The final fruit - Blackberry teases new phone

[williamcll]

 

Blackberry has been seen as a dead company for years ever since they started losing sales to typical smartphones and that support for earlier OSes have ended as well. It seems that they still have something to give out this year.

Quotes

Quote

When the partnership between BlackBerry and TCL ended, many people thought they would never see BlackBerry smartphones anymore. However, 7 months later, BlackBerry reached a partnership with OnwardMobility. This agreement gives BlackBerry the license to produce BlackBerry phones. According to a recent report, OnwardMobility claims that BlackBerry 5G phones with keyboards are still in development. The official said, “Although we have encountered obstacles and various delays, we will still bring BlackBerry 5G phones to the market.”

 

My thoughts

I knew blackberry was facing difficulties the moment TCL started selling their own brand of phones. Hopefully this have some impressive hardware or else it's going to be dead on arrival.

 

Sources

https://www.onwardmobility.com/blog/contrary-to-popular-belief/

https://www.gizchina.com/2022/01/10/blackberry-5g-phone-with-a-keyboard-is-still-in-development/

[Lightwreather]

2 minutes ago, williamcll said:

Blackberry has been seen as a dead company for years

Wait, you're saying that Blackberry isn't dead?

 

Huh, Must be a parallel universe /s

But really, I want to know if it comes witha  physical keypad or not?

[jaslion]

Blackberry still has some name relevance so literally just make a simple good phone with a standout feature (sliding keyboard). It will sell. Probably not amazingly but it will sell if priced right and it should not be too expensive to lure the people that want to try a physical keyboard back in.

 

Or literally make a blackberry bold kai os phone. It will sell as the feature phone for a bunch of people. Then move on from there.

[RejZoR]

38 minutes ago, J-from-Nucleon said:

Wait, you're saying that Blackberry isn't dead?

 

Huh, Must be a parallel universe /s

But really, I want to know if it comes witha  physical keypad or not?

It's about as "not dead" as Nokia is these days. Iirc some company bought the Blackberry name and it'll probably just churn out bunch of Android phones under that name and charge stupid premium for low end specs just because of the name. It's how Nokia (HMD) rolls and it seems they are doing great.

[Mihle]

39 minutes ago, RejZoR said:

It's about as "not dead" as Nokia is these days. Iirc some company bought the Blackberry name and it'll probably just churn out bunch of Android phones under that name and charge stupid premium for low end specs just because of the name. It's how Nokia (HMD) rolls and it seems they are doing great.

Before their newest phones, HMD was not charging stupid amounts for low end specs, they was charging the same as others in the market for the specs, at least here. The Nokia 20 or whatever it's called is badly priced/specced tho.

 

As of Nokia itself, as a hole, not phones, is much bigger than Blackberry. Or about 24x the yearly revenue.

 

 

[Elijah Kamski]

I just hope they don't become Apple.

[CTR640]

2 hours ago, J-from-Nucleon said:

Wait, you're saying that Blackberry isn't dead?

 

Huh, Must be a parallel universe /s

But really, I want to know if it comes witha  physical keypad or not?

Universe? That's mainstream. Metaverse it is!

[maplepants]

35 minutes ago, Elijah Kamski said:

I just hope they don't become Apple.

I'd love to see a company other than Apple succeed in the smartphone market by making their own hardware and software. I was kind of hoping it would be Google or Samsung, but Google struggles making popular hardware and Samsung struggles making popular software.

 

Obviously it's been a long time since anyone cared about Blackberry, but they at least have the name recognition so that if they launch something legitimately good it'll have a chance to get some coverage and enough buzz to get the ball rolling. 

[RejZoR]

45 minutes ago, maplepants said:

I'd love to see a company other than Apple succeed in the smartphone market by making their own hardware and software. I was kind of hoping it would be Google or Samsung, but Google struggles making popular hardware and Samsung struggles making popular software.

 

Obviously it's been a long time since anyone cared about Blackberry, but they at least have the name recognition so that if they launch something legitimately good it'll have a chance to get some coverage and enough buzz to get the ball rolling. 

How is Samsung not the perfect Apple alter ego? They design their own stuff, they are always considered top of the line for Android segment, they have the longest software support in the Android segment and days of TouchWiz are long gone. It's why I always say, if I'm not gonna be using an iPhone I'll most likely use a Samsung phone. Sure there are 300 Chinese phone makers who all flash amazing specs for less money than the rest, but they aren't that much cheaper anymore and ALL of them without exception are absolute shit when it comes to software, especially long term support. They all have "3 years" with bunch of asterisks, conditions and arbitrary rules. No thanks, been there twice, I won't be 3 times. It's so bad in Android segment I rather deal with Apple's idiocies than deal with all the bullshit with Android and how everyone treats its updates as last thing in the world they care about.

