Droid Pro Made To Fight Off Blackberry Torch Attack

[WenWM]

[video=youtube;zQ845fDu-bw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ845fDu-bw[/video]

When I first saw the Motorola Droid Pro, I was very dissatisfied with the look and everything about it, but now I know the whole purpose of its creation. Today, after reading this article by Lanewsmonitor, I feel like I undertand why Motorola even brought something like that to their designers mind. Apparently the device was made after all the leaked information of the new Blackberry surfaced and it was made as an anti-Torch solution. I guess Motorola is eying the 32 percent market share Blackberry currently sits on, and wants to take a stab at their profits with the help of Google.

Do you think this has the potential to take down Blackberries new baby girl? Which device would you choose? Reply and lets get the conversation going.

 

[kodiak799]

People rave about Touchdown, but unless you know about Touchdown Android flops as a business tool. I'm not up-to-speed on the security issue for corporate mail, but mail/calendar is the only thing preventing Android from crushing Blackberry.

It took a lot of effort for me to get K9 to work with exchange, but with Pure Messenger and Android Agenda widget I have pretty seamless gmail/calendars/corp mail integration. Call clarity and service is better than with Blackberries I've had.

I guess Blackberry can tether, too. But the email/calendar is the only thing holding back companies from switching. Well, there is the "small" issue of Blackberry hosting corp mail servers. But IMO business users don't want to carry 2 phones (cool thing with google voice is you can have a business cell number separate from your personal) if it can be avoided. Throw in the obvious benefit and convenience of tethering and it's a slam-dunk.

 

[kodiak799]

It's a nice looking phone. I might consider something like that @ May if it's LTE.

But I'm considering ditching the physical keyboard. I find Swype and voice texting to be very effective. I even use the soft keyboard a lot more for short messages. I don't find thumbs to be very efficient for typing and one on a soft keyboard seems easier.

 

[droidbionic]

i rather get the Droid Pro. more apps and games

 

[accellpo]

This spells doom for Blackberry!

 

[ben.keen]

Although I feel that with the higher specs that the Droid Pro is suppose to offer I think Moto and other companies have a long way to go before you see RIM unseated from it's corporate throne. I work for a large company with 30+ offices around the world where I help support the company's mobile communications solutions. And yes since we started allowing users to use the iPhone we have seen a drop in our BlackBerry users and I know a lot of them are excited that with the release of Froyo we have started to test Android based devices to see if they meet our security requirements. Personally I think once the call is made that the company will support Android based devices we are going to see a huge increase in requests to have an Android based device set up for them but this does not spell out doom for RIM. RIM has pioneered this field. They have years of know how and trust built with companies that know they can trust RIM's BlackBerry to provide a secure and fast mobile communications platform for their company. Sure, their hardware is startig to fall behind other companies like Moto and HTC but in the corporate world companies can care less about how many games a device supports or if one App Store is bigger than smothers; they care about security and timely communications.

So will the Droid Pro bring an end to the BlackBerry; no. Will it take a few points away from RIM's market share; yes. But until Android devices get a firm footing in the corporate world thanks to the recent Froyo update; RIM will be the leader. Maybe that will change in a few years if RIM does not start doing more with it the hardware specs but that is yet to be seen. I think if RIM goes back and starts to focus back on what it does well which is getting companies a secure platform for mobile communications and stops trying to develop a "cool phone" then they will hold onto their seat for a longtime. If RIM fails to do this and Android based devices starts to focus on that, then yes I think RIM might have a problem.

 

[accellpo]

Although I feel that with the higher specs that the Droid Pro is suppose to offer I think Moto and other companies have a long way to go before you see RIM unseated from it's corporate throne. I work for a large company with 30+ offices around the world where I help support the company's mobile communications solutions. And yes since we started allowing users to use the iPhone we have seen a drop in our BlackBerry users and I know a lot of them are excited that with the release of Froyo we have started to test Android based devices to see if they meet our security requirements. Personally I think once the call is made that the company will support Android based devices we are going to see a huge increase in requests to have an Android based device set up for them but this does not spell out doom for RIM. RIM has pioneered this field. They have years of know how and trust built with companies that know they can trust RIM's BlackBerry to provide a secure and fast mobile communications platform for their company. Sure, their hardware is startig to fall behind other companies like Moto and HTC but in the corporate world companies can care less about how many games a device supports or if one App Store is bigger than smothers; they care about security and timely communications.

