[NJBlackBerry]

Hey - they have replaceable batteries! Isn't that amazing enough?

[djm2]

I suspect that this thread illustrates some of the tension between the BB as a consumer device and the BB as a business device.

[wabbit]

Originally Posted by ApacheIndian

Ok. It is clear I am in the minority here. That's ok. (These are BB forums after all.)

Here are some of my predictions:

1. RIM/BB will continue to lose market share. They are not responding to consumer needs nor are their products improving/evolving. The Tour is in a couple ways better than the Curve, but in a couple ways worse -- net effect? Zero. The Storm is a complete disaster.

Source?.....
Rim is not losing marketshare still growing. while iphone users might be catching up to rim. ( more individual users vs companies)

2. Google and Google-related products will continue to gain market share. At the expense of Microsoft, RIM, Apple, AT&T, YouMail, Garmin, TomTom, and the like. People like free, fast, and easy-to-use.

its safe to say google is at its peak with market share. google's bread and butter is google.com they will do anything and everything to keep people using google search, it is what they revenue on. adding services just allows them to keep the market shares. 75% or so or about 10 billion income per quarter.

3. Cloud-computing is the future. Related security will improve, as will privacy issues. Privacy in particular will become less of an issue as consumers continue to decide that ease of use and speed outweigh a little loss of "privacy." So what if Google data mines??? Who really cares?

if you do not think google does not data mine your data and know you better then the fbi you really have problems, while there system might be randomized that they or an employee can not get your info, there system knows very well everything about you.

4. Android will continue to pick up steam. Maybe the Moto Droid won't be the iPhone killer, but it looks like its gonna be the first contender. Most are predicting that it will be the BlackBerry-killer.

why does everything have to be an "iphone killer"
bottom line, the internet is for porn and the best handheld that can deliver this experience will win. there's no if and or butts about this.

I wholeheartedly disagree that BB works turnkey with no maintenance and minimal effort. I am an above-average user for sure -- no bloatware, no superfluous apps, high memory (although should one really even have to worry about that???). Yet these devices still freeze up, act sluggish, require reboots and silly nonsensical battery-pulls (think about how primitive that is for a second -- a "battery pull"? C'mon -- really...).

name one device that does not ever need a reboot? or is perfect out of the box, i have yet to find this magical device.

as for primitive, dude its a natural reaction when something does not work, first thing people do is restart them, take a pc, tv programing or any device,

my router dont work right, i reboot it, my cable modem dont work right i reboot it, my sat box dont work right i reboot it.

follow a trend here?

[djm2]

[QUOTE=ApacheIndian;1503410]Ok. It is clear I am in the minority here. That's ok. (These are BB forums after all.)

Not only are you in a minority -- which should be expected -- but people are not even agreeing with your basic premise of sluggishness, etc. I find that even more interesting, and suspect that it says a great deal about you.

[penguin3107]

Originally Posted by ApacheIndian

Edumucate me please.

Impossible.

[JSanders]

Indian, there is just so much wrong with all this. The Storm is a complete disaster? You're believing your own lie, and to even state RIM is losing market share proves you're talking with no clear knowledge of what you're saying, and it basically just invalidates all else you have to say.

[blackbelt]

until reporters starting talking about a Blackberry Killer then theirs discussion... but now it's only iphone killers... I guess it's the iPhone's prominence that's at question?

[ArgonNJ]

Originally Posted by daphne

You want to make a comparison between the security of Google Calendar, or other "cloud" apps vs. the security of BES?

The cloud is the future. The city of LA is now using Google for their email services. Even MS is embracing cloud applications. BES is expensive and not something the layman can administer. Everyone is looking to cut costs and having dedicated IT personnel for something that can be maintain by someone like Google is looking more and more attractive.

[jbairdjr]

Hasnt Oracle been saying "the cloud is the future" since the Windows 95 days?
The fact is, the cloud cant be the future until we have 100% coverage to access that cloud.
I will stick with mail on my handheld that I can refer to anytime, reply to, and send when I return to coverage.

[ArgonNJ]

Originally Posted by jbairdjr

Hasnt Oracle been saying "the cloud is the future" since the Windows 95 days?
The fact is, the cloud cant be the future until we have 100% coverage to access that cloud.
I will stick with mail on my handheld that I can refer to anytime, reply to, and send when I return to coverage.

I'm just the opposite. I don't want my data tied to one device. That's the reason I use gmail. I can can sign on anywhere, anytime and get access to all my mail. I just signed up for Mobile Me and now I can put everything on the cloud and have it all sync with my computers and mobile devices.

[penguin3107]

Originally Posted by ArgonNJ

I just signed up for Mobile Me and now I can put everything on the cloud and have it all sync with my computers and mobile devices.

Glad to see someone else in support of MobileMe.
As a LONG time Mac user, I think this is one of Apple's least appreciated offerings. (Probably because there's an annual fee.)
It's a great product, and I'll continue to pay for it.

[NJBlackBerry]

The cloud is here now (I posted that earlier in this thread). A major issue is it is very difficult to move to the cloud if you have done any application customization. There are VERY few companies who can move to Exchange in the Cloud, as they have loads of Public Folders (not supported yet) and Archiving and other limitations and customizations.

