BlackBerry Teases Unnamed Curved-Screen Slider At MWC 2015

[alex davies]

BlackBerry flashes a new device with a slide-out keyboard and large curved-edge screen at MWC 2015.

BlackBerry Teases Unnamed Curved-Screen Slider At MWC 2015 : Read more

 

[andre_888]

I speak fewer bad words when I use my BlackBerry. QWERTY keyboards are more satisfying to use than a touch screen.

It would be nice for media keys to return. There is something to be said about being able to change tracks, or fast forward, without looking at a screen.

 

[chicofehr]

The only thing holding them back now is the US. They are doing ok everywhere else in the world. But the US is the biggest spender on phones & it hurts them not to be popular there. Unfortunately most people in the US think of BlackBerry from the OS5/6 days. They on 10.3.1 now which is a very modern OS that is nothing like the older.

 

[sykozis]

Blackberry launched the Z10 with the same issues as previous Blackberry phones. They were plagued with instability and lacked apps available on every other platform. The few apps that they had, were largely overpriced. I jumped on the Z10 the week it was launched. After 2 months of having to pull the battery regularly, I didn't have a choice but to get rid of my Z10. It's build quality was vastly superior to any Android phone available at the time, but it's OS just didn't function properly and lacked too many features/apps. If Blackberry wants to get a foothold in the US, they need to step up their game.

 

[thundervore]

The problem with BB is not the hardware or software is the corporate adoption rate.

For instance, most companies out there are still using BES 5 licenses, for them to use these new devices the need BES10 licenses and BES10 servers. If RIM would let companies migrate all their BES5 licenses to BES10 licenses for free many more companies would jump on it.

This means they will buy new hardware and BES10 servers. But to buy new licenses, hardware, and servers that's too much for some companies.

 

[chicofehr]

@sykozis
Yes they ruined the launch with a unfinished OS. That's why I waited for the 10.2 to be out and loaded the leaked 10.2.1 the day I got it and its amazing. 10.3.1 is best OS ever and runs most android apps very well.
If they had it out with 10.3.1 on day one it wouldn't have made a difference. I know for a fact that there is a negative social stigma to owning a Blackberry in the US. People are ashamed to admit to using one as its not considered acceptable and its uncool. I was in the US and I pull out a blackberry and people start staring at me like i'm some weirdo or crazy man LOL I guess I should hide in a corner so people don't see me with it. Actually I pulled out a Q10 then pulled out a Z30 and they stared even more. Wish I recorded it. Never get that reaction in Canada but Blackberry is more acceptable here.

 

[sykozis]

My first smartphone was a BB Pearl.... It was an amazing phone for it's time. The only issue was the freezing and lack of apps. The BB Z10 had considerably better build quality, but the user experience was the same. Constant freezing and lack of apps. According to my phone, it (the Z10) received OS updates almost daily for the 2 months I had it but it's usability never improved. The OS was actually in worse shape when I finally got rid of the phone. It had gone from freezing once a day, to freezing nearly once an hour. I had my Pearl for almost 18 months when I finally got rid of it. On it's worst days, it only frozen 2-3 times a day. Prior to buying the Z10, I picked up a BB Playbook. Of course, as soon as I got it BB announced that it would received BBOS10.....then recanted, then dropped support for the Playbook entirely. That's part of the reason people in the US will never flock to Blackberry. The Playbook had the potential to be big.....but Blackberry made all the wrong decisions and said all the wrong things. It's still a nice tablet, it just doesn't have any apps to make it useful. I've had the Playbook, Galaxy Tab 3 8.0 and a Toshiba Win8 tablet. My son even has a 7" Kindle FireHD. The Playbook has the best build quality, but is the most useless because there's no real apps available for it. The lack of apps is literally the ONLY downside to it.

Enough of that rank. For Blackberry to ever get back to where they used to be, they need to offer something special. Something unique. They also have to offer it before Android and iOS manage to implement it. Right now, they offer nothing that Android and iOS don't aside from no ecosystem and a minuscule app store. Even Android has gestures.....and unlike the Z10 at launch, Android's gestures actually work properly. Blackberry also has to offer their phones at reasonable prices for their features. My Z10 was almost $600 while comparable (more "feature complete") Android phones were in the $250-$350 price range. A proper app store is also a must.