RIM makes a BlackBerry Palm Pre
Interesting really. Almost no one makes a portrait slider, and after Palm showed that it could be done well (though with terrible marketing... still pisses me off), Blackberry decided that the Pre would be template for the phone which is meant to save the company.
You see, Blackberry has an issue. While its phones are great email devices, they have fallen behind the times in terms of modern, capacitive screened touch-based smartphones which are really small tablet computers. Blackberries are still email phones, first and foremost. Its previous attempt at a phone that would save the company, the Storm, was a complete and utter failure.
At the same time though - why does Blackberry need saving? It has shown consistent growth, and continues to do well. This is true. But a lot of that growth has been from normal people picking up low-end Blackberries to use as messenger phones - the high end, high margin market is becoming increasingly dominated by Android and the iPhone. And then there is the issue of people sticking around. A Neilsen survey shows that only 42% of Blackberry owners plan on buying a Blackberry next time, compared to 71% of Android owners and 89% of fanatical iPhone owners. And the bigger issue is this - Blackberry owners are generally planning to defect to the iPhone or Android, thats what over 80% of the ones who are leaving plan to buy. In comparison, only 3% of Android or iPhone users plan on buying a Blackberry. Ouch.
Of course, Blackberry faces a difficult task. The world is becoming increasingly dominated by 4' screened mini-computers which just happen to make phone calls. If I could change a couple of things about my Pre, which was state of the art a year ago, I would make it bigger and with a faster processor. Which, shockingly, is exactly what the Droid X, EVO 4G, Samsung Omnia etc etc have done over the past 12 months.
The new phone, the Torch, also comes with a new operating system, which is mean to move Blackberry in the direction of touch-screen use, easy menus, and lots of big icons built into different pages/screens/whatever you want to call it. But really, its just playing catchup.
Lets look at the features, compared to my know somewhat dated, but still very much loved Palm Pre.
The Blackberry comes in an "all new" portrait slider configuration. Which is the same as the Pre. It has a 3.2' capacitive screen at 320x480 resolution, which is identical. It has a 600mHz processor - which is the same as the Pre (the Pre has now been overclocked all the way to 1.2gHz, but I have not tried it). It comes with 8GB of storage, which is... identical. It has a 5mp camera which shoots 640x480 video... which is... actually 2mp higher than the Pre, but the Pre has great image quality (better than most Android phones for example), so calling it a wash for now. Essentially, this phone would have been competitive with the best and the brightest a year ago. And in terms of phones these days, a year is a long way behind.
On the software side it has a new webkit based browser (finally) so that Blackberries can now surf the internet.. but webkit has been the Andorid, iPhone and Palm browser for a while now. Above all else, it has a new OS which allows universal search, integrates gmail and social networks, manages your contact list and plays nice with multitouch, gestures, and capacitive screens in general. Except none of it is quite right. Touch and gestures are hard to use according to early reports. Email integration across multiple accounts and social networks is there, kinda, but then you have to go into each one some of the time also, sort of a half-baked feeling according to reviews. And while the new OS is easier to use than the previous version, it is still clunky in comparison to webOS, iOS or Android.
The real question is how much all that actually matters for Blackberry. It has done very well for a long time now selling phones who's primary purpose in live is to be good at email, very good at it. And for most enterprise users, that is still the primary objective. In this sense, the Torch is much better than the Pre, or the Droid, or the iPhone. I have used the keyboard on all of them, and am not a big fan of any. To be honest, the best phone keyboard I have ever used is still from my first phone, the Nokia 6800:
So if Blackberry can deliver enough of the new hotness that these iPhone/Android/Pre owners have been going on about, they should be in the clear.
Their biggest competitor? Well, right now it is clearly Android, which is stealing all of the thunder. But I think Microsoft with Windows Phone 7 is also one to watch. MSFT loves enterprise applications, with one of the Blackberry's big selling points being how well it works with Microsoft Exchange. And all Blackberry really has at that point is its focus on building really nice keyboards into its phones... and well.. that's not too secure a place to be in.