[maplepants]

4 minutes ago, RejZoR said:

How is Samsung not the perfect Apple alter ego? They design their own stuff, they are always considered top of the line for Android segment, they have the longest software support in the Android segment and days of TouchWiz are long gone. 

Software. If we imagine two people completely kitted out in Samsung and Apple gear the hardware spec sheet might look pretty similar, but the software experience for the all Apple user offers features that the all Galaxy user cannot match.

 

The Apple user can copy text on their phone and paste it on their Mac. They can watch a TV show on their iPad using their AirPods then when they get a phone call just answer their iPhone knowing the iPad will pause and the AirPods will switch to the phone. Once the phone call is done, you can resume the video and the AirPods will switch right back to the iPad. Depending on the length of the call, this will be automatic. 

 

On the Samsung side, the phone is aware of the watch but has no idea about the laptop, or the tablet, and only knows about the headphones while the headphones are connected to it. If your headphones are connected to your Galaxy tab and you get a phone call your tablet has no idea, nor do your headphones. If Samsung made their own software (either their own OS or a more modified Android fork) they could add many if not all of the ecosystem benefits that Apple has. 

 

We could be living in a world where your Galaxy buds pair to one device and are thereby paired to all your Galaxy devices, you can use SMS from your Galaxy Book S, and your Galaxy Watch4 does all the Galaxy Flow stuff by default with all Samsung Galaxy tablets and laptops. But currently, Samsung has decided not to make these heavy investments in software.

 

I think the ecosystem benefits offered by Apple are really great, and I'd love to see somebody else build out something similar. Samsung already makes enough devices that they could do it, but they just don't seem to be willing to put the money into at right now. But if they did, it would probably even be a better ecosystem that Apple has since they make so many more products.

[rcmaehl]

Blackberry_IRL

 

 

 

[Spindel]

As long as BB runs Android they are a dead horse. 
 

Just another android phone. None of what made BB to what BB was.

[suicidalfranco]

1 minute ago, Spindel said:

As long as BB runs Android they are a dead horse. 
 

Just another android phone. None of what made BB to what BB was.

If they run anything but android they are a dead horse.

Tired of people screaming competition and the first complaint the have when competition comes is "but it's not iOS/android".

[Salv8 (sam)]

10 hours ago, williamcll said:

we will still bring BlackBerry 5G phones to the market

i very much doubt that, they gonna be dead before they even release anything relating to these devices.

[dizmo]

Blackberry is still alive, strong, and doing very well. They just don't make phones anymore. 

 

11 hours ago, J-from-Nucleon said:

Wait, you're saying that Blackberry isn't dead?

 

Huh, Must be a parallel universe /s

But really, I want to know if it comes witha  physical keypad or not?

Seems to, according to the name of the second source link. 

10 hours ago, RejZoR said:

It's about as "not dead" as Nokia is these days. Iirc some company bought the Blackberry name and it'll probably just churn out bunch of Android phones under that name and charge stupid premium for low end specs just because of the name. It's how Nokia (HMD) rolls and it seems they are doing great.

TCL did quite well at designing solid hardware. It's just, no one wants physical keyboards anymore. 

9 hours ago, Mihle said:

Before their newest phones, HMD was not charging stupid amounts for low end specs, they was charging the same as others in the market for the specs, at least here. The Nokia 20 or whatever it's called is badly priced/specced tho.

 

As of Nokia itself, as a hole, not phones, is much bigger than Blackberry. Or about 24x the yearly revenue. 

Revenue =/= success. With your example, Blackberry's net profit is 2.5x that of Nokia. So who's the real winner? 

 

LOL. Hole. 

8 hours ago, maplepants said:

I'd love to see a company other than Apple succeed in the smartphone market by making their own hardware and software. I was kind of hoping it would be Google or Samsung, but Google struggles making popular hardware and Samsung struggles making popular software.

 

Obviously it's been a long time since anyone cared about Blackberry, but they at least have the name recognition so that if they launch something legitimately good it'll have a chance to get some coverage and enough buzz to get the ball rolling. 

Not nearly enough people would want it to make it worthwhile. People want, and often need Play Store apps. Without that, as a smartphone it's pointless. 

5 hours ago, Spindel said:

As long as BB runs Android they are a dead horse. 
 

Just another android phone. None of what made BB to what BB was.

The keyboard is what people loved about BlackBerry. Really, any company could make something similar on Android and succeedlockquote widget

[Spindel]

12 hours ago, suicidalfranco said:

If they run anything but android they are a dead horse.

Tired of people screaming competition and the first complaint the have when competition comes is "but it's not iOS/android".

