Blackberry shedding hardware development is no surprise. In fact, what is a surprise is the company's desire to continue attempting to function at all rather than just shutting down. I think what'd be best for them at this point is to start offering their security features via Google Play. If they went ad-supported, they could develop Blackberry-themed SMS apps, mail, and a UI dress up for free. The company would have to be pretty small at that point, but I think the best use of the brand identity is in putting their paw print logo on Android apps.
I think they should stick with what they used to be good in...create a secured device for business use. I say forget about ad-supported. Focus on building a secure system for business use then focus on marketing to Multi-national corporations. Don't go into the consumer market. Just focus on that. The niche might be small but at least it is highly profitable.
The business focus is what got them into the situation they're in now. By morphing the company into an ad-supported security app developer firm, they can implode the company's operations gracefully. There's really no good reason for businesses to use their technologies. As someone who had to deal with a BES server on a daily basis, I'd be happy to see them pursue other interests. In particular, focusing on non-data-harvesting, non-spyware applications would put them into a market where there are almost no competitors. An auto-secure app that would block a handset from logging and passing data on to Alphabet for Google's lustful creeping might be a stunning success.
No, they didn't get on board with the new fangled thing called Android. If they had made their own custom Android spinoff like all the other OEMs they probably would have been fine.
That's right, forget the hardware and focus on the hype. You will need quite a lot of hype to make dummies pay a premium for a brand that failed to produce anything worthy for years.
What I hoped was that Blackberry would license out their Blackberry OS to other phone manufacturers like Windows did (or does?). It was a well designed OS in my point of view.
Great idea. Win Phone is pretty much dead as well. I remember when Ballmer mocked the iPhone, saying that he would rather have Win Mobile on 80% of smartphones.
Exactly. You can't come along 3-4 years late with an OS that is as good and expect people to switch. if you are going to get people to switch it needs to be significantly better. In 2007, IOS was significantly better than Palm OS and BB OS... And it got huge. Then a few years later Android came along offering a huge feature set with many things that IOS lacked... And it got huge. Then a few years later BB OS10 came along and was up there with IOS and Android, but it really doesn't do anything the others dont. A better gesture based UI maybe but that was borrowed from Palm's WebOS in 2009, which also failed... Anyhow, BB OS10 is pretty good, but not good enough to make large amounts of people want to switch... Not even close.
Virtual keyboards improved a lot since then. Keyboards such as Swype and Swiftkey changed the way we type. But the original iPhone virtual keyboard was worse than a physical keyboard. It still saved a lot of space, but was worse when typing.
Indeed. They should gone further and focused solely on enterprise and made their fortune selling niche secure smartphones and MDM / security. Plenty of others do that today. They could have large accounts and government with maybe a portal for smb. Some other comments here are as clueless as the RIM(blackberry) CEOs. The market moved. Instead of chasing the masses why not leverage your brand and become a new IBM for mobile? Instead we got mass market gimmicky smartphones consumers didn't want.
Aside from core apps, there's zero differecen between OS's (for casuals, just a bunch of low budget crappy games).
Great video/music player Chtome/Firefox/Opera/Your own browser PDF/image/office support for work/students and comic/manga reading Easy to use camera software
You don't need anything else. The other apps like whatapp/skype/weather/facebook/etc are a given.
Maybe make partnerships with japanese game developers to port key mobage games to your OS.
I mean, anyone can start up their own smartphone bussines with a propietary OS and do things right (or whatever is annoying OS wise on android/ios). Just don't sell it like "omg the definitive OS, gonna reach 50-100M uses by xxx year, just enphasize simplicity.
WebOS had more developers in 2009 and 2010 than Android. WebOS's problem wasn't apps, it was HP, or more precisely Leo Apothiker.
The HP Veer and Palm Pre 3 were both considerably ahead of their time in many key areas as well. I'd say the only real problem with the prior devices was build quality, which was ironed out by their end of days.
RIP Palm. Our only viable third candidate to supplant this duopoly of Android and IOS.
PalmOS was never a viable alternative as long as it was tied to a trickle Palm/HP devices. If they had partnered with a couple of big phone manufacturers they might have made a dent back when they had momentum.
