Is Blackberry making a slider phone that runs Android?

[pete6032]

:$:\:hmm:

http://crackberry.com/new-rumor-claims-android-powered-blackberry-venice-slider-headed-att

 

[SAWYER]

Looks nice but no need for a physical keyboard anymore for most people I would bet

 

[Commodus]

The bottom image isn't really representative, as I understand... the top is.

If this comes out with Android and lives up to the looks and claimed specs, it'll be pretty hot. Wouldn't it be hilarious if BlackBerry staged a comeback by ditching some of the tech that made it special? (Not counting on it, but it'd warm my Canadian heart to see BlackBerry become a top Android OEM.)

 

[lxskllr]

Looks nice but no need for a physical keyboard anymore for most people I would bet

Touch screens are horrible. I'm sure it won't be the phone I want, but I'd love a physical keyboard.

 

[maddogmcgee]

Meh, its a phone for business who don't want to buy their employee an insecure device that causes hassles for the IT team. Will be much better devices available for the average punter.

 

[npaladin-2000]

There aren't all that many hardware keyboard options for Android anymore, this could be interesting.

 

[3chordcharlie]

I don't know if they can do this and maintain the 'hub' setup for communications. If they can, I don't really care what OS is running underneath. If they can't, this is just them throwing in the towel.

 

[pete6032]

Looks nice but no need for a physical keyboard anymore for most people I would bet

I don't see how blackberry could compete in the Android market without doing something totally crazy or different. Samsung has basically cornered the high end Android market. Even guys like HTC are struggling to make it despite the fact that they make fantastic phones. The differences between the high end android phones are so marginal these days that I don't think the market can handle another competitor.

 

[Artdeco]

They're about 5 years late to the party.

 

[zerocool84]

Obviously Blackberry is getting desperate. They should have gone Android long ago and now trying to have a physical keyboard? They market has shown that they are a thing of the past. I used to love real keyboard but we prefer thinner/lighter phones with large screens. Go ahead and imagine a 5" phone with a keyboard.

 

[Artdeco]

Obviously Blackberry is getting desperate. They should have gone Android long ago and now trying to have a physical keyboard? They market has shown that they are a thing of the past. I used to love real keyboard but we prefer thinner/lighter phones with large screens. Go ahead and imagine a 5" phone with a keyboard.

Yep, the % of the market for phones with a physical keyboard must be minuscule, the ones that have made it to market have been tiny sales numbers.

Blackberry is a fundamentally different company now versus what they were, and I just don't see them understanding the market well enough to ever come back.

It's sad, too, because IMHO, the average serious gadget freak teenager could sort out the market and a device better than people BlackBerry pays tens of millions of dollars to do.

If I was BlackBerry, or for that matter, Microsoft, I'd work my ass off on an OS you could install easily on the flagship Android phones, get some feedback without the rose colored glasses both corporations seem to have bolted on, and sort the crap out of my OS though user feedback. Hell, if I was BB, I'd fork Android so fast, Google's head would spin.

Or release a nexus like device, carrier unlocked, with an aggressive OS team that gave you weekly or monthly updates, like Cyanogen does with nightlies.

 

[Crono]

Reminds me of the Dell Venue Pro. It was a good phone, even if it was ungainly as a vertical slider.

The keyboard on that was useful and preferable to software keyboard, but I think now (outside of a few power users/people who email a lot) everyone has moved on and learned how to touch and swipe/flow without them. There are too many players turning Android phones into a commodity - I can name 15 phone manufacturers offhand with at least one phone each that I would consider as much as a Blackberry - for Blackberry to succeed without something stronger than just having a physical keyboard.

The last Android phone I had with a physical keyboard was the Motorola Droid. It was a hefty, nigh indestructible phone, but I didn't pine for the keyboard much when I bought a HTC One M7 later on. I haven't owned a phone with a physical keyboard since the Droid. A physical keyboard just isn't high on the feature priority list, though I wouldn't mind having one.

I did briefly consider getting the Passport, but the unusual aspect ratio and the keyboard weren't enough to get me to buy it over an Android phone. The specs are competitive, but it's not an inexpensive phone.