And that is why BB is dead, they are just a brand name that means nothing on another Android phone. They might as well be an app maker for Android and iOS for their USP.   

 

7 hours ago, dizmo said:

The keyboard is what people loved about BlackBerry. Really, any company could make something similar on Android and succeedlockquote widget

People on tech forums claim that, yet every time an android phone comes out with a physical keyboard it fails because most people in the real world do not want any physical keyboard. 

 

To quote Steve Balmer at the reveal of the first iPhone:

Quote

"Five hundred dollars? Fully subsidized with a plan?" "That is the most expensive phone in the world. And it doesn't appeal to business customers because it doesn't have a keyboard, which makes it not a very good e-mail machine."

Most "tech people" simply don't understand or acknowledge what most normal people want. 

[maplepants]

15 hours ago, dizmo said:

Not nearly enough people would want it to make it worthwhile. People want, and often need Play Store apps. Without that, as a smartphone it's pointless. 

Writing a whole new OS is not the only option to building out an ecosystem for someone like Samsung. Using the same Android features handset makers already use to fill their phones with garbage apps, Samsung could install Samsung Flow, some AirDrop equivalent, an app for managing your Galaxy Buds like AirPods, and  their own SMS app which when paired with some Windows app pre-installed on their laptops lets you send SMS from your PC as well as some internet messaging. A total of 4 apps.

 

The point isn't that somebody needs to write their own new OS, just that I'd like to see an Android device maker put some effort into software and building an Apple-style ecosystem where the devices are away of and can interact with one another.

 

Imagine if pairing your Samsung Galaxy Buds to your Galaxy S21 immediately paired them to your Galaxy Tab, Galaxy Book, and Galaxy Watch, you could wirelessly transfer (AirDrop style) any arbitrary file between your Galaxy devices, all of the Samsung Flow features worked out of the box, and Samsung had their own iMessage equivalent that did chat & calls installed on all the Galaxy devices by default. It would really change the smartphone market in a huge way.

 

Right now, Apple sells way more iPhones than they do computers and so iPhone + Windows laptop is an extremely common setup. Imagine if switching to Samsung and installing the "Samsung Suite" onto your computer gave you even half the integration that iPhone + Mac gets you. It would be amazing for those users and light a serious fire under every phone maker to up their software game if they want to keep selling 1000€ devices.

[dizmo]

9 hours ago, Spindel said:

People on tech forums claim that, yet every time an android phone comes out with a physical keyboard it fails because most people in the real world do not want any physical keyboard. 

 

To quote Steve Balmer at the reveal of the first iPhone:

Most "tech people" simply don't understand or acknowledge what most normal people want. 

It's true. The reason that Android phones with physical keyboards don't do that well is because on screen keyboards have gotten leaps and bounds better over the years for many reasons (better software, better layouts, better prediction, larger phones giving more space for the keyboard, etc). I'd have never considered getting a touch screen only phone back in the early days of Android.

2 hours ago, maplepants said:

Writing a whole new OS is not the only option to building out an ecosystem for someone like Samsung. Using the same Android features handset already use to fill their phones with garbage apps, Samsung could install Samsung Flow, some AirDrop equivalent, an app for managing your Galaxy Buds like AirPods, their own SMS app which when paired with some Windows app pre-installed on their laptops lets you send SMS from your PC as well as some internet messaging.

 

The point isn't that somebody needs to write their own new OS, just that I'd like to see an Android device maker put some effort into software and building an Apple-style ecosystem where the devices are away of and can interact with one another.

 

Imagine if pairing your Samsung Galaxy Buds to your Galaxy S21 immediately paired them to your Galaxy Tab, Galaxy Book, and Galaxy Watch, you could wirelessly transfer (AirDrop style) any arbitrary file between your Galaxy devices, all of the Samsung Flow features worked out of the box, and Samsung had their own iMessage equivalent that did chat & calls installed on all the Galaxy devices by default. It would really change the smartphone market in a huge way.

 

Right now, Apple sells way more iPhones than they do computers and so iPhone + Windows laptop is an extremely common setup. Imagine if switching to Samsung and installing the "Samsung Suite" onto your computer gave you even half the integration that iPhone + Mac gets you. It would be amazing for those users and light a serious fire under every phone maker to up their software game if they want to keep selling 1000€ devices.

I mean, I get what you're saying, but is it really that big of a deal for most users? Probably not. IIRC Samsung stuff already interacts pretty well together. There's also already an Android AirDrop equivalent. I don't see a huge need for iMessage equivalents either, as WhatsApp and tons of other chat applications already give that functionality. Would people use one specific to Samsung? Sure, maybe. But why. It just fragments everyone even more. It doesn't solve a problem, it simply creates another one.

