Well we have asked that question recently around here. Here's another arrticle touching on that subject BlackBerry Offers Low-Hanging Fruit - WSJ.com
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Is RIMM falling behind?
- Thread starter mth04
- Start date
BB is horrible! I currently have the BB Tour and have nothing but issues with it!! So far I've had 4 Tours and VZ CS is stating they need to send me another replacement. This is because the replacement I received a week and half ago will not read microSD cards. So, they've given me the option of getting a new phone.
I hope they will let me get the new Droid. Is there any Verizon workers out there that could tell me what the policy is for this?
Thanks,
RJ
I hope they will let me get the new Droid. Is there any Verizon workers out there that could tell me what the policy is for this?
Thanks,
RJ
well yea but RIM isnt just a Phone. Now if RIM were like HTC and could add Android to the line-up then we'd have a winner.
purple onyx
New Member
My husband had to get his storm replaced twice. The techs at the store told him that if it broke the third time, they would just be getting him the Tour, which is the replacement option. I think that if your BB breaks a certain amount of time, they're going to give you the BB replacement option (another BB). I would hope that they would just give you the Droid if it breaks again!
As for RIMM, I have actually been okay with the phone to just be satisfied. I haven't been impressed with it, but it does okay. I think they just need to make changes to the OS and really build on it. That, and, if only there were more apps too.
If you look 3 months back RIM was the fastest going company in the world according to Fortune, Fortune names RIM fastest growing company... in the world. How things can change quickly.
because they have no diversity in their phones. every phone they produce (aside from the pearl and the storm) is nearly EXACTLY the same in looks.
they push out 50 different handsets and their all alike in one way or another.
They think adding a trackpad is evolving their product. It's like adding power steering to a Model T....
They are 2 years out from doing anything significant. It's obvious they can't build a great phone that will compete in the rapidly changing market.
Somebody just flicked on the light and they have been left with their pants down around their ankles....
They think adding a trackpad is evolving their product. It's like adding power steering to a Model T....
They are 2 years out from doing anything significant. It's obvious they can't build a great phone that will compete in the rapidly changing market.
Somebody just flicked on the light and they have been left with their pants down around their ankles....
They aren't falling behind... their problem is that everyone has caught up to them in terms of features and even surpassed them in terms of usability.
RIM has a large segment of the current smartphone market. Their hardware is good, but their OS is last gen. They are trying to keep up.... they now have two touch-screen phones, but unfortunately only on one network.
The Iphone being exclusive to AT&T prevented it from making any huge dents in RIM's market share, but google offering android to any/everyone who will pay for the 'instant-smart phone service' has turned every single handset manufacturer into a viable competitor & serious threat.
In the olden days, phone makers had to spend bucks to develop both the hardware and the OS. Data features like web browsing or email required investing more money in tailor-made application which only a small segment of users were interested in.
RIM gambled that offering a robust data service to users that freed the cell phone companies from having to manage internet servers would be a winning solution. It was. Cingular sold you your phone and paid a portion of your data fees to RIM for managing and pushing your data from the IP cloud. They also offered messaging features and add-on applications that no one else was at the time. A few people copied their phones. but didn't have as much success.
Then the iPhone came along. The feature-set was meager compared to a blackberry, but it had a user interface that was 3-generations ahead of anything anyone else was offering (iPhone STILL has the best interface today). All of a sudden you didn't have to use a trackball or tiny qwerty keypad to get email or movie showtimes. Then the app store came a long and let the iPhone do things that blackberry devices couldn't.
RIM took notice and developed the Storm. A large display device with a touchscreen and lots of bugs.
Phone makers who weren't RIM or Apple grit their teeth trying to balance coming up with robust software, with lots of features, slick interfaces with hardware that would run it decently.... while trying to keep the costs of the devices low enough to compete.
It was slow going. There was windows mobile, but it was just as buggy as their desktop software. Samsung even tried their hand with their own OS on the Instinct.