 

[darkswordsman17]

It'll be interesting to see what they come up with. Granted, I've never been a Blackberry user (played with their stuff some but that's it) so it doesn't hold too much interest for me beyond the interesting devices that Blackberry has been making the past few years and seeing how they try to transition to Android.

I don't know how much a physical keyboard is a compelling feature for me personally (I personally hate typing on a touchscreen, but I'm not sure it'd be any better with small physical keys either), but I know some people that it is.

I really hope they try to be a mix of Nokia and Moto. Be like Moto in how they do devices and how they manage Android. Be like Nokia in how they figure out compelling software and overall design, just using Android as the OS. Those two companies I think had good plans they just took too long to get there which put both companies in a compromised position long term. And of course they need to succeed in iterating those plans (which is no easy task as we've seen from pretty much everyone).

I don't see how blackberry could compete in the Android market without doing something totally crazy or different. Samsung has basically cornered the high end Android market. Even guys like HTC are struggling to make it despite the fact that they make fantastic phones. The differences between the high end android phones are so marginal these days that I don't think the market can handle another competitor.

I wouldn't call HTC phones fantastic. Outside of (and plenty of people would say including) the One M7 they've had glaring flaws. Most of the complaints about Samsung can be levied towards HTC (their own custom launcher, they actually ditched memory card before Samsung did then brought it back). They still have some good features (speakers and audio tend to be excellent) but they've also basically screwed up (display on the M8 and M9, as well as the camera, then they ditched it for a typical sensor and while it's decent it still needs work; S810 on the M9). Now, they've shown they can make a fantastic phone, they just need to figure out how to do it again, and consistently moving forward.

There's very good reasons why Android OEMs have been struggling. They've been facing much more competition (including from lower cost devices that offer compelling experience), and they've all basically had missteps on their flagships (the Note line is the only one that I'd say has not, it consistently improved in just about every area with each new model).

I think there absolutely are niches to be carved out, and I also think there's room for just normal competitors (companies making devices that aren't really niche, like the OnePlusOne, just solid devices that offer a good experience for a good price). In fact, the failure of companies like Samsung, LG, HTC, and pretty much everyone (even Apple at times) to consistently iterate leaves room to operate.

Obviously Blackberry is getting desperate. They should have gone Android long ago and now trying to have a physical keyboard? They market has shown that they are a thing of the past. I used to love real keyboard but we prefer thinner/lighter phones with large screens. Go ahead and imagine a 5" phone with a keyboard.

I agree that they should have migrated to Android a long time ago, and I'd say they are desperate. However, I also think they are not trying to compete with Samsung or any of the major players. They are working on carving out their niche and seeing how to grow that into something sustainable. People need to stop trying to think about Blackberry as they were and realize what they are now (which to me is like Nokia, and that's who they should be aiming to mimic, with Blackberry possibly having a chance at making the transition to Android that Nokia couldn't).

They still have a fanbase, they can definitely gain more of a following. While I would agree that it is far from the majority, I do think there's plenty of people that do want physical keyboards, and there were people that held out for years on switching from Blackberry because of the keyboards (there was enough of a market for a company to make a case for the iPhone that aped it). And surveys have consistently shown consumers don't actually give a crap about them making phones ever thinner especially if they can't keep battery life up.

For them to be successful they need to try and make their customization of Android light so that it eases their work dealing with and updating along with Android, and they need compelling hardware. That doesn't mean competing with Samsung, that means making solid devices either with a decent niche (seems like quite a few people were interested in that one squarish phone they release I think last year, but it not being Android was an issue) or with competitive features (display size and quality, battery life, camera, etc).

Will they work for everyone? Of course not. Even Samsung that seems to have the most mass appeal devices out there aren't for everyone.

Yep, the % of the market for phones with a physical keyboard must be minuscule, the ones that have made it to market have been tiny sales numbers.

Blackberry is a fundamentally different company now versus what they were, and I just don't see them understanding the market well enough to ever come back.

