Great keyboards are in our DNA. With BlackBerry Passport, we set out to create a smartphone that would break some cherished rules in order to set a new bar for real productivity. In particular, BlackBerry Passport’s keyboard will show there is an easier way to do more.
This is exactly the kind of stuff I want to see from BlackBerry: instead of trying to copy everyone else and build yet another black glass slab, they should build on their strength and go from there. The Passport looks to be exactly that. I have no idea if anyone cares or if it’s too late, but I love this thing.
I love the idea of it, but until it’s been in my hands, I have no way of knowing whether it’s a good thing in practice. Being different for the sake of it doesn’t guarantee you’ll make it very far, let alone to the top.
That said, I do hope this device, and the Blackberry Classic, help turn the company towards profits in the mobile space again. I still consider the last few Blackberry 7 based devices to be superior to the iPhone for business and government use, and though I haven’t used a BB10 device yet, I’d bet they are even better.
Of course, being wildly different has also killed devices before they even got out of the gate (Microsoft Kin, anyone?). Still, here’s to Blackberry and their eternal pursuit of the perfect keyboard bearing mobile business phone.
Edited 2014-07-11 17:46 UTC
I think you are right, that they may need to do something like this in order to stay in the public eye. It is too bad, as their “copy-cat” BB10 devices are actually really good, and innovate as much as they copy… but people don’t seem to get it, and don’t seem to want to try.
The older blackberries (OS7 and older) while great productivity machines, were no where near as sexy or as functional as iPhones and Androids. So many people associate that older blackberry experience with ‘the blackberry experience’. While some liked it, most realized how much better the iPHones and Androids were.
That is why BB10 was created. The main problem I see is that people speak negatively about blackberry because of an experience they had witha pre-BB10 device. They assume that 10 is just an incremental upgrade, and don’t understand that it was a complete re-write (not even in the same language; java vs C/C++). I have owne an iPhone, HCT One X, and Z30 in the last 1.5 years. The Z30 without question my favourite.
BB10 is a nice mix of Android and iOS IMHO. It has a very uniformly designed UI/UX like iOS, yet much less restrictive (i.e., Z30 has USB master mode, can connect to my bluetooth OSBDII scanner, connect to keyboard, NFC, HDMI, game controllers, etc which iPhone could not do). Android improve every year, but I still find the UI/UX clunky. Just bought a GS4 for my dad, and I was googling how to do stuff and I only got rid of my 1X 7 months ago!
The ‘app gap’ is a bit of an issue, but android apps for the most part run fine. They aren’t nearly as nice as the native apps, but they do ‘fill the gap’. Partnering with the Amazon Android/Music/Video store was a good move, but I do hope that native apps keep coming, as TAT ( http://www.tat.se/ ) has created a really nice UI framework for native apps.
The last problem Blackberry is having, which I see often, is sales reps. They are so biased towards the phone of their choice, no one really gets objective guidance from them. The teen girl who sold my Dad his Galaxy 4 told him “You don’t want to restrict yourself with bad battery life, and the limitations of iOS, so get an Android phone.” What?! Dad is coming from a 5 year old flip phone, that could barely do texting, I am pretty sure iOS would not constrain what he wants to do on a smart phone, I also highly doubt he would have battery issues with his usage pattern. Another rep said “Well you don’t want a blackberry, unless you are a just going to use it for email and texting, or just have to have keyboard with buttons.” Uhmmm well, for one, that isn’t true, and secondly your body language suggests you would think less of us, if he did choose the Blackberry. Another sales guy said that “Androids were basically just for hackers”. I think we are at a point where you really can’t lose with Android, iOS, BB10, or WP8, so I just let him make his own decision and bit my tongue.
I wish people wouldn’t be so narrow minded when making their decisions.
A friend of mine moved from a basic phone to an IPhone and later to get the features that she wanted moved to Android and is loving it.
So guess which phone she would recommend to a person buying their first smart phone. The Apple IPhone!
She thinks it is a better phone for a beginner to learn, then when it is time to renew the contract that is when you consider you needs, wants and wishes. Then look over what is offer now that you know something about smart phones and choose then.
For many sticking to the IPhone is what they want, to others we now have a range of choices – but know you know something instead of blindly buying something.
Edited 2014-07-13 18:00 UTC
You talk as though the success of BB lived and died with consumers buying personal phones. BB always had a stranglehold in business, but when BB10 came out my company wouldn’t support it due to the requirement to upgrade the server side. I would have loved to try a BB10 device. Instead I had the choice of BB7, iPhone, or Android. For me, BB7 wasn’t even a contender.
I’ve used both Android and iPhone since, and they’ve all been work phones. I won’t carry around two phones, and I won’t go back to BB7.
Nothing to this day is faster or better than the M series when i type. My kbd has been with me since 1983, i would not change for almost anything.
It is just amazingly great for mu usage.
Shame about the “mu usage” typo (he typed on a Model M).
Bring back phones with keyboards, dammit. Some of us aren’t children who just watch videos, play games & type comments lacking punctuation and capitalisation.
Then you should see how bad i type on other keyboards.
:¬)
I know that feeling. I am a fast typist, but very very inaccurate…