BB is now done for me

[hescominsoon]

Well according to a report on WSJ the BB board aims to have the auction for the company over by november.  It's unfortunate because whomever gets BB will cannibalize it for their patents and technology.  Unless some white knight genuinely interested in leveraging the substantial benefits of BB10(which i doubt) BB is toasty.  I have to say that for now i have to say to everyone who said I was nuts..you're right.  I unfortunately now have to figure out which android device i want to get..

 

Unless something drastically changes i am not waiting for november and the z30..

[hescominsoon]

Unfortunately there's not an android device that i want either...so i'm waiting for something either bb10 or something else.

[WiWavelength]

BB is now done for you?  I guess the thrill is gone...

 

 

AJ

[maxsilver]

Well according to a report on WSJ the BB board aims to have the auction for the company over by november.  It's unfortunate because whomever gets BB will cannibalize it for their patents and technology.  Unless some white knight genuinely interested in leveraging the substantial benefits of BB10(which i doubt) BB is toasty.  I have to say that for now i have to say to everyone who said I was nuts..you're right.  I unfortunately now have to figure out which android device i want to get..

 

Unless something drastically changes i am not waiting for november and the z30..

If you like BB10, you could just buy it anyway. I think you'll be ok.

 

BB is trying to sell itself because the long-term future prospects are grim. But it's not like they've got a deadline. Unlike HTC or Nokia, BlackBerry has a lot of cash on hand, and little-to-no debt. They're not at risk of bankruptcy or anything for a long while (certainly long enough to get you through a 2 year contract).

 

I have the Q10, and while it's not for everyone, it think it's a really nice, solid device. Compared to my Photon Q, the Q10 gets *significantly* better battery life overall, and has swappable batteries. I can have a battery on a charger while using the phone. When I swap them, I can go from zero to 100% charge in 30 seconds. Nothing beats removable batteries

 

Compared to a Photon Q and Galaxy Note 2, the Q10 to me feels like it has significantly better reception / radios. I'm dropping calls less, and keeping usable data more often. The Note 2 feels a little faster, and has a much better screen. But the Q10 sofrware is a lot more stable (miss less calls and texts, Gmail doesn't crash on me, I don't occasionally find out Google Now ate my battery through the GPS, ect)

 

If you prefer an Android device, get one. But if you actually like BlackBerry 10 devices, and want one, simply buy one! Don't let a bored media FUD you out of a device you want.

 

BlackBerry isn't likely to pull support for your device (and in fact, the 10.2 software is coming out in just a few months -- or you can sideload the most recent leaked version today, without rooting or risking your device. It's significantly less risky, and *way* easier to install leaked BlackBerry OS's than it is to say, install Cyanogenmod on a Galaxy S4)

[hescominsoon]

we'll see.  if i can confirm the auction closing set at novemeber them whomever gets BB unless its one of a few companies is simply going to milk BB dry.  I'm not willing to be on a platform that's not being truly developed.  BB10 still ahve hte best out of the box security...we'll see what happens in nov with the z30.  If bb hasn't decalred itself sold i'll stick with the z30..if they do sellout i'll have to settle for some kind of andriod device.

[hescominsoon]

And the white knight could be..bberry going private.

http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=224195

 

and

http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=223530

[WiWavelength]

I will offer this question/perspective.  From an intellectual property standpoint, what does BlackBerry have valuable to offer at this point?  Most "push" e-mail is done via Microsoft ActiveSync now, since basically everyone in developed countries has access to a provider running Microsoft Exchange or compatible service (e.g. Gmail).  BlackBerry, on the other hand, with its BES/BIS model, was probably a great money maker in its day because it largely kept control with BlackBerry.  But that day seems to have passed.  Other than ActiveSync for "push" e-mail, smartphones no longer need a proxy service for other activities.  They are more than capable little computers themselves.

 

AJ

[maxsilver]

I will offer this question/perspective.  From an intellectual property standpoint, what does BlackBerry have valuable to offer at this point?  Most "push" e-mail is done via Microsoft ActiveSync now, since basically everyone in developed countries has access to a provider running Microsoft Exchange or compatible service (e.g. Gmail).  BlackBerry, on the other hand, with its BES/BIS model, was probably a great money maker in its day because it largely kept control with BlackBerry.  But that day seems to have passed.  Other than ActiveSync for "push" e-mail, smartphones no longer need a proxy service for other activities.  They are more than capable little computers themselves.

 

AJ

I don't see any value in any players "intellectual property". But there are two valuable things I see in BlackBerry that sets them apart from other players.

 

 

HARDWARE : The BlackBerry Q10 gives me fantastic battery life, it gives me hot-swappable batteries with a standalone charger, expandable storage, a well-designed radio and reception path, and a rock solid physical keyboard.

 

Most other phones drop most-to-all of those features. The Photon Q LTE, for example, has a pretty good physical keyboard. But it has a terrible battery, that's sealed into the device. No removable storage, and a terrible radio / reception path.

 

The closest Android phone I've found to match it is the Galaxy Note 2. It has decent, swappable batteries, and a standalone charger. Expandable storage, and an mid-range radio + reception path. (The Sprint version is better on that than the T-Mobile version). But no physical keyboard.

 

A lot of people will say 'on screen keyboards are faster / better', and that can be true. But I always get rather frustrated typing on glass. Even though I am technically faster on virtual keyboard, my frustration level is much higher on them (and lower on physical ones). Overall, I prefer the hardware keyboard, and am willing to pay a small premium to get it.

 

SOFTWARE : Your right from the consumer side -- There isn't any real draw. BlackBerry OS is pretty solid, but no more / less so than Windows Phone, Android, iOS, ect. And the app situation is probably always going to be bad.