It's sad, too, because IMHO, the average serious gadget freak teenager could sort out the market and a device better than people BlackBerry pays tens of millions of dollars to do.

If I was BlackBerry, or for that matter, Microsoft, I'd work my ass off on an OS you could install easily on the flagship Android phones, get some feedback without the rose colored glasses both corporations seem to have bolted on, and sort the crap out of my OS though user feedback. Hell, if I was BB, I'd fork Android so fast, Google's head would spin.

Or release a nexus like device, carrier unlocked, with an aggressive OS team that gave you weekly or monthly updates, like Cyanogen does with nightlies.

They have miniscule sales numbers because they're add-ons and not integral parts of the phone, which causes problems. And the ones that do come with the keyboards integral are typically not compelling devices. It's not a huge market (but nothing says they have to only release phones with keyboards either). But there's definitely some people that do still want physical keyboards.

Come on. Blackberry has been making good devices for a while now, just with one fatal flaw, they run Blackberry which has just lost favor so almost no one is giving them any real consideration. Run Android and I think that changes a lot. It's not really a design or marketing problem, and saying teenagers could do better is just silly. Even the most successful companies in the market still routinely have issues with some of this stuff.

Microsoft did that (sorted the crap out of their OS, streamlined it) and it didn't matter. In fact one of the biggest issues people have with them is they ditched their rose colored glasses recently. In many ways they bested both Apple and Google mobile OSes and it didn't matter because they didn't do a good job iterating on devices and don't have the app ecosystem to compare to them.

Making an OS that can run on Android flagships wouldn't work either (Microsoft did that too but it didn't cause a lot of companies to offer a Microsoft version).

That would be a monumentally bad idea. You really think Blackberry could support forking Android? That wouldn't leave them any better off and would burden them unnecessarily (there's little real benefit since they should be able to control security and provide their services on Android). They need native Android and just get their services working very well on it.

I do think that would be a good idea. They need to release unlocked phones off contract for decent prices. I think they'd be best off to target the $300-500 range (maybe cheaper like Nokia and Moto have done). I think them focusing on updates like that would be a horrible idea though, they need to focus on solid devices that just work right and don't need a lot of constant development and updating. To me, people wanting constant updates is a niche just like keyboards, and it's niches better served by Google and setups likes Cyanogenmod. It just doesn't play to Blackberry's strengths either. They should let Google do most of the work and focus on their own services (without trying to build an entire version of an OS around them, that's what led them down their troubled road in the first place). Plus, I don't see Blackberry being able to match say Amazon (who has a lot more compelling reason to use their branch of Android), and even trying will be a huge cost of resources that I don't see offering a return.

 

[sbpromania]

BlackBerry understood that they need to go Android as soon as possible, and it seems that they're doing just that.

Unfortunately for them, they need to kick-off with a real good smartphone in order to get the attention. Integrating Google Play is a good first step, but this won't be enough.

 

[Deeko]

Every single touch screen keyboard on the market sucks. On every platform, they're all terrible. People have adapted to them; gotten used to them. But they're still terrible. I, for one, would welcome a high end phone with a solid sliding keyboard. Dell isn't very good at making phones or marketing them, which hampered the Venue Pro quite a bit, but that still remains my favorite physical design of a phone ever.

 

[mrochester]

God let's hope not.

 

[mmntech]

Blackberry has a small but fiercely loyal fanbase. Back when I was doing SM coordination for that unnamed crappy traffic app, the most frequent request I got was for a native BB10 app. Of course we were never going to do that. Wasn't worth the time and effort for such a small gain in user base.

The problem for BlackBerry is where do they entre the market. Budget Android smartphones are a commodity. It's easy to get lost in the sea of cheap Chinese phones. With the high end ones, you really have to be doing something special to attract users. I don't think adding a physical keyboard is something that special.

 

[lxskllr]

The problem for BlackBerry is where do they entre the market. Budget Android smartphones are a commodity. It's easy to get lost in the sea of cheap Chinese phones. With the high end ones, you really have to be doing something special to attract users. I don't think adding a physical keyboard is something that special.