Possibly true, but more specifically Palm had some massive hardware quality problems. Carriers were simply sick of dealing with all of the returns and that hurt them alot. Taking the lousy hardware out of the equation, WebOS was amazing. I still miss it to this day. It's UI was years ahead of anything else, even IOS and Android of today cant quite touch it. Both have somewhat mimicked it, especially in the multitasking UI/task switching, but neither has quite hit the mark.
Lots of the modern manufacturers have major quality issues. Not every model, of course, but there are some stinkers. But no matter how many flawed phones are sold, they typically either repair or replace them and try to avoid such pitfalls with the next model. Only Apple can get away with blaming the end-user, and even then they're not as bulletproof as they once were. Regardless people keep buying new models of smartphones and they keep cranking them out. But again for that to work you have to take care of the customer on models with problems and release updated models on a regular (and fairly aggressive) cadence.
Palm and later HP thought they could be like Apple. That's pretty hard to do. If they had approached it more like Google they might have been able to split the market up more. The one guy I know that used to have a PalmOS device has been bitter about them vanishing from the market. Ever since then he just roams from manufacturer to manufacturer, most recently Apple, never quite satisfied.
I would buy a Windows 10 Mobile device myself, except... Verizon. No 950, no X3 Elite. I don't care about popularity. I might still pick up a 735 to take for a spin, they're super cheap.
BlackBerry stops. That should have been the headline. I don't know what they could sell that anyone would want, especially if you weren't stuck on a legacy platform like BES.
Sign! Why am I so different than majority that I *like* physical qwerty keyboard? Fortunately purchased passport silver few months ago since otherwise I don't know what I would use... :-(
I wouldn't even complain about the Z10 if it only had an Android OS. Yes, it can run android apps but not all. I tried playing GTA: Vice City with it and the phone nearly got bricked lol
Years ago, back when they released their tablet against the (new then) iPad2. and then spend another 2~3 years before BB10 phones actually came to market.
RIM/BB totally screwed up. People on this site saw the writing on the wall more so than those millionaire CEOs. So they bought another OS and bolted on a GUI. They wasted so much money and time doing stupid things and lost market share.
All they *HAD TO DO* for much cheaper, was GO Android and customize it with more security and use their hardware design (keyboard, etc). Their GUI for BB10 was quite nice (as was HP's iPad clone as well) - but its 6 years of crashing... Bye bye Blackberry.
We’ve updated our terms. By continuing to use the site and/or by logging into your account, you agree to the Site’s updated Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
35 Comments
Back to Article
BrokenCrayons - Wednesday, September 28, 2016 - link
Blackberry shedding hardware development is no surprise. In fact, what is a surprise is the company's desire to continue attempting to function at all rather than just shutting down. I think what'd be best for them at this point is to start offering their security features via Google Play. If they went ad-supported, they could develop Blackberry-themed SMS apps, mail, and a UI dress up for free. The company would have to be pretty small at that point, but I think the best use of the brand identity is in putting their paw print logo on Android apps.Cliff34 - Wednesday, September 28, 2016 - link
I think they should stick with what they used to be good in...create a secured device for business use. I say forget about ad-supported. Focus on building a secure system for business use then focus on marketing to Multi-national corporations. Don't go into the consumer market. Just focus on that. The niche might be small but at least it is highly profitable.BrokenCrayons - Thursday, September 29, 2016 - link
The business focus is what got them into the situation they're in now. By morphing the company into an ad-supported security app developer firm, they can implode the company's operations gracefully. There's really no good reason for businesses to use their technologies. As someone who had to deal with a BES server on a daily basis, I'd be happy to see them pursue other interests. In particular, focusing on non-data-harvesting, non-spyware applications would put them into a market where there are almost no competitors. An auto-secure app that would block a handset from logging and passing data on to Alphabet for Google's lustful creeping might be a stunning success.Shadow7037932 - Thursday, September 29, 2016 - link
No, they didn't get on board with the new fangled thing called Android. If they had made their own custom Android spinoff like all the other OEMs they probably would have been fine.ddriver - Wednesday, September 28, 2016 - link
That's right, forget the hardware and focus on the hype. You will need quite a lot of hype to make dummies pay a premium for a brand that failed to produce anything worthy for years.SeleniumGlow - Wednesday, September 28, 2016 - link
What I hoped was that Blackberry would license out their Blackberry OS to other phone manufacturers like Windows did (or does?). It was a well designed OS in my point of view.melgross - Wednesday, September 28, 2016 - link
Great idea. Win Phone is pretty much dead as well. I remember when Ballmer mocked the iPhone, saying that he would rather have Win Mobile on 80% of smartphones.ImSpartacus - Wednesday, September 28, 2016 - link
Would anyone license that from them? That might be a tough sell.The os could be perfectly good, but it's way too late in the game.