[suicidalfranco]

13 hours ago, dizmo said:

I mean, I get what you're saying, but is it really that big of a deal for most users? Probably not. IIRC Samsung stuff already interacts pretty well together. There's also already an Android AirDrop equivalent. I don't see a huge need for iMessage equivalents either, as WhatsApp and tons of other chat applications already give that functionality. Would people use one specific to Samsung? Sure, maybe. But why. It just fragments everyone even more. It doesn't solve a problem, it simply creates another one.

because ever since apple. people have grown this idea that one company should do everything and you should only consume from one specific company to get "the best experience".

Only reason why people are so desperate to see google's pixel succeed, even though it's constantly been one of the worst line of phones out there, have yet to see one that isn't plagued with the issues. Even the new tech-tuber poster child doesn't veer far off from the tradition

 

 

[maplepants]

17 hours ago, dizmo said:

I mean, I get what you're saying, but is it really that big of a deal for most users? Probably not. IIRC Samsung stuff already interacts pretty well together. There's also already an Android AirDrop equivalent. I don't see a huge need for iMessage equivalents either, as WhatsApp and tons of other chat applications already give that functionality. Would people use one specific to Samsung? Sure, maybe. But why. It just fragments everyone even more. It doesn't solve a problem, it simply creates another one.

Android's Share Nearby has been announced, but as far as I know isn't out yet. Even Samsung's Quick Share is just for phones, and doesn't work on their tablets or laptops. The real beauty of AirDrop is that I can get files, urls, text, anything, extremely easily from my iPhone to one of my other Apple devices or any of my family member's devices. When I AirDrop my wife a link she just clicks "Accept" and it pops open in Chrome (her default browser) without any fuss. 

 

Samsung stuff doesn't really work well together, compared with iOS stuff. The Galaxy Buds vs AirPods are an easy example. You pair your AirPods to your iPhone and they're automatically paired with the rest of your Apple devices. Galaxy Buds must be paired with each device one at a time, and the process of switching between devices isn't nearly as smooth. But it doesn't have to be. Samsung is literally writing software for these devices, they could just spend more resources to write better software and offer a better experience.

 

You're probably right about an iMessage requirement being pretty minor, but I do still think there are many ways which Samsung could add features that benefit users who buy more than one of their devices. It's not something that makes Samsung or other Android devices broken or anything, it's just a way to improve their devices that personally I think would be really cool.

 

4 hours ago, suicidalfranco said:

because ever since apple. people have grown this idea that one company should do everything and you should only consume from one specific company to get "the best experience".

Only reason why people are so desperate to see google's pixel succeed, even though it's constantly been one of the worst line of phones out there, have yet to see one that isn't plagued with the issues. Even the new tech-tuber poster child doesn't veer far off from the tradition

Personally, I don't think every company needs to make everything. But, I do think that companies who already make everything should take advantage of the opportunities this gives them. 

 

If you're making bluetooth headphones, phones, and tablets why not consider the user experience of people who've bought each of the devices?

 

And speaking as somebody who continually holds out hope that Google will finally make a good phone, I think it's because they have enough money to do it and I just want to see more cool phones out there. I was also one of the suckers who hoped that the Windows Phone would succeed, and hoped that RIM would actually offer something compelling when they switched to Android as their OS.

[wall03]

On 1/10/2022 at 8:31 AM, Elijah Kamski said:

I just hope they don't become Apple.

Well, I do. Apple needs some competition. What's wrong with BB becoming Apple?

[jaslion]

On 1/10/2022 at 3:59 PM, RejZoR said:

How is Samsung not the perfect Apple alter ego? They design their own stuff, they are always considered top of the line for Android segment, they have the longest software support in the Android segment and days of TouchWiz are long gone. It's why I always say, if I'm not gonna be using an iPhone I'll most likely use a Samsung phone. Sure there are 300 Chinese phone makers who all flash amazing specs for less money than the rest, but they aren't that much cheaper anymore and ALL of them without exception are absolute shit when it comes to software, especially long term support. They all have "3 years" with bunch of asterisks, conditions and arbitrary rules. No thanks, been there twice, I won't be 3 times. It's so bad in Android segment I rather deal with Apple's idiocies than deal with all the bullshit with Android and how everyone treats its updates as last thing in the world they care about.

For me it's the software and their forced integration of all their own versions of what google has creating an identity crisis and a mess when one of the 2 voice assistants suddenly activates when it was supposed to be the other and all that stuff.

 

It's noticeable in all their products. They are their own devices and don't feel like an integrated ecosystem. Surely not on the level of apple.

 

The 5 years of android support tho hell yes. That is just epic. The whole update thing is also a problem because of chip manufacturers dropping support after a couple years and then anyone using those chips is sol