BlackBerry users running out of loyalty: 50 percent plan to defect to iPhone or Andro

[scott916]

I really like my tour, but Android is the future.

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

RIM is behind the curve right now (I'm talking from what consumers want point of view), and I think we can all agree on that. So the question becomes will BB6 put them back on the map for the consumer market? They have always done very well with businesses, and that market is going to be harder to crack. Although apparently the iPhone is the only approved phone for my Fortune 50 company which surprised me, but maybe their strength in business sectors is starting to be cracked as well. That's another topic though.

In the consumer space, people want apps. Period. With the iPhone and now Android, the app store/markets are what really draws people to smartphones. It's not the hardware or OS, as those have been around for many years, but it's the fact they have 3rd party apps that allow you to DO a lot more then just traditional phone, texting, pictures, and maybe some light browsing. This is where RIM has fallen short. Their marketplace sucks (as of my last experience with it ~6 months ago) and they have a very closed system on their phone, which is part of why they are liked for businesses.

RIM had a lot of innovative features that now are commonplace. BB Messenger was amazing and still to this day my favorite IM app ever, but my Droid's is a close enough replacement (although I still miss the part about knowing if they read the message or not). True push email is not done outside of RIM with the possible exception of Gmail/Droid, but my Droid gets the job done (through a more cumbersome polling method that means I don't get emails quite as fast). The physical keyboard of my Curve was amazing and crushes my Droid (which isn't saying much), but my Droid with Swype is close enough to my Curves keyboard even if I can't quite hit the same speed nor touch type anymore. Web browsing on my Curve was do-able, but not nearly as much of a positive experience as my Droid or iPod Touch.

There are many more things that I could continue with, but here is my point with all of this. RIM has a lot of features that used to be unique, but now are much more mainstream. They don't have anything that you can't get a close enough version of on other platforms. They haven't innovated with their devices IMHO, and the Storm 1 sucked. Storm 2 was better, but still suffered from flaws not to mention the negative PR from Storm 1 carrying over. The Bold was a good phone, but too late and is NOT able to compete with the iPhone (be it due to marketing, too complex compared to the easy to use iPhone, app market, whatever).

Unless RIM starts to bring truly unique features (hardware, software, or app related), and creates a phone people want like they want the iPhone/Android I forsee them becoming another Palm. Personally, I hope that doesn't happen because the Curve was the best phone I have ever had until my Droid. The jury is still out for me as to if the Droid or Curve is the better phone 6 months later, because of how great my BB was.

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

Last I checked, and while not a banner line product, they are the only smart phone product that comes with a camera-less product. That only is still going to leave them as the only option on a lot of business hips.

This is also a very good point about why they are so engrained in businesses, and will remain a contender in that space.

 

[BigDH01]

Um, yea. Not my experience.

Blackberry's servers are down intermittently, which kills all internet (except through Opera).

My Curve has had to pull the battery every once in a while for various reasons (mostly GPS).

My Curve's build quality was a POS. I don't think I would call that thing close rock solid. Maybe plastic solid.

I never had a problem with BB servers but I did notice that if I had too many emails marked unread and a fairly long convo in BBM, I would quit getting new notifications and BBM messages sent to me would drop. This usually required a battery pull on my Curve. The build quality seemed fairly good though. No real complaints there (although I do have a plastic case and screen cover).

I recently replaced my Curve with a Nexus One and am quite happy. However, you'd have to pull my wife's BB Pearl from her cold dead hands. I'd like to get her an Android, but I doubt we'll ever see one that small.

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

^ your one of the few, but question do you have any apps on your phone? Do you have lots of emails? and what device is it?

Blackberry needs some serious HorsePower since the OS is inefficient and clumsy, maybe with OS6 it will be better, it better be.

With my Blackberry storms Dual Core CPU, it could not scroll through anything smoothly, not even text messages. Forget websites. All because of the OS inefficient use of the CPU.

