The fall of RIM

DukeSox

absence hasn't made the heart grow fonder
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Dec 22, 2005
11,742
MentalDisabldLst said:
I give lots of fucks about a physical keyboard.  When the Motorola Droid 4 came out, I quickly used my renewal upgrade to get it, specifically because of the physical keyboard.  I type 5-10x faster using two thumbs than a single index finger.
 
But I wouldn't have done so without a touchscreen, full web browser support, app store, maps functionality, or any of the various things that make a modern smartphone really fucking useful.  Blackberries just feel like they're still intended to have character-based screens and were designed with that in mind.
Wait, you typed on your iphone using one finger and stabbing at the screen like a pigeon pecking at bread crumbs?  That's awesome.
 

Comfortably Lomb

Koko the Monkey
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Feb 22, 2004
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The Paris of the 80s
DukeSox said:
Wait, you typed on your iphone using one finger and stabbing at the screen like a pigeon pecking at bread crumbs?  That's awesome.
 
I know right? Physical keypads are faster but it's more than possible to use both thumbs with the iPhone. It takes some time to build up the hand-eye for it but anyone using a single finger has to be over age 60...
 

JakeRae

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Jul 21, 2005
8,125
New York, NY
I still wonder why no one is designing a high end Android device with a built in keyboard. I wouldn't think the engineering hurdle would be so large on designing an awesome slide out keyboard and building it into a flagship quality device. Such a device should be very appealing to business consumers and presumably could be sold for a premium over current flagships to account for the extra cost of a keyboard. 
 
I'd also be curious to see if Blackberry could succeed if they abandoned RIM and became a hardware company manufacturing Android devices. Would Blackberry users come back to their hardware if they had a better software ecosystem?
 

jayhoz

Ronald Bartel
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Jul 19, 2005
17,363
JakeRae said:
I still wonder why no one is designing a high end Android device with a built in keyboard. I wouldn't think the engineering hurdle would be so large on designing an awesome slide out keyboard and building it into a flagship quality device. Such a device should be very appealing to business consumers and presumably could be sold for a premium over current flagships to account for the extra cost of a keyboard. 
 
I'd also be curious to see if Blackberry could succeed if they abandoned RIM and became a hardware company manufacturing Android devices. Would Blackberry users come back to their hardware if they had a better software ecosystem?
 
Because "Twice as thick as your current phone!!" isn't a really great slogan.
 

Rudi Fingers

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Jul 18, 2005
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Adianoeta
I type with two thumbs on my Blackberry Z10 - most of the time, and it turns out that I can type about as quickly as my old Bold with a physical keyboard.  The autocorrect is excellent - but I still have to re-read my messages before hitting send, just in case.
 
The unexpected time saver - being able to occasionally use "flick" typing.  The suggestions for the next word show up where my fingers will be anyway - the next letter.  If I flick up, the word is instantly finished.  It is especially useful for replying to emails - things like the company name, acronyms, etc. are automatically farmed from the rest of the email thread, and used as suggestions for the next word.   Here's a screenshot from my phone:
 
 

Blacken

Robespierre in a Cape
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Jul 24, 2007
12,152
I type faster with SwiftKey or Swype than I ever did with a physical keyboard. The bigger story here is that the iPhone keyboard sucks.
 

Statman

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Jul 23, 2005
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I rarely type at all on my iPhone. No need to when Siri does it 10x faster when I dictate to her when sending an email or text message.
 

Fred not Lynn

Dick Button Jr.
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Jul 13, 2005
5,253
Alberta
It turns out that no one gives a fuck about a physical keyboard.  No one could have predicted that.  :p
 
I would give a fuck about the physical keyboard if it were designed properly. They had their chance and fucked it up with two mistakes; 1. The device was too wide for effective one hand typing and 2. The lack of a trackpad forced users to move their hand away from the keyboard to navigate the screen, which also makes one handed operation impossible. I was very disappointed that the device didn't work out for me...
 

SaveBooFerriss

twenty foreskins
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Feb 9, 2001
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Robin' it
I am not sure if they will be out of business in 1 year or more, but they will be out of business sometime in the near future.  I don't think there is any other case in which a Company has gone from having essentially 100% of the market share to zero percent of the market share as quickly as RIM.  
 
Edit: I am sure RIM didn't have 100% of the smartphone market, but it sure seemed that way before the iPhone was released.   
 

derekson

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Jun 26, 2010
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If not the whole market, they at least had enterprise smartphones basically to themselves.
 

Spelunker

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Jul 17, 2005
11,862
Honestly, in the worldwide 'smartphone' market, Nokia had fallen even further, just as fast. They've both been destroyed.
 

jayhoz

Ronald Bartel
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Jul 19, 2005
17,363
Honestly, in the worldwide 'smartphone' market, Nokia had fallen even further, just as fast. They've both been destroyed.


Don't worry. Microsoft will save them. Bwa ha ha ha!
 

RSN Diaspora

molests goats for comedy
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Jul 29, 2005
11,345
Washington, DC
What amazes me more than anything about the steep decline of RIM is how many times they've shit themselves. There were delays after delays after delays in rolling out products, a promised compatibility with Android that never materialized, and the products that they did finally get to market went over like a fart in church. Anybody know anyone who owns a PlayBook? Me neither.
 

Seven Costanza

Fred Astaire of SoSH
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Apr 11, 2007
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The BBM rollout on Android and iOS sure went well this weekend...
 
BBRY is not long for this world. 
 

NortheasternPJ

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Nov 16, 2004
19,271
What I can't figure out is why they think anyone gives a shit about BBM. I've had a blackberry for 4 years and haven't even setup BBM or know where it is on my phone. All US based (for the most part) all have unlimited texts thanks to iMessage blowing up that scene. What's the appeal of BBM again? Free mobile to mobile texting? Well that's no longer a big deal.
 

MiracleOfO2704

not AWOL
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Jul 12, 2005
9,528
The Island
That and gain control in the $2.6B in cash they have in their war chest. For as badly as they've done since the Storm 1, they aren't carrying debt; they're just hemorrhaging money.
 

jayhoz

Ronald Bartel
SoSH Member
Jul 19, 2005
17,363
Eddie Jurak said:
Why would anyone want to pay $4.7 billion for Blackberry?
 
They seem to have had second thoughts.
 
The deal has fallen apart.
The CEO is out.
The stock is down 15%
 

jayhoz

Ronald Bartel
SoSH Member
Jul 19, 2005
17,363
http://bgr.com/2014/01/27/blackberry-market-share-collapse/
 
 
In the United States, Kantar found that BlackBerry’s market share has fallen from 0.9% to 0.4% over the past year. In the five biggest European markets — the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy and Spain — BlackBerry’s market share fell from 3.7% to 1.5% over the past year.
Even more ominously, BlackBerry’s market share in Lain America’s three biggest markets of Brazil, Argentina and Mexico fell all the way from 10.3% in the fourth quarter of 2012 to just 2.8% in Q4 2013. This is particularly bad news because sales in emerging markets have been one of BlackBerry’s biggest success stories over the past couple of years.