So will the Droid Pro bring an end to the BlackBerry; no. Will it take a few points away from RIM's market share; yes. But until Android devices get a firm footing in the corporate world thanks to the recent Froyo update; RIM will be the leader. Maybe that will change in a few years if RIM does not start doing more with it the hardware specs but that is yet to be seen. I think if RIM goes back and starts to focus back on what it does well which is getting companies a secure platform for mobile communications and stops trying to develop a "cool phone" then they will hold onto their seat for a longtime. If RIM fails to do this and Android based devices starts to focus on that, then yes I think RIM might have a problem.

Not the just the Droid Pro alone, but the fact Android is now being focused at the corporate market, absolutely spells doom for Blackberry! BB does email well. Probably the best. But everything else is lacking. If Android can tighten up in that area, it'll take a huge portion of the corporate market. No way does RIM have 2 years to sit on their hands in a smartphone word that's cutting edge and fast moving. If they think like that, they will go the way of Palm, and is walking dead! The Torch is another lackluster effort by RIM with already dated software and hardware.

 

[jroc]

Yea...looking like a BlackBerry is one thing....functioning like one is another...

 

[kodiak799]

In my experience, BB's have not been as good on voice. The edge BB has is hosting servers, which is partly why their email is so much more reliable.

But at the end of the day, it shouldn't be hard to compete since both ultimately go through VZW's 3G (soon to be LTE) network. The main challenge for Google/Android is getting Exchange to play nice, which obviously MS won't be very cooperative trying to protect their turf (BB is not a threat, Chrome OS/Android is a MAJOR threat).

 

[kodiak799]

Oh, and the ability to do a video conference while on an airplane would be kind of a big selling point for businesses.

 

[ben.keen]

Not the just the Droid Pro alone, but the fact Android is now being focused at the corporate market, absolutely spells doom for Blackberry! BB does email well. Probably the best. But everything else is lacking. If Android can tighten up in that area, it'll take a huge portion of the corporate market. No way does RIM have 2 years to sit on their hands in a smartphone word that's cutting edge and fast moving. If they think like that, they will go the way of Palm, and is walking dead! The Torch is another lackluster effort by RIM with already dated software and hardware.

I think you are right too a point. Yes, if RIM just sits back for 2 years, they will go the way of Palm. But I think there are plenty of corporate users who are in their comfort zone with BlackBerry and to shake these people off their BlackBerry would take a lot. I have users that are still using the BB7290 and LOVE IT!

 

[takeshi]

Do you think this has the potential to take down Blackberries new baby girl?

It's going to take more than just a keyboard to take down BB's in the corporate world.

 

[kodiak799]

I think you are right too a point. Yes, if RIM just sits back for 2 years, they will go the way of Palm. But I think there are plenty of corporate users who are in their comfort zone with BlackBerry and to shake these people off their BlackBerry would take a lot. I have users that are still using the BB7290 and LOVE IT!

There's a lot of truth to that. But these decisions tend to be made by senior mgmt. And there is a surprising variance in tech savviness among those types. If Android goes after the power users with a little know-how, those people will end-up switching over their whole company. Other companies will never switch because, as you say, the 60-yr old VP is comfortable with his BB and doesn't want to learn to use a new phone.

I think Android will win over a lot of smaller companies that tend to operate more lean & mean and who can see some real savings & efficiencies with Android. To some extent, I suspect we've seen some of that with the IPhone.

The other thing that could really boost Android is google voice improving it's transcribed voice mails. I love that my GVmails get pushed to my gmail and I can quickly read what was said. Problem is you can only get the gist of what is said about 50% of the time. When it works as intended it's a thing of beauty.

 

[kepley]

I can't get over how awkward it would be to hold sideways. I guess that's why I just have a D1.

 

[kodiak799]

I can't get over how awkward it would be to hold sideways. I guess that's why I just have a D1.

good point. Hadn't thought of that.

Swype is pretty easy to use and very good. I really see no need for a physical keyboard. Besides, once voice-to-text gets a bit faster and more accurate (and it's pretty good now), how hard could it be to get people to switch?

Voice-to-text will soon be the bain of many corporate underlings. Just imagine when your boss discovers how easy it is to shoot you voice memos.