Why Microsoft doesn't get it..

[Edmund Burke]

I live out in the sticks in the UK. When I go to our local small town/large village your see lots of people with windows phones, especially young people. (I think the bright colours might even be a very positive selling point.) When I go back to London and visit friends they *all* have iPhones. Rich city job types, with a very blinkered view; they all "know" everything else is inferior, (much like a lot of the media seem to think) and think anything that is not glass and metal is ugly. May be they are right, but what proportion of the worlds population can really afford Apple devices? Continuum may be expensive now, but it will improve and ultimately offer lots of people inexpensive access to a more complete computing experience. They will have a TV + new windows phone and keyboard and mouse and job done. May not be ideal but better than the fortune you would need to spend on apple devices to get the same experience.
I look forward to the time when my phone is the only device I need (+stupid TV and keyboard). Unfortunately, in addition to fully functioning office I occasionally still need heaving lifting Intel processors... for now.

 

[anon(2523636)]

Seriously...Blackberry OS 10 is awful. As someone that managed 900 Blackberry OS5-7 devices for a business, then moved them to BB10 I can wholeheartedly say that there was none of our userbase liked OS10, calls to the Service Desk rose 35%, and base data use went up by over 75%. Blackberry OS is dead as a dodo. Blackberry are becoming just another MDM solution provider (using a platform they bought that wasn't even in the top 5 at the time. Releasing an Android device is just the death rattle of their hardware division (sales of the Passport are believed to be barely into 6 figures).
All the talented people at Blackberry have long since gone. They bought out the UI company 'The Astonishing Tribe' who had some amazing ideas, did basically nothing with them so they all left.

I'm not saying Microsoft is in any way perfect, but suggesting anything linked to the toxic recent Blackberry model is crazy.

 

[msnawe]

Well in my office we are about a dozen on bb10 and then a vast majority have android, then 2nd is Android. I think there may be one or two Windows phone and just about as much old style Nokias.

Most of my colleagues are impressed how good is bb10 for the office. They keep wondering why blackberry didn't advertise more.

Most of the type when they complain about something they are trying to do I their phone and, I show them how easy it is on w10.

They are surprised and acknowledge it, then they keep saying "sure but BlackBerry won't be here next year so I can't have bb10 even it's better". That's the main blocking point for them.

The ones who have Windows phone just tell me: I just want a phone for calls and Facebook, it's cheap and does the job. I don't need something fancy like bb10 or iOS, too expensive.

So much for Microsoft taking over the office, not the techies at least.

I think hoping developers are going to convert their android apps is just very optimistic. Most won't bother, it takes time already to test them on Android, they don't have extra time to invest. Microsoft will have to pay them to do it.



As soon as there is a BlackBerry 10 dual SIM, I fully quit Android.

 

[elindalyne]

It's a completely moot point anyways.. If BB doesn't sell at least 5 million privs, BB is more than likely going to stop making phones altogether.

 

[baklawa]

...Microsoft should have bought blackberry. But now it's still a great opportunity to do so. There can combine their strength...

Two turkeys don't make an eagle...

Both MS and BB were focused on the enterprise maket, then came Apple and Google targetting the "end-user entertainment" market.

Now we all know how to get the biggest market shares: forget about the enterprise market otherwise you cannot reach more than 15%

 

[msnawe]

True. enterprise is not enough, with BYOD employees want to choose their device and it's usually iPhone or Samsung Galaxy

As soon as there is a BlackBerry 10 dual SIM, I fully quit Android.

 

[anon(9150264)]

It seems like you don't get it. To compare BB with W10 is simply pathetic.

 

[kangeles]

More acquisitions will not help Microsoft in the mobile space. And most certainly not Blackberry. It would be good to support the business focused segment of the market, sure, but not much else. Microsoft is doing the right thing focusing on every other part of the ecosystem to help drive business into mobile. Either that, or they need to hire Taylor Swift, Adam Levine, and Justin Bieber or whatever "cool" people follow these days and get them to use and endorse their products. If there is a king of hipsters, then that person. Growing the mobile business any otherway just isn't going to help quickly enough. This is going to have to be a long game.

 

[TechAbstract]

Microsoft focus right now is Windows 10 OS as a service for all Windows 10 devices. Why do they need to buy another OS for? It makes no sense to me.

 

[fdruid]

Make a company, then make the decisions while running it, everything else is just hot air.

 

[colinkiama]

After many struggling to gain market share from Android, Microsoft is now changing strategy, going cross platform and targeting enterprise. Basically following the path of blackberry.

Somehow we can see Microsoft has:
+ some nice things in Windows phone like universal apps, good camera, easy to use tiles.
+ good office suite.
+ good ecosystem except for apps.
- pretty much everything else is on par or inferior to blackberry 10.

Blackberry has:
+ great bb10. With best hub, best virtual keyboard, great UI, better OS.
+ good enterprise services
+ great IoT platform.
+ great security.
- no ecosystem
- inferior camera.
- inferior maps.

So rather than relying on Nokia, Microsoft should have bought blackberry. But now it's still a great opportunity to do so. There can combine their strength by:
+ ditch windows OS and adopt bb10 as the new windows phone in their ecosystem.
+ bring in universal apps on bb10
+ bring active tiles
+ bring here maps and good camera.
+ bring native office suite.
+ integrate blackberry enterprise services in MS ecosystem.

