Stick a Fork in Blackberry, They're Done

I actually haven't addressed that issue at all. Why would I? Your statistics prove that I was wrong.

But you used them to argue something the stats don't support, which is that only 6% of Blackberry users like the new phones. Your data doesn't say that, which is why I argued the point. Do we know how many total Blackberry users traded in their phone? No, we do not. Do we know why they did or did not trade in the phone? No information. Do we know whether the people who traded for non-Blackberries did so under the original program, which only allowed for a non-Blackberry replacement?

I'm not an OS fetishest, and certainly not for BBOS, as I'm only on my first Blackberry. But you mischaracterized the data, so I called you on it.

Humor, it is a difficult concept.

If you read the article, you'll see that the 6% retention figure continued after Blackberry users were able to trade for a newer Blackberry. One would think that Blackberry would counter this news with figures showing that Blackberry sales were up at other carriers. Instead, the CEO of Blackberry says that the company has only a 50/50 chance of surviving. And Windows Phone now has a larger marketshare in the US than Blackberry. (Which is surprising. I mean, Windows Phone is just awful.)

Still not getting what I'm saying, but that's fine.

Meet the Blackberry Seppuku Passport.

That looks really... bulky. It looks too small to be a tablet, but too large to fit in a standard pocket. Hmm...

That's kind of strange looking, much larger than mine, which I bought in part because I wanted something small. Perhaps I will make my quarterly visit to one of the fanboy sites, in case there is any useful insight.

I will add, that sharp corners are rarely a good idea for something that's going into your pocket, or being held in the hand.

Okay, did a quick scan of crackberry.com comments. They also have a ton of pictures. Anyway, the passport looks less clunky in a person's hand. Still too big for me, but then I find most phones to be too big. Interestingly, the keyboard is both physical and virtual. There is a fourth row that appears on the screen when typing is active. Not for me, but a lot of fanboys were drooling, so it may sell reasonably well.

IMHO, they need to get rid of the ginormous bezel at the top.

Yeah, this photo of the Passport looks far less offensive than the one posted by Tuckerfan:



Doesn't look much bigger than that Samsung Galaxy Phablet.

Blackberry rumored to be considering giving this thing called "Android" a try. http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN0OR2ZM20150611?irpc=932

I would consider such a device. There are some features to BlackBerry as a communications tool that are just not as good on pure Android OS. If they can keep that and the physical keyboard, but enable access to all Android aps*, that's a winner.

* you can run Android aps now in a virtual machine, but it requires some initial tweaking and direct access to the ap download. That basically limits things to the Amazon catalog, and they sometimes run a bit glitchy or with noticeable lag.

That might actually save their hardware business by broadening it's appeal to customers. Who know? After trying out the Android version some folks might even switch to their proprietary os.

This maybe their first Android phone.

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/11/two-days-with-the-blackberry-priv-it-needs-to-be-better/

Their make or break product which moves BlackBerry on to the android platform is getting bad reviews. Nice specs but lacking in execution and refinement. I do like the slide out physical keyboard but wonder if that really works on a phone you can tilt sideways. The built in security and monitoring app is also cool.

If this doesn't work there goes Canada's wireless handset company.

I've been following this pretty closely. The hardware specs are pretty unreal, I have less of a sense about the OS. Early speculation was that there would be a fairly noticeable BlackBerry overlay sitting on top of Android, but now some of what I've read implies otherwise. The biggest issue in my opinion is price. It is definitely a phone that peaks my interest, but it is well beyond what I typically consider paying. My Q10 is just over two years old, and still rock solid, so there really is no rush, but I do hope the Priv proves successful.

"piques"

http://www.techtimes.com/articles/1...iling-blackberry-priv-sells-out-on-amazon.htm

Hmm, even with bad reviews the Priv sold out on Amazon.

I'm positive that priv will prove blackberry right. The design and that physical keyboard is something to look forward to. It also hides if you're anti-physical keyboard user.

I have to say I am not a fan of touch screen keyboards.

For fuck's sake, just pull the plug, guys.

Geez. They are as ancient as the VCR at this point.

It's dead, John.

BlackBerry Stops Making Phones

I'm amazed they lasted this long. I haven't seen a Blackberry in years.

No kidding.

In the old days, back when texting was still new and before the iPhone took off, I got a Blackberry Flip so I could type easier. That was by far the worst phone I ever had, with the thing shitting out on me in about three months. I eventually found out this was pretty common along this line of phone, with the model discontinued in less than nine months. I think I replaced it with a dumbphone (or "phone," as they were known back then).

Good times

This is like finding out your great-great grandpa just died.

And realizing to your embarrassment that you had forgotten he was still alive.