The only reason most of blackberry users have a blackberry is for BBM.

The other users use the Email function for business and its one of the best.

i get a TON of email but only a handful of apps.
I do battery pulls a couple of times a month. Not too bad IMO.
but you are right, the scrolling is horribly unsmooth. it is downright embarrassing compared to an iphone.

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

Blackberry just needs to get serious with the Storm. That's the form factor that people want, and the Storms I played with just missed the mark. They need to beef up developer support, everyone who talks about mobile apps usually thinks about iOS and Android. When WinMo7 is released then there will be a lot of talk about that because Microsoft is good at making solid developer tools and they have money to back up their platform.

My point is RIMs problems are deeper than just the stock software they ship, the cell phone market is all about platform and RIM isn't doing enough to build a healthy one. I have a feeling they may turn out like Palm; licensing their tech for inclusion on other platforms, or bailing on their own OS in favor of shipping devices with Android.

hahaha, what tech does RIM have that apple or google would want?

 

[Pliablemoose]

BB does have one big advantage, UMA...

They don't exactly advertise it though...

 

[gsaldivar]

BB does have one big advantage, UMA...

Unfortunately, that's carrier specific, but they do have some options in the works for Android users:

http://www.tmonews.com/2010/05/android-uma-phones-coming-soon/

 

[BenSkywalker]

Have you updated the OS to the latest version on her device?

Heh, yeah. I guess some people on some forums may not pay attention to such things, but someone who frequents a tech forum for more then a decade I would assume wouldn't be talking about garbage stability on a product with an outstanding patch

I would suggest you PM me the model and I can help.

8520 and 9700 both have been very poor- a 9650(edit- double checked, actually it was a 9000 not a 9650) I tried to get working decently was an embarassment to bipeds. That particular one took 2-4 battery pulls a day after the first six months. He made the huge upgrade to a WinMo phone and has been extremely pleased. That should sum up typical BB user experience better then anything else.

It's too easy to keep posting pointless links to threads or fan pages that 'support' your argument and it really does neither you or your point justice.

As soon as you can link me to a poll on any Andoid or iPhone forum showing the majority of posters have such an issue we can happily call it a wash. Any iPhone or Android forum will do

And leaving out the fact that I stated the only reason it was restarted over 130 hours ago was due to an application install that required a restart is just devisive.

First off, why are you restarting an embedded device over an application install? OS patch I can completely understand- anything else is a very clear 'fail' on the design. It is an embedded device, having to restart for a basic operation is *not* OK.

As far as your uptime, you brought it up when talking about stability. Talking about 130 hours on an embedded device is like mentioning your car went 50ft on a tank of gas when discussing fuel mileage- even if you had only driven 50ft since you filled up the tank- why would you mention it?

 

[herm0016]

i have a curve with the Pt case and a screen protector. The case is looking pretty beat up and the screen protector has gouges in it. the phone has been great. I busted an LG full feature flip phone in half, and a few other phones before that, a coworker busted his first gen iphone, i have seen a few of the lg touch screens messed up too.

 

[Metron]

Speaking from experience, I am one of the defectors.

Long term Storm / Storm2 user... loved the functionality, heft and reliability of BB. Hardcore user who used business and personal email, messaging, music (Slacker and all of my CD collection ripped to the phone), VZ Navigator user for GPS, and tethering for my laptop.

I did get tired of the "hesitations" in the OS, and yes I pulled my battery about once a day. Call it anecdotal, but that was my personal experience as a hard core user pushing the device to it's maximum functionality.

Upgraded in late April to the HTC Incredible, and I am very happy. Blazingly fast in comparison. Touch screen is much more precise. Still using Slacker and my 1200 tracks ripped from my CD's. Switched to Google Navigation for free GPS, and using PDAnet for tethering access from my now almost idle laptop. Camera is incredibly sharp.

No complaints, and I have NEVER had to pull the battery in my Incredible.