goatfajitas - Thursday, September 29, 2016 - link
Exactly. You can't come along 3-4 years late with an OS that is as good and expect people to switch. if you are going to get people to switch it needs to be significantly better. In 2007, IOS was significantly better than Palm OS and BB OS... And it got huge. Then a few years later Android came along offering a huge feature set with many things that IOS lacked... And it got huge. Then a few years later BB OS10 came along and was up there with IOS and Android, but it really doesn't do anything the others dont. A better gesture based UI maybe but that was borrowed from Palm's WebOS in 2009, which also failed... Anyhow, BB OS10 is pretty good, but not good enough to make large amounts of people want to switch... Not even close.BillBear - Wednesday, September 28, 2016 - link
Does anybody remember when the iPhone was doomed because it didn't have a physical keyboard?Good times.
Ironchef3500 - Wednesday, September 28, 2016 - link
+1danbob999 - Thursday, September 29, 2016 - link
Virtual keyboards improved a lot since then. Keyboards such as Swype and Swiftkey changed the way we type.But the original iPhone virtual keyboard was worse than a physical keyboard. It still saved a lot of space, but was worse when typing.
Lolimaster - Wednesday, September 28, 2016 - link
They should ironed their small business, enterprise approach instead of trying to be mass-consumer oriented which they never were.hero4hire - Wednesday, September 28, 2016 - link
Indeed. They should gone further and focused solely on enterprise and made their fortune selling niche secure smartphones and MDM / security. Plenty of others do that today. They could have large accounts and government with maybe a portal for smb. Some other comments here are as clueless as the RIM(blackberry) CEOs. The market moved. Instead of chasing the masses why not leverage your brand and become a new IBM for mobile? Instead we got mass market gimmicky smartphones consumers didn't want.melgross - Wednesday, September 28, 2016 - link
One reason is because large enterprises and governments don't want to take the chance with a small company, for critical devices and services.Samus - Wednesday, September 28, 2016 - link
Small company? Blackberry is still a very large company, even after hemoraging half their value in 5 years.Lolimaster - Wednesday, September 28, 2016 - link
Aside from core apps, there's zero differecen between OS's (for casuals, just a bunch of low budget crappy games).Great video/music player
Chtome/Firefox/Opera/Your own browser
PDF/image/office support for work/students and comic/manga reading
Easy to use camera software
You don't need anything else. The other apps like whatapp/skype/weather/facebook/etc are a given.
Maybe make partnerships with japanese game developers to port key mobage games to your OS.
I mean, anyone can start up their own smartphone bussines with a propietary OS and do things right (or whatever is annoying OS wise on android/ios). Just don't sell it like "omg the definitive OS, gonna reach 50-100M uses by xxx year, just enphasize simplicity.
BillBear - Wednesday, September 28, 2016 - link
Tell it to Microsoft.Without a vibrant third party app ecosystem, you're not going to succeed in this market.
tbutler - Wednesday, September 28, 2016 - link
Or Palm/WebOS. Or Nokia/Maemo/Harmattan. Or Firefox.Samus - Wednesday, September 28, 2016 - link
WebOS had more developers in 2009 and 2010 than Android. WebOS's problem wasn't apps, it was HP, or more precisely Leo Apothiker.The HP Veer and Palm Pre 3 were both considerably ahead of their time in many key areas as well. I'd say the only real problem with the prior devices was build quality, which was ironed out by their end of days.