It's here - just not quite ready.

[wabbit]

Originally Posted by ArgonNJ

The cloud is the future. The city of LA is now using Google for their email services. Even MS is embracing cloud applications. BES is expensive and not something the layman can administer. Everyone is looking to cut costs and having dedicated IT personnel for something that can be maintain by someone like Google is looking more and more attractive.

city of la, state of cali, where it cant afford to pay govt workers and gives out iou's is moving to cloud computing.

did i miss some details?

while i do agree that cloud sync, or cloud computing will is the way we are going. i really cant see business with vital information trusting people like google/ms/yahoo for core business functions. can you imagine inside trading, and what other schemes will come out of this? just in simple stocks knowing what is or is not approved.

i find that why business will stay with there own exchange, in house systems.

tho i do agree for personal usage, cloud computing is coming and coming fast. its convenient.

[blackbelt]

Although their's been a dramatic shift in competition and focuses in the last 2/3 years. Concepts like Cloud weren't yet seen as real possibilities on cell phones a few years ago. No one would have ever really thought big players like Apple and Google would enter the cell phone space. They all denied it artfully until the products were released. Google bought Android in 2005, so they must have had the plans since. Although the phones out now are nearing netbooks in power like the new N900(Blog: Nokia releases N900)... I think RIM will catch up they have the ability to innovate.

It took them sometime to get the bold right and their ironing out the storm(the first one was released to early). The 9700 is awesome, I think what they'll release next year will be even greater.

[TTsoldier]

Originally Posted by ApacheIndian

and it takes like 10 minutes to reboot.

My phone boots in 40 seconds.. >.>

[penguin3107]

Originally Posted by TTsoldier

My phone boots in 40 seconds.. >.>

Lucky you. Try a Tour. Mine boots in about 12-14 minutes on average.

[interstudy]

Storm boots in a less than a minute

[ApacheIndian]

Originally Posted by wabbit

i really cant see business with vital information trusting people like google/ms/yahoo for core business functions.

This statement is very similar to ones made time and time again as technological innovations have been introduced over the past couple hundred years...

- No one is going to buy and sell from strangers on the internet!

- If you go over 25 mph it may very well explode! I'll stick with my horse drawn carriage thank you very much.

- Buying books on the internet??? That's ridiculous! I'll go to my corner bookstore.

- A computer on every desk and in every home? ha! That's ridiculous, only big companies have any use for computers.

- It is not safe giving out your credit card information on the internet.

- There is no point in my getting email real-time to my cell phone. I want to leave work at the workplace.

- Machines where people can do their banking??? That's stupid -- we NEED real, live bank tellers.

The list goes on and on. Technology always -- as in always -- gets 1) Faster, 2) Cheaper, and 3) Safer/more secure. Cloud computing is well into #3... you can join now or you can join later, but join you will...


Returning to the main point, either BB needs to join that revolution, fix the numerous aforementioned BB idiosyncrasies, and get in bed with Google -- something I'll bet my bottom dollar was discussed with big wigs behind closed doors at some point somewhere -- and make things easier for the consumer, or they can fall behind and become obsolete. As much as a loyal BB user I've been over the years, sadly I see them heading down the latter path.

[monkeypaw]

Originally Posted by penguin3107

Lucky you. Try a Tour. Mine boots in about 12-14 minutes on average.

I bought a SIM card in Asia and they had to text some codes for me to get a discounted data package. The phone was taking so long to come up, I told the employee there to help someone else and I'd let her know when it came up.

Mine is more like 5 minutes, but still in the very annoying time frame. When the phone would reboot in the early UMA days, I had to use other phones for calls because if the call dropped it took 5 minutes to even try a call back. I got lots of voicemails from people saying, oh I guess you're in a bad cell area.

My phone has had some random reboots (non-UMA related) recently so it's getting to be upgrade time.

[wabbit]

Originally Posted by ApacheIndian

This statement is very similar to ones made time and time again as technological innovations have been introduced over the past couple hundred years...

- No one is going to buy and sell from strangers on the internet!

- If you go over 25 mph it may very well explode! I'll stick with my horse drawn carriage thank you very much.

- Buying books on the internet??? That's ridiculous! I'll go to my corner bookstore.

- A computer on every desk and in every home? ha! That's ridiculous, only big companies have any use for computers.

- It is not safe giving out your credit card information on the internet.

- There is no point in my getting email real-time to my cell phone. I want to leave work at the workplace.

- Machines where people can do their banking??? That's stupid -- we NEED real, live bank tellers.

The list goes on and on. Technology always -- as in always -- gets 1) Faster, 2) Cheaper, and 3) Safer/more secure. Cloud computing is well into #3... you can join now or you can join later, but join you will...


Returning to the main point, either BB needs to join that revolution, fix the numerous aforementioned BB idiosyncrasies, and get in bed with Google -- something I'll bet my bottom dollar was discussed with big wigs behind closed doors at some point somewhere -- and make things easier for the consumer, or they can fall behind and become obsolete. As much as a loyal BB user I've been over the years, sadly I see them heading down the latter path.

this is a joke right?