 

I see BES as the main reason to stick with BlackBerry. It's *fantastic*, and since most people don't get to see the business-end of it, they don't get to see all the awesomeness in there.

 

It's easy to confuse the two. BIS is the consumer-only service. It's essentially identical to Android's cloud services, or Apple iCloud, or Windows SkyDrive + Outlook. BIS is pointless, and I'm totally fine with it leaving.

 

BES is a private version of BIS that costs nothing on your wireless bill, but gives you all the control over the cloud-portions of your device. BES is *awesome*. BES lets me restore all of my data (apps, user data, text messages, settings, even silly stuff like the wallpaper), with a single click, to a private storage location. You get full control over device security (remotely wipe some or all content). You get *real* VPN support. (Android for instance, has limited VPN support, but it can't handle a constant VPN connection, so you'll leak data over Wifi or Cellular. BlackBerry can force some-to-all application data to *always* go over VPN for improved security. It also lets you exclude apps, for example, you can force e-mail over VPN for security, but let YouTube run without VPN for better performance)

 

Other providers have somewhat similar features. (Android has 'cloud backup', for example). But BlackBerry's features are usually better here. BES is nice in that, you don't need to depend on anyone else's cloud. BES is your cloud, you run your own 'cloud', and need no other services.

 

If BlackBerry closes up shop tomorrow and shuts down every server, I loose no data because my own BES server keeps running, supporting all of my devices. If Google does down, GMail stops working. If BlackBerry goes down, my personal BES server keeps sending my e-mail around, no problem.

 

- - -

As a hardcore geek, this level of control appeals to me. This is a pretty big set of features that no other device can offer.

 

But as someone in the wireless industry, I'm not sure it's a huge competitive advantage. No user I've ever met could care less about any of the above stuff. (They certainly aren't ever running their own BES server).

 

Even a lot of companies don't really care about security as much as they like to pretend to. (They pretend to care about e-mail security, until the CXO demands e-mail on his iPad, and then they start poking holes in their network to let unencrypted data through). With companies looking to reduce costs, I don't see them issuing corporate phones as much as they used to.

 

- - -

 

BES, and a commitment to decent hardware, is the value in BlackBerry. However, most people don't really care about the values BlackBerry cares about, so I'm not sure what kind of cash they think they'll make. Their business caters to what was once a large market, but is now more of a niche market. I hope their chances improve, but I don't see a big win for them anytime soon.

[vlee]

hard to believe they could have fallen so hard, so fast

[The Dave]

I was always intrigued by BlackBerry until I got an Android phone. The issues that I had were the overly tiny keyboard and the fact that for a long time, you had to pay more to have a BlackBerry than a normal feature/smartphone. I couldn't justify paying for a BlackBerry plan until I saw the BlackBerry Storm on Verizon and came close to switching from T-Mobile and picking one up. Unfortunately, the demo model at the store was a buggy mess that kept freezing and that pretty much ended any interest that I had. Once the Samsung Moment came out on Sprint with a decent keyboard, I switched back to Sprint and haven't looked back from Android since.

[maxsilver]

I was always intrigued by BlackBerry until I got an Android phone. The issues that I had were the overly tiny keyboard and the fact that for a long time, you had to pay more to have a BlackBerry than a normal feature/smartphone. I couldn't justify paying for a BlackBerry plan until I saw the BlackBerry Storm on Verizon and came close to switching from T-Mobile and picking one up. Unfortunately, the demo model at the store was a buggy mess that kept freezing and that pretty much ended any interest that I had. Once the Samsung Moment came out on Sprint with a decent keyboard, I switched back to Sprint and haven't looked back from Android since.

 

It's kinda sad, because they've fixed most of that.

 

The new keyboard is normal-sized. The new BB10 os is way less buggy, and has modern API support (you could develop a modern app identical in features to iOS/Android/WP8/ect). The new BB's have awesome network support and crazy good reception (Paratek dynamic antennas - a huge improvement over my Galaxy Note 2's reception), and support full LTE. 

 

The Sprint version got botched (lots of blame all around, Sprint way delayed the release and broke visual voicemail, and BlackBerry didn't add full 800 network support). But on every other network, it's an excellent choice.

[hescominsoon]

Sprint's never supported visual voicemail unfortunately..however with their partnership with google i can get that functionality..i use it extensively..  Since the z30 supports EAS natively i should be able to integrate it directly into my google apps infrastructure.  I don't run a mail server locally...it actually costs me less to use google apps at 100/year..to get enough bandwidth here to run a mail server with decent speed would be 12 times that per year....I'm hoping there is a release announcement nov 1.  I have a phone that's literally falling apart and it needs to be replaced.  What i replace it with depends on BB and sprint.  

[WiWavelength]

I couldn't justify paying for a BlackBerry plan until I saw the BlackBerry Storm on Verizon and came close to switching from T-Mobile and picking one up.

Several years ago, the local VZW store put this up on its sign:

 

THE STORM

COME IN

AND SEE IT 

 

I wanted to take a photo and crop out the bottom line on the sign so that it read "THE STORM COME IN" as VZW hick grammar.

 

AJ

[The Dave]

Several years ago, the local VZW store put this up on its sign:

 

THE STORM

COME IN

AND SEE IT 

 

I wanted to take a photo and crop out the bottom line on the sign so that it read "THE STORM COME IN" as VZW hick grammar.

 

AJ

The Verizon corporate store here in town always uses hick grammar. I believe it currently reads something along the lines of "We got tablets sale buy now on 4g LTE"