blackberry
Former RIM employee talks about the PlayBook’s challenges
Like Steve Jobs, a former RIM employee shares his opinion about the PlayBook facing tough challenges ahead. Raymond Reddy was recently interviewed by Business Insider and gave his thoughts on RIM’s upcoming QNX tablet. According to the report, his main concerns about the device are its timing, developer support and its reliance on BlackBerry phones. The tablet is rumored to be delayed due to RIM having troubles with porting and tweaking the QNX tablet onto the device and the lack of apps at launch will be another problem the tablet it will face. Granted, those two issues are real, but like all operating systems used on tablets, they take awhile to blossom (i.e. Android’s tablet version Honeycomb is only coming this year, and Android 2.2 tablets have been around for awhile). The lack of apps just needs time to be solved, apps will flood the app stores eventually – all RIM needs to do is offer incentives for developers to hop over to their platform and they’re set. As for the tablet’s reliance on BlackBerry phones, it is an issue that RIM is totally in their hands. Having the ability to sync with a BlackBerry is great as an option, but making the tablet reliant will seriously limit its potential in both usage and sales. After all, not all BlackBerry users would want to get this tablet, and consumers who don’t own BlackBerry phones see this as a reason not to get the tablet. However, as to the tablet being dead on arrival, it’s hard to say – after all, if the tablet proves that it can stand its ground against its competition, it certainly has a fighting chance. It sure sounds like somebody is unhappy about his ex-company. A bad case of bitterness or an insightful prediction? We’ll see when the device launches this year.
Update: The original article was titled BlackBerry PlayBook is “Dead on arrival” says former RIM executive because we were commenting on the quote reported by Business Insider (notice the URL?). It turns out that there was some miscommunication and the article they wrote has been updated. Here is a quote from Business Insider about the updated article:
Update and correction: an earlier version of this story cited Reddy as a former executive at RIM. He wasn’t–he was an employee in corporate development and M&A. It also implied that he said the Playbook would flop. In fact, he made no prediction about its success or failure, but only pointed out these problems. Sorry for the errors.
Well just because he wasn’t a big shot in the company doesn’t make his statements less valid. Either way, the points listed are solid arguments against the PlayBook’s success, but then again they are just one person’s opinions on the device – opinions don’t equate to facts, statistics or hands-on reviews with the devices. Let’s just wait patiently for the PlayBook to hit the stores before we jump to any conclusions.
Back in the day, it was anathema to think that Apple computers would run on Intel processors, and Apple machines would have Microsoft Office running on them. Well, those days have long since arrived and gone, and it looks like to hear of a BlackBerry device running on Android? Now that’s what is going to happen with the BlackBerry Priv, where the folks over at Vietnam-based Karalux have something special up their sleeves for this handset, that is, by offering a gold-plating service.
It is going to be more challenging than usual though, as Karalux shared, “Unlike the previous generations, it is a little bit more difficult to disassemble BlackBerry Priv. Karalux engineers took nearly 2 hours to ‘operate’ its details, and spent 4 more hours with more than 10 different procedures to complete the first gold-plated BlackBerry Priv in Vietnam.”
The handset and gold-plating will cost $1,111 thereabouts, whereas international customers will have to fork out more at approximately $1,350 to bring one of these puppies back home. [Press Release]
It looks like BlackBerry has not decided to call it quits just yet where the smartphone market is concerned, and this time around, their unannounced smartphone has been given the codename BlackBerry Venice. What makes the BlackBerry Venice special is the fact that this could very well be one of BlackBerry’s very first devices that will run on the Android mobile operating system.
In recent times, we have heard that the BlackBerry Venice ought to be made available some time down the road over at AT&T. Apparently, @evleaks claims that this new handset, too, will be sold by T-Mobile, although there is no exact word on availability.
Whispers on the street point to the BlackBerry Venice arriving later this November. I guess all that we can do now is to sit tight and wait.
[MWC 2015] BlackBerry might not be the tour de force that it once was in the world of smartphones, but this does not mean that the company is a pushover, either. We have learned that this particular edition of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, has seen a new BlackBerry device introduced – the all new BlackBerry Leap smartphone for 4G LTE networks. Touted to be an affordable all-touch smartphone that is housed in a modern and powerful design, it will specially target career builders as well as companies who value both security and privacy when bringing productivity to a whole new level.
Hardware and software specifications include a 5” edge-to-edge HD display, a 2,800mAh battery life, BlackBerry OS 10.3.1, a best-in-class BlackBerry keyboard, BlackBerry Blend, BlackBerry Assistant, dual app storefronts that come preloaded for access to a huge selection of apps for work and play (BlackBerry World and Amazon Appstore), among others. [Press Release]