don't know if there is a such a term or concept but I would put these companies or products in the same category: Motorola, IBM Thinkpad, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Fujitsu computers

IBM still seems to be doing well. Many businesses still rely on their products, such as AS/400
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