A flip-phone style BB is a great option for many in Corporate America. I know several people who HATE using the BB as a phone because the ergonomics of the form-factor SUCK!!! Many of these same people just want to be "kept-in-the-loop" on emails and typically don't type long-winded responses so this looks like it could be a great device for that niche populace - the flip phone form factor gives you a larger screen for reading emails than a comparable candybar style phone.
Personally I gave up my BB for the iPhone; while I do miss the keyboard on the BB that's about it - I'm glad I didn't wait (like many still are) for the Bold or Thunder. I agree that these new devices are probably going to be the right solution for many users, it's a shame that people don't understand that BB isn't innovating, they're doing a Microsoft!! (and that's from someone who's been a long-time WM user too)
BlackBerry rumor mill takes a page from Apple
Summary
For the past few months, writers have been churning out rumors about several new flavors of BlackBerry. Is RIM using careful leaks to beat Apple at its own rumor-fueling game?
Topics
If you thought iPhone nano rumors were hard to avoid, consider the myriad BlackBerry incarnations haunting cyberspace.
First up is the BlackBerry KickStart. Leaked images of this frankly ugly flip phone surfaced back in April--as seen here.
Why anyone would want a flip BlackBerry beats me, after all flipping phones are so retro it's untrue. Even RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie suggested a clam BlackBerry would be an incongruous beast--telling silicon.com back in May, "While you're asking if there's going to be a touch device, why not ask if there's going to be a flip? Has there ever been a successful flip smart phone?"We're still waiting for an answer to that one but we suspect it's a no.
Yet months from hatching, the BlackBerry KickStart is still buzzing around online refusing to be categorically swatted. Largely because other BlackBerry-flavored rumors keep arriving to resurrect it.
Cue the BlackBerry Storm, a name which cropped up online in May. Though it has never been entirely clear whether the Storm moniker is merely an alternative nickname for the BlackBerry Bold--a bona fide, true blue BlackBerry--or whether it refers to an altogether new type of RIM smart phone: a touchscreen device.
Which leads us to the BlackBerry Thunder.
Apparently this is the name of RIM's touchscreen iPhone killer--as imagined here. Or here. Or at many other locations online.
It certainly seems more plausible than a RIM plunge into flip phones but the company consistently refuses to confirm whether it's seriously working on a touchscreen phone so it's wait-and-see land for now.
The rumors don't stop with Thunder, either.
The latest leaked pictures to crop up online purport to show yet another device, this one named the BlackBerry Javelin (timely Olympic theme), which appears to be a Bold lite, presumably aimed at hurling RIM right into the beating heart of the mass market. You can see the is-it-real-or-isn't-it Javelin in glorious detail in this photo gallery, courtesy of engadget.
So what should we make of this rampant RIM rumor fest?
Either the BlackBerry-maker has appalling control over the people who design and manufacture its products--but control that bad is surely more than a tad unbelievable--or else it's sanctioning or at least encouraging carefully timed leaks to create the kind of buzz that Apple generates by simply saying "no comment" to any whiff of news before the next Jobs keynote.
After all, rumors are cheap. None of these devices actually has to exist to do a job of work for RIM: that is, to get more people talking about its products than otherwise would be.
Moreover, since the launch of Apple's iPhone, RIM has wearily been fielding endless impertinent questions about whether the iPhone is a BlackBerry killer and when we should expect a touchscreen BlackBerry. The company won't comment officially on the touchscreen or indeed on any product rumors. It will only say it is not the source of the rumors.
But one line RIM has been peddling pretty consistently since the start of iPhone era is that Apple's plunge into the mobile world has been "good for business."
How exactly, you may ask. Well, the iPhone is great news for BlackBerry because Apple has shown the world that smart phones exist and BlackBerrys are waltzing off the shelves as a result, or so the claim goes.
Here's Charmaine Eggberry, vice president and managing director of EMEA at RIM, speaking to silicon.com earlier this year, "During the time that iPhone was launched we sold more BlackBerrys...because what happened? People suddenly start looking at technology and suddenly understand that it is for them too--I think we've moved well beyond this idea that high tech belongs in the boardroom, belongs to a certain class of individual only… because now that technology is now being adopted by people from all walks of life and it's not all about work."
And here's co-CEO Mike Lazaridis, right on message, also chatting to silicon.com earlier this year, "I think what happened was the amount of marketing and the attention they [Apple] generated in the market--the customers are now coming to the store and saying I didn't know you could do all that with a phone. And when they get there they realize there's a selection--there's not just one device. And so what it's actually done is increased our sales."
So has RIM wised up to the power of hype? Is the BlackBerry-maker taking a leaf out of Apple's book, as it were?We can only speculate that some or all of these leaks are a cunningly crafted attempt to beat Apple at its own rumor-fueling game. But one thing is sure: lots of people are now spending time and energy discussing the BlackBerry brand. And that's sure to make RIM smile.
Of course there is a third explanation for the rumor fest.
That there's simply a whole lot of creative scamps out there--with or without their own blogs to pimp--who have nothing better to do than mock up new flavors of BlackBerry. It's a thought.
Talkback Most Recent of 20 Talkback(s)
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smoody15th Aug 2008 -
Black Berry did innovate, prior to them Smart Phones were toys
BB made them from toys into products that company buy for their employees in mass.
T1Oracle15th Aug 2008 -
Did they really?
IMHO RIM didn't innovate, they ripped off Palm
and built a better device and infrastructure/delivery system for Corporate America. Similar to Palm, they're realizing that a single/limited purpose device isn't going to carry their business model forever (mainly due to market competition).
