New details about next BlackBerry-branded Android smartphone announced

[Jan]

Back in Black(Berry)

The next BlackBerry-branded smartphone will launch in 2021, and licensed manufacturer OnwardMobility has launched a waiting list for the next device.

BlackBerry and OnwardMobility first announced their partnership last year, promising to launch a new 5G smartphone with a physical keyboard.

 

[Pineapple Smurf]

Rim service again?

 

[TofuMofu]

 

[RedViking]

 

[saor]

The only reason to have one was the messenger. What's the point of this kak now? Unless people really want a tiny physical keyboard.

 

[HelterSkelter]

Dingleberry

 

[flenters]

doomed from the start

 

[Radioboy]

jissis let it die

 

[Totempole]

I think its safe to say that touch screens have advanced to a point where a tiny hardware keyboard below the screen is a waste of space.

 

[Decarin]

Nonetheless, despite its fall, Blackberry was a magnificent beast when it was at its best,

Ay. Author doesn't remember the crap Blackberry users were subjected to like the rest of us do.

 

[Ragnarök]

Still the best phone I ever owned

 

[Unreal]

I wanted that Z10 so bad

 

[Keegan89]

My Blackberry curve was great when back then. But we have moved on. It's not me it's you, I mean...

 

[We Love Bass]

Cant they just make air conditioners or microwaves or something

 

[RudderVator]

The year is 2010… iPhone 4 is out with no physical keyboard with a screen that puts the Blackberry to shame resolution and size wise not to mention brightness.
Samsung Galaxy all but a distant spec on the horizon still.

Blackberry tried an App World… it never really worked the same way we would imagine Apps today. Once again the pioneer of it all was the App Store.

One chuckles as your friend has to pull his battery out and restart 10 times a day due to the phone locking up or changing his battery because it was constantly flat.
Average full restart time T- 10 Minutes.
A phone with EDGE connectivity and a browser that could barely load Google… a processor with all the power of a Pentium 386 in 2010.

I really don’t get why it was ever anything to write home about?
Perhaps because of the R59 all you can eat dial-up speeds? Or the nostalgia of BBM?

I have to admit that using BBM on iPhone in 2014 really impressed me. It had features Whatsapp/iMessage would only dream of for years to come.

 

[RudderVator]

Ay. Author doesn't remember the crap Blackberry users were subjected to like the rest of us do.

The plague that was the 8520 with its trackpad failures Dont think a single phone ever made it out of warranty without a replacement.

 

[Mekon]

I'm a "never owned a Blackberry" type of guy. I witnessed my daughters daily struggles with that crap. Then it was the frikkin R60 a month BBM service per month otherwise the phone was useless to a teen.

 

[krycor]

Yup.. use to have a bold with a touch pad. Nostalgia is great but you can’t move back easily.

Thinking back it was awesome then and the iPhone 4 came out.. introduced new things but it didn’t have network support. BIS started being and issue the following year & apps started looking better on Apple.. and so I moved to iPhone 4S.. and that ecosystem I’ve remained in since for almost all devices (work forces Dell tho ).

I don’t think one can go back to physical keypad nor do I think a BIS service will be available again though mobile networks have tried introducing similar packages with better enforced limits to keep service active.

Ps. I wonder if they still sell those Bluetooth game & keyboard clip ons for cellphones to convert it into essentially a Nokia N Gage or bbm keyboard.. if you want physical keys.

 

[Sapphiron]

The only reason to have one was the messenger. What's the point of this kak now? Unless people really want