=> they will become the leader in enterprise and IoT.
=> they will then have leverage to increase market share in mobile.

It's not too late for Microsoft to be relevant at last.

As soon as there is a BlackBerry 10 dual SIM, I fully quit Android.

I don't get what you are trying to say, Microsoft can update and improve their OS over time. Why would they purchase blackberry to gain features that they can implement themselves?

 

[BrianLeeRussell]

This thread should just be deleted. It's just stupid.

 

[Mike Bourbon]

People keep saying the future is the cloud, but I feel as more and more people realize the cloud is just someone else's computer they will start to walk it back. I think using the cloud is like saying "Why have a car when I can take the bus?" which is fine for some people but not for most of us apparently.....

 

[Eolirin]

People keep saying the future is the cloud, but I feel as more and more people realize the cloud is just someone else's computer they will start to walk it back. I think using the cloud is like saying "Why have a car when I can take the bus?" which is fine for some people but not for most of us apparently.....

"The cloud" isn't about replacing native applications with server hosted ones, though some portions of the computation are definitely being offloaded that way, it's about extending them. Cloud is a necessary synchronization layer for so many things. You want favorite synchronization between phone and tablet and PC web browsers? You need a cloud service for that. You want message and notification syncing? Cloud. Settings backup? Cloud. Application state synchronization so that the document you were just working on is updated on your desktop and is kept in sync with your colleagues? Cloud. Collaboration services with other people like real time document editing and video chat? Cloud. Stable, scalable, low latency multiplayer gaming? Cloud. Automatic updates? Cloud. And that's before you get into any sort of super resource intensive computing that is only possible on cloud data clusters, like good voice recognition, image recognition, and natural language processing, or data analytics over massive data sets (and other stuff we haven't invented yet).

What you give up even with what would normally be considered offline applications in order to not at all be on 'someone else's computer' is massive. Cripplingly so.

 

[poken1151]

To the OP, statements like, "+ great bb10. With best hub, best virtual keyboard, great UI, better OS." really don't lend to the arguments of this post... Don't get me wrong, not saying you can't have an opinion. But at that statement it turns almost into a flame war as opposed to what many (I'm assuming) are thinking your post is gonna be about and throws most any and every other critique out the window.

I can also ignore the post entirely, personally, but I think you have some points and thought I'd toss my input out there, as you have here.

 

[Markeyse Jamar Mundy]

Wait did he say they should of bought Blackberry!? A FAILED ecosystem, instead of Nokia? One of the top World device developers!?


HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Oh by the way, Microsoft didn't buy Nokia. They just acquire their Device arm!

 

[Zuchit]

are you nuts dude? You want MS to go with BB10 instead of Windows 10 for universal apps?

You must be smoking really high...go away for better!

 

[msnawe]

I respect your viewpoints. And it's ok to differ. Deleting this thread would be childish.

Bear in mind that if bb10 users would prefer collaboration or acquisition by Microsoft is because they think it's a better second choice than going android.

I am unbiased enough to recognize bb10 o its own is not going to regain market share alone. And I can see what Microsoft has that blackberry doesn't.

Microsoft could still reimplement the good bits bb10 already have. Why not. I am just thinking it's quicker to start from bb10 and take the good bits w10 have.

As for universal apps, it's very appealing to the end user but I am not convinced many developers will do it if they old w8.1 just work as it is. Microsoft will have to pay for them to do it.

On the other hand, distributed computing across devices is more appealing, and this is something qnx does natively.


As soon as there is a BlackBerry 10 dual SIM, I fully quit Android.

 

[Daniel Ratcliffe]

This thread should just be deleted. It's just stupid.

No. It isn't. While the OP may have come across a bit stubborn at times, he does have good points. And as he's said, it's ok to have different viewpoints (that's how debate starts), and I'd say we've had a good debate here. Please don't ruin that.

Edit: Yes I've come across as stubborn in this thread too.

 

[ROBBIE HALL]

I'm from what you would call a "third world country" (really despise that phrase!) I'm from the Caribbean (Barbados). I own a small repair and mobile retail store. I have seen a certain trend.
1. Blackberries are being sold from $25bds (12.50usd) to a max of $70bds (35.00usd)
2. Only 1 network still carries BB (but they had an agreement for a few years and said network sells ONE BB model...one of the "latest" models)
3. Manufacturer BLU has what seems to be the biggest presence here. Big screens, cheap Android.
4. IPhones and Galaxys are popular among the "middle to high" class (read the "I want to be seen type of people") Truthfully, iPhones and Galaxys are bought more as a fashion or class statement...not due to efficiency.
4. Windows Phones are NOT VERY popular. However, when using public transport I would average about 2 in 10. However, alot of persons are not aware of phones like the 640xl (which would rival the popular BLU)
So there is a market HERE for WP.
Also, there is a HUGE interest in the Surface and Book.
Saying all that, I think MS is heading in the right direction focussing on PC's and tablets and letting that success integrate phones.
I do NOT agree with your bb10 hypothesis. No one, not even in a "3rd world country" would be seen using a BB now.