BlackBerry 10 Launch Event to be Held on January 30th 2013

http://press.rim.com/newsroom/press/2012/blackberry-10-launch-event-to-be-held-on-january-30th-2013.html

by willfarrell • 14 years ago

22 20 14 years ago

press.rim.com

Here's the question that's critical for both Windows 8 and BB10 - is having a good product enough anymore?

By most accounts WP8 is pretty good and we can give RIM the benefit of the doubt and assume BB10 will be pretty good as well. But are consumers going to care? Is that enough to move a significant number of units? Other than being different, what exactly are these platforms offering? I've read through the new and exciting features - preditive keyboards, email at a glance, good multititasking - and all I think is "neat, but I've been doing that on my phone for years"

It seems that while WP8 and BB10 are still trying to nail down the "modern OS on decent hardware" problem, iOS and Android have moved on to the next level of competition - ecosystems (iTunes, Google Play) and smart services (Siri and Google Now).

activepeanut• 14 years ago

About a hundred years ago you could've asked the same questions of the car industry.

I'm not a fan of RIM, but the iPhone might just be today's Ford Model T.

twerquie• 14 years ago

Your perspective is refreshing, however it's worth noting that the automotive market doesn't have the same network effects as mobile computing. All cars take the same gasoline and oil for the most part.

thedrbrian• 14 years ago

So that makes a blackberry walking without shoes?

gnufied• 14 years ago

I can't speak for WP8 but Blackberry still has customers who although have switched to Android/iPhone, loved their blackberries. And there is a case of, many corporates still using Blackberries. The land has been sliding but if RIM can win those users back, there is hope.

Now I see the ecosystem problem,but for RIM (or anyone willing to enter Mobile OS market), it is a chicken and egg problem. They can't move onto next step, unless they have a strong phone. So nobody knows if BB10 is going to work, but at the moment, it seems like a good idea.

drivebyacct22• 14 years ago

I'm not even sure "good enough" is good enough. As everyone is mentioning, the ecosystem is a large force driving consumer choice. WP8 suffers from the same problem that RT devices are going to suffer from. Lack of ecosystem. In my opinion, WP8 functionality is still long behind Android and the experience, while impressive given WP8's age, is really not compelling over Android 4.0-4.2.

"Why should I buy a WP?" is a question I've yet to have answered well except for the single person I know that uses Outlook.com and Skydrive.

potatolicious2• 14 years ago

Just bought a Surface over the weekend to develop on, and you're absolutely on the money.

Win8 (on tablet, desktop is something else entirely) suffers tremendously from lack of ecosystem. I expected at least a few of the big brands to offer apps - but no Spotify, no Rdio, no Pandora (making the device musically useless), no Yelp, no Facebook... makes me wonder what exactly the point of the device is for the average user.

The browser on the Surface is the best I've ever used on a mobile device. It is fast, responsive, and unlike iOS tabbed browsing feels like a first-class feature instead of an afterthought. Compatibility with desktop sites is also top-notch.

So really what I have sitting on my desk right now is a touch-based browsing machine with an ingenious keyboard... and not much else. I love the design on this thing, and I really want the whole "powerhouse tablet" notion to take off, but there are so many pieces missing that I just don't see how.

Side note: after playing with the SDK for a weekend I'm starting to come to the realization that MS's dev ecosystem may be a liability for them. I've been thinking about putting together some easy apps that would provide some basic expected functionality (IM?), but the open source ecosystem essentially does not exist at all in the .NET world. I've run into page after page of commercial, proprietary libs to do even reasonably basic things and scant few open source ones I can take advantage of.

Both iOS and Android have benefited tremendously from a large, comprehensive open source stack making the lives of app builders easier. Win8 in its current state feels like I need to invent the internal combustion engine to build a car.

ebbv2• 14 years ago

They need to do more than just attempt to play catch up to iOS and Android. I think this is where WP8 really fails; it doesn't revolutionize.

The time is long past when it's enough to just say "Me too!", you have to do what the iPhone did in 2007; change the game. If BB10 doesn't do that, it's not going to save RIM.

UnoriginalGuy• 14 years ago

I agree but they might not be able to afford to make something revolutionary.

I mean if they even want to ship any units at all right now they either need to pick Android or WP8. Now from rumour Microsoft are literally paying manufacturers (as opposed to Google who just give it away).

I think RIM are just trying to stay alive right now, they can consider their competitive edge later.

ebbv2• 14 years ago

They're not going to stay alive if they don't introduce something revolutionary now.

Doing something revolutionary doesn't require tons of money, companies with far fewer resources than RIM introduce revolutionary products all the time. In fact I'd say most innovation comes from startups working on a shoestring budget.

dmritard96• 14 years ago

buy or sell?

espitia• 14 years ago

For RIM to have any chance at being the market leader once again they must do what the iPhone did to the mobile industry back when it was first introduced. Anything under that just means a slower death.

What could it be? I believe making a phone itself is useless at this point. Why not look in to Pranav Mistry's SixthSense? Something of this caliber is what is needed to make the 'next big thing'. Competing in Apple/Google playing field is futile, a new field is needed.

Although I had high hopes for RIM (ex bb user), I highly doubt their execs are even in this mindset^^^.

easternmonk• 14 years ago

For years RIM has mistreated their customers. They real "customers" are the businesses who buy phones for their employees and not the employee themselves. That is what has hurt them the most.

BB10 is their last hope of survival. So far I have not see anything ground breaking with this phone and being the first model it is likely to be far from perfect. If their latest BB10 phone does not match Samsung Galaxy S3 in specs I would say it is pretty useless.

mjs• 14 years ago

"The BlackBerry® 10 platform has recently achieved FIPS 140-2 certification"--not sure how meaningful this is if you can become certified months before the final hardware/software is available...

eli• 14 years ago

Well, I'd imagine it's critically important for customers who can't even consider devices without the certification (i.e. some parts of the federal government). I don't believe any iPhones or Androids currently meet the standard, so it's actually kind of a big deal.

BlackBerry 10 Launch Event to be Held on January 30th 2013

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