What does everyone think? The specs aren't DOA like previous blackberry devices. In a world where the 5.5" Galaxy Note2 is selling very well, I think the demand for 3" screen and hard keyboard is dead. RIMM stock dropped 20% since they announced this yesterday.
The ones without the keyboard might be OK and I suspect I will end up in a phone shop at some point and have a play with the OS but like you I think the keyboard style is really old fashioned and very ugly. Waste of time.
The Z10 has actually been getting some gushy reviews. Apparently they have some sort of "conversion" program for Android apps that makes it easier for developers to provide BlackBerry versions. That sounded a bit iffy to me, but maybe it works reasonably well.
The z10 looks quite nice but I'm not sure about the OS. Doesn't it use some sort of wrapper for android apps? I miss real buttons on phones but the larger screens are nice. I use a gesture keyboard but I miss texting without having to look at the screen.
The Blackberry 10 might just save Blackberry, at least for a bit longer. Most government agencies have been looking to bail out onto an Android or Apple platform but I think the new security features will be tempting enough to stick with Blackberry for a few more years.
Blackberry's problem has been summed up this way: their all-time best quarter for smartphone sales was around 2 million, but that number isn't very big compared to the current size of the market, which means that they can't rely on prior Crackberry era customers to be a viable competitor. They have to convince people who never bought a Blackberry before that they're better than Android or iOS devices.
RIM/Blackberry is a has been dinosaur company that's probably going to croak in the next couple of years and get bought for its patents. They were big with enterprise at one time, but enterprise is largely moving to a bring your own device model these days.
I think a lot of the 'youths' still use BB because of the BBM service. Never understood it myself as you have to pay for it anyway.
The 10 has a few features that are useful in the business world. It has a Balance feature which allows for a user to run the Blackberry in personnel or work mode. Personal mode can't access data in the work mode and work mode can't access data in personal mode. This could appeal to people like myself which carry both a work and personal phone. It also has app permission built in. You'd have to root an android device to get that.
Were you a Crackberry? I couldn't type on my BB without looking, but I was a T9 savant I could text while my phone was still in my pocket.
On my palm pre with that tiny chiclet keyboard that I typed on with my fingernails, I eventually was able to get to a point where I was typing without looking at the keys. But yeah, t9 and pre t9 days were the impressive years. It almost felt safe driving and typing during that time since you'd still have eyes on the road.
Re: Re: Blackberry 10 No, I was a Nokia and Samsung man back in the day. T9 physical keys were amazing for texting blind. I could fill 160 characters in seconds