RIP Palm. Our only viable third candidate to supplant this duopoly of Android and IOS.
Alexvrb - Wednesday, September 28, 2016 - link
PalmOS was never a viable alternative as long as it was tied to a trickle Palm/HP devices. If they had partnered with a couple of big phone manufacturers they might have made a dent back when they had momentum.goatfajitas - Thursday, September 29, 2016 - link
Possibly true, but more specifically Palm had some massive hardware quality problems. Carriers were simply sick of dealing with all of the returns and that hurt them alot. Taking the lousy hardware out of the equation, WebOS was amazing. I still miss it to this day. It's UI was years ahead of anything else, even IOS and Android of today cant quite touch it. Both have somewhat mimicked it, especially in the multitasking UI/task switching, but neither has quite hit the mark.Alexvrb - Thursday, September 29, 2016 - link
Lots of the modern manufacturers have major quality issues. Not every model, of course, but there are some stinkers. But no matter how many flawed phones are sold, they typically either repair or replace them and try to avoid such pitfalls with the next model. Only Apple can get away with blaming the end-user, and even then they're not as bulletproof as they once were. Regardless people keep buying new models of smartphones and they keep cranking them out. But again for that to work you have to take care of the customer on models with problems and release updated models on a regular (and fairly aggressive) cadence.Palm and later HP thought they could be like Apple. That's pretty hard to do. If they had approached it more like Google they might have been able to split the market up more. The one guy I know that used to have a PalmOS device has been bitter about them vanishing from the market. Ever since then he just roams from manufacturer to manufacturer, most recently Apple, never quite satisfied.
I would buy a Windows 10 Mobile device myself, except... Verizon. No 950, no X3 Elite. I don't care about popularity. I might still pick up a 735 to take for a spin, they're super cheap.
JoeyJoJo123 - Wednesday, September 28, 2016 - link
rest in piece boisonberryyoull be sorely mist
serendip - Thursday, September 29, 2016 - link
BlackBerry stops. That should have been the headline. I don't know what they could sell that anyone would want, especially if you weren't stuck on a legacy platform like BES.Manch - Thursday, September 29, 2016 - link
QNX is very popular. Ford dumped MS for them. Most automakers use QNXkgardas - Thursday, September 29, 2016 - link
Sign! Why am I so different than majority that I *like* physical qwerty keyboard? Fortunately purchased passport silver few months ago since otherwise I don't know what I would use... :-(Murloc - Thursday, September 29, 2016 - link
the physical keyboard was put to rest forever when stuff like swiftkey came out.domboy - Thursday, September 29, 2016 - link
I hear you. I'd like to have a slide-out smartphone. Physical keyboard was more enjoyable to type on than a screen.lexluthermiester - Sunday, October 2, 2016 - link
I feel you. I have a Priv and love it! I still have the Motorola Photon Q, Droid 4 and Galaxy S Relay.Icehawk - Thursday, September 29, 2016 - link
Hard to believe BB even exists at this point, they haven't been relevant anywhere in a long time.Morawka - Thursday, September 29, 2016 - link
BB should just use android from now on, and make sure google play store apps are compatible.Ro_Ja - Thursday, September 29, 2016 - link
I wouldn't even complain about the Z10 if it only had an Android OS. Yes, it can run android apps but not all. I tried playing GTA: Vice City with it and the phone nearly got bricked lolBelard - Wednesday, October 5, 2016 - link
Years ago, back when they released their tablet against the (new then) iPad2. and then spend another 2~3 years before BB10 phones actually came to market.RIM/BB totally screwed up. People on this site saw the writing on the wall more so than those millionaire CEOs. So they bought another OS and bolted on a GUI. They wasted so much money and time doing stupid things and lost market share.
All they *HAD TO DO* for much cheaper, was GO Android and customize it with more security and use their hardware design (keyboard, etc). Their GUI for BB10 was quite nice (as was HP's iPad clone as well) - but its 6 years of crashing... Bye bye Blackberry.
iamkyle - Saturday, October 8, 2016 - link
It's s shame that so much vitriol has been directed at BlackBerry.The Priv is a fine handset. Well built, Android, and the physical keyboard!