You see, Blackberry has an issue. While its phones are great email devices, they have fallen behind the times in terms of modern, capacitive screened touch-based smartphones which are really small tablet computers. Blackberries are still email phones, first and foremost. Its previous attempt at a phone that would save the company, the Storm, was a complete and utter failure.
At the same time though - why does Blackberry need saving? It has shown consistent growth, and continues to do well. This is true. But a lot of that growth has been from normal people picking up low-end Blackberries to use as messenger phones - the high end, high margin market is becoming increasingly dominated by Android and the iPhone. And then there is the issue of people sticking around. A Neilsen survey shows that only 42% of Blackberry owners plan on buying a Blackberry next time, compared to 71% of Android owners and 89% of fanatical iPhone owners. And the bigger issue is this - Blackberry owners are generally planning to defect to the iPhone or Android, thats what over 80% of the ones who are leaving plan to buy. In comparison, only 3% of Android or iPhone users plan on buying a Blackberry. Ouch.
Of course, Blackberry faces a difficult task. The world is becoming increasingly dominated by 4' screened mini-computers which just happen to make phone calls. If I could change a couple of things about my Pre, which was state of the art a year ago, I would make it bigger and with a faster processor. Which, shockingly, is exactly what the Droid X, EVO 4G, Samsung Omnia etc etc have done over the past 12 months.
The new phone, the Torch, also comes with a new operating system, which is mean to move Blackberry in the direction of touch-screen use, easy menus, and lots of big icons built into different pages/screens/whatever you want to call it. But really, its just playing catchup.
Lets look at the features, compared to my know somewhat dated, but still very much loved Palm Pre.
The Blackberry comes in an "all new" portrait slider configuration. Which is the same as the Pre. It has a 3.2' capacitive screen at 320x480 resolution, which is identical. It has a 600mHz processor - which is the same as the Pre (the Pre has now been overclocked all the way to 1.2gHz, but I have not tried it). It comes with 8GB of storage, which is... identical. It has a 5mp camera which shoots 640x480 video... which is... actually 2mp higher than the Pre, but the Pre has great image quality (better than most Android phones for example), so calling it a wash for now. Essentially, this phone would have been competitive with the best and the brightest a year ago. And in terms of phones these days, a year is a long way behind.
On the software side it has a new webkit based browser (finally) so that Blackberries can now surf the internet.. but webkit has been the Andorid, iPhone and Palm browser for a while now. Above all else, it has a new OS which allows universal search, integrates gmail and social networks, manages your contact list and plays nice with multitouch, gestures, and capacitive screens in general. Except none of it is quite right. Touch and gestures are hard to use according to early reports. Email integration across multiple accounts and social networks is there, kinda, but then you have to go into each one some of the time also, sort of a half-baked feeling according to reviews. And while the new OS is easier to use than the previous version, it is still clunky in comparison to webOS, iOS or Android.
The real question is how much all that actually matters for Blackberry. It has done very well for a long time now selling phones who's primary purpose in live is to be good at email, very good at it. And for most enterprise users, that is still the primary objective. In this sense, the Torch is much better than the Pre, or the Droid, or the iPhone. I have used the keyboard on all of them, and am not a big fan of any. To be honest, the best phone keyboard I have ever used is still from my first phone, the Nokia 6800:
So if Blackberry can deliver enough of the new hotness that these iPhone/Android/Pre owners have been going on about, they should be in the clear.
Their biggest competitor? Well, right now it is clearly Android, which is stealing all of the thunder. But I think Microsoft with Windows Phone 7 is also one to watch. MSFT loves enterprise applications, with one of the Blackberry's big selling points being how well it works with Microsoft Exchange. And all Blackberry really has at that point is its focus on building really nice keyboards into its phones... and well.. that's not too secure a place to be in.
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