Personally IMO RIM is in trouble if they can't come up with some innovations that continue to significantly differentiate their products/services (once again, "just like PALM")smoody15th Aug 2008 -
The same can be said of the iPhone
What did Apple invent? They took the tech of others and put it together into a better product just like BB. Their invention had the same effect the iPhone did, it made smart phones relevant again.
Also note that before the BB the Palms out there weren't very reliable.T1Oracle17th Aug 2008 -
for ease-of-use iPhone wins
I used a BlackBerry for a couple of years, and while it was a useful gadget it annoyed me that it had so many features, but they were so hard to use.
The first time I received a text message on my blackberry I couldn't figure out how to reply to it. So I took it to the IT people who also couldn't figure it, and then gave me the manual. By the end of the day I had it figured out- but what a difficult interface.
Then about a year ago someone let me use their iPhone for maybe five minutes. That was all the time it took me to be able to do anything the iPhone could do.
What good is it to have a thousand features if they are so difficult to find and use?
http://www.learnucd.com/kevlar/the-web-is-dead-long-live-the-iphone
Kebbles20th Aug 2008 -
RIM blackberry died the day the iPhone
came out. They just don't know it yet. Death by slow bleed takes
a while.
In five years we'll all be saying: Remember blackberry?
Bookmark it, you heard it here first.
frgough15th Aug 2008 -
iPhone kills Blackberry? Really!!??
when att/apple dropped the price in the 3g model, i seriously evaluated moving all of our windows mobile / exchange clients over to iPhone/ATT away from Verizon.
i spent 3 days using my wife's iPhone with exchange client.
it is TERRIBLE. i can't see how any real corporate user would ever consider giving up a blackberry or a windows mobile device for an iPhone.
the exchange email client is gutted. no tasks? come on!! no multiple address books? seriously?!?!?
NO KEYBOARD??? the iPhone keyboard is 'ok' but anyone who really uses their phone in this capacity would never use that junk. maybe it would work for quick responses... but i found it very frustrating.
i think iPhone is a great device. but it obviously is targeting consumers... music fans... the facebook crowd....LOL.
a year ago, i might have agreed with the idea that it was a 'killer' of anything. now i just see it as a gateway device. it's the phone that TEACHES people that they can do more with their phone than take pictures of their kids and pets.
fast forward a year and now when i see people flipping their phone into landscape mode and watching you tube videos... i just think "haven't you got any real work to do?"
bottom line. iPhone=Toy. WM and BB=Tools.
Lazlo1317th Aug 2008 -
Well said
Excellent points
jonhcox18th Aug 2008 -
Actually...
...I've heard that from a number of people. Usually the same ones who say Windows PCs will be replaced en masse by Macs.
Sad isn't it?
Sleeper Service17th Aug 2008 -
Apple's fashion products will never be much use for serious business
The iPhone is a toy, more effort was put into making it fashion conscious than was put into making it an effective tool for getting serious work done. The BB is for business and for those task it handily trumps the iPhone in utility.
Plenty of the people I work with have bought iPhones, and none of those people have thrown their Black Berry's away.T1Oracle17th Aug 2008 -
Nearsighted
That has to be the single most nearsited comment I have ever read. I have used touch screens for years and not been fond of them or the problems they cause. The IPhone is a good product but not a "killer" of all others. I gave up phone like that to use Blackberry, why? because they work well and there's no touch screen to mess around with.jonhcox18th Aug 2008 -
Another reason for flip-phones.
I have used Motorola flip-phones since the very first StarTac. My last was the RAZR2 V9m from Verizon. Then I got an LG Voyager. Nice phone, and I love the added features of the Voyager over the V9m.
However, there is one glaring annoyance with the Voyager, and every other non-flip-phone. When put into my trouser pocket, the Voyager sometimes dials out without my knowing, or gets turned off, by bumping/leaning against things. This is impossible to do with a flip-phone. I have considered very seriously going back to the V9m because of this.
IT_Guy_z15th Aug 2008 -
Re: Another reason for flip-phones
Dude, have you never heard of key-lock?
markarse18th Aug 2008 -
Yeah "dude" I have...
?but the Voyager has a TOUCH sensitive keypad UNLOCK in its external screen, which UNLOCKS the touch screen when pressed?either intentionally, or unintentionally.IT_Guy_z19th Aug 2008 -
The devices seem actually real so far:
Unfortunately, RIM has appalling control over the leaks because many of the devices are real. There are dozens of actual live non-photoshopped photographs of THUNDER, KICKSTART and JAVELIN, and independently confirmed by other people who have witnessed them in the open, such as seeing them by people walking around Kitchener-Waterloo.
THUNDER LEAKS
Actual live photographs of Thunder:
http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/13/blackberry-thunder-first-ever-live-pics-unearthed/
Very real looking product catalog screenshot:
http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2008/08/08/blackberry-thunder-gets-9530-model-designation-on-verizon/
Leaked screenshots of media player that seems to be slyly confirmed by people who have actually seen it:
http://www.pocket-lint.co.uk/news/news.phtml/15965/16989/blackberry-thunder-interface-spy-shots.phtml
JAVELIN LEAKS
Actual live photographs of Javelin:
http://www.phonenews.com/new-blackberry-models-revealed-3743/
http://gizmodo.com/5024829/blackberry-javelin-photos-leak-out
KICKSTART LEAKS
Actual live photographs of KickStart:
http://stuff.tv/News/More-shots-of-Blackberry-Kickstart-leak/10128/
http://news.timtechs.com/blackberry-kickstart-photo-leak.html
Art of kickstart that appear to come from reputable sources:
http://blackberrysync.com/2008/05/blackberry-kickstart-9100-to-launch-on-t-mobile-908/
mdrejhon15th Aug 2008
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