Then HTC, mostly known for selling text-messaging phones took a chance on Google's android with the G1, on the smallest of the big 4 providers. It wasn't as slick or as fast as an iPhone, but it was a low-cost touch-screen smart phone that offered more basic features than the iPhone right out of the box.
Handset makers quietly took notice and started running the numbers on the costs of developing their own software vs dumping their money into hardware and letting google handle the lower level software side of things.
One year after the G1 was released, there are 6 more android phones available (MyTouch, Hero, Clique, Droid, Eris, Behold), and more in the works.
RIM is just one company. The storm was their biggest departure from their proven OS, which they have tried to refine with the Storm2. Even if the Storm2 is great, it will be one smartphone by one manufacturer among the iPhone, 6+ android phones, and a couple of windows mobile 7 phones.
The playing field has been leveled and there is way more competition now. RIM will lose market share going forward. What they should have done is offered to license their OS and data services to other handset makers before Google did.
As innovative as RIM is, they can't hope to keep pace with Google on Google's turf (the internet). Best to cut costs and try to find a niche to exploit that no one else is filling.
RIM has a large segment of the current smartphone market. Their hardware is good, but their OS is last gen. They are trying to keep up.... they now have two touch-screen phones, but unfortunately only on one network.
The Iphone being exclusive to AT&T prevented it from making any huge dents in RIM's market share, but google offering android to any/everyone who will pay for the 'instant-smart phone service' has turned every single handset manufacturer into a viable competitor & serious threat.
In the olden days, phone makers had to spend bucks to develop both the hardware and the OS. Data features like web browsing or email required investing more money in tailor-made application which only a small segment of users were interested in.
RIM gambled that offering a robust data service to users that freed the cell phone companies from having to manage internet servers would be a winning solution. It was. Cingular sold you your phone and paid a portion of your data fees to RIM for managing and pushing your data from the IP cloud. They also offered messaging features and add-on applications that no one else was at the time. A few people copied their phones. but didn't have as much success.
Then the iPhone came along. The feature-set was meager compared to a blackberry, but it had a user interface that was 3-generations ahead of anything anyone else was offering (iPhone STILL has the best interface today). All of a sudden you didn't have to use a trackball or tiny qwerty keypad to get email or movie showtimes. Then the app store came a long and let the iPhone do things that blackberry devices couldn't.
RIM took notice and developed the Storm. A large display device with a touchscreen and lots of bugs.
Phone makers who weren't RIM or Apple grit their teeth trying to balance coming up with robust software, with lots of features, slick interfaces with hardware that would run it decently.... while trying to keep the costs of the devices low enough to compete.
It was slow going. There was windows mobile, but it was just as buggy as their desktop software. Samsung even tried their hand with their own OS on the Instinct.
Then HTC, mostly known for selling text-messaging phones took a chance on Google's android with the G1, on the smallest of the big 4 providers. It wasn't as slick or as fast as an iPhone, but it was a low-cost touch-screen smart phone that offered more basic features than the iPhone right out of the box.
Handset makers quietly took notice and started running the numbers on the costs of developing their own software vs dumping their money into hardware and letting google handle the lower level software side of things.
One year after the G1 was released, there are 6 more android phones available (MyTouch, Hero, Clique, Droid, Eris, Behold), and more in the works.
RIM is just one company. The storm was their biggest departure from their proven OS, which they have tried to refine with the Storm2. Even if the Storm2 is great, it will be one smartphone by one manufacturer among the iPhone, 6+ android phones, and a couple of windows mobile 7 phones.
The playing field has been leveled and there is way more competition now. RIM will lose market share going forward. What they should have done is offered to license their OS and data services to other handset makers before Google did.
As innovative as RIM is, they can't hope to keep pace with Google on Google's turf (the internet). Best to cut costs and try to find a niche to exploit that no one else is filling.