My dream would be a hacker's phone. Real keyboard, and no limitations. You get a normal phone ootb, and with a simple checkbox you unlock the whole thing to do what you want. Maybe they could get somewhere stacking niches. It won't make them an industry leader, but you can make a living without being first.

 

[Commodus]

My dream would be a hacker's phone. Real keyboard, and no limitations. You get a normal phone ootb, and with a simple checkbox you unlock the whole thing to do what you want. Maybe they could get somewhere stacking niches. It won't make them an industry leader, but you can make a living without being first.

That strikes me as at odds with BlackBerry's ethos: it wants you to do things with your phones, not to your phones. I'd leave that up to ultra-niche brands like Geeksphone. Not that BlackBerry is completely mainstream, but it won't get anywhere close to its former glory by catering to groups that may buy a few dozen thousand units at best.

 

[lxskllr]

That strikes me as at odds with BlackBerry's ethos: it wants you to do things with your phones, not to your phones. I'd leave that up to ultra-niche brands like Geeksphone. Not that BlackBerry is completely mainstream, but it won't get anywhere close to its former glory by catering to groups that may buy a few dozen thousand units at best.

You don't hack phones to hack phones. You do it to overcome arbitrary restrictions placed on it by manufacturers. Blackberry's current niche is "the phone company that doesn't sell phones". That's a guaranteed losing strategy. Making the phone hackable adds hackers to the group that loves real keyboards. That's probably double their current market. Then they can work on adding value to the Android base, and making desireable hardware "normal" people want. Anything's better than whay they're doing now, which is nothing.

 

[gorcorps]

I don't see how blackberry could compete in the Android market without doing something totally crazy or different. Samsung has basically cornered the high end Android market. Even guys like HTC are struggling to make it despite the fact that they make fantastic phones. The differences between the high end android phones are so marginal these days that I don't think the market can handle another competitor.

The one thing I'll give BB credit for is their current phones seem to be made well enough. Since they're company issued phones most people around here treat them like garbage and they hold up pretty well. There's issues with the software and stuff (which usually leads to aggressive BB tossing) but the hardware itself seems to hold up.

Maybe they can make them waterproof and go the durability route?

 

[poofyhairguy]

The problem for BlackBerry is where do they entre the market.

That is easy: Businesses.

This should be THE "my company assigned me a smartphone" Android phone or just close the doors. Consumers have given up on BB but business haven't. Cater to that market with good controls and management and they might have a hit on their hands. A few IT managers I know HATE HATE HATE BYOD and they just deal with it as a fact of life they hate but can't fix. A decent Android business phone gives them a reason to end a BYOD policy.

 

[Commodus]

You don't hack phones to hack phones. You do it to overcome arbitrary restrictions placed on it by manufacturers. Blackberry's current niche is "the phone company that doesn't sell phones". That's a guaranteed losing strategy. Making the phone hackable adds hackers to the group that loves real keyboards. That's probably double their current market. Then they can work on adding value to the Android base, and making desireable hardware "normal" people want. Anything's better than whay they're doing now, which is nothing.

That's still counter to BlackBerry's image. In fact, its very goal has been anti-hackability, because businesses don't want rogue employees swiping (or just losing) valuable data that was supposed to be locked down. I'm not convinced that BlackBerry could reconcile having both ultra-secure and ultra-open devices at the same time, either. You'd have to add an asterisk to corporate BYOD services. "Any BlackBerry you like... except that one."

Don't get me wrong, hackable phones are cool, but BlackBerry isn't the right label for it.

 

[Crono]

My dream would be a hacker's phone. Real keyboard, and no limitations. You get a normal phone ootb, and with a simple checkbox you unlock the whole thing to do what you want. Maybe they could get somewhere stacking niches. It won't make them an industry leader, but you can make a living without being first.

Project Ara could be that, but I hate waiting for it.

 

[magomago]

BB is right to assume that touch screen keyboard sucks. You get a lot of freedom to have any kind of keyboard/layout you want with SW, but it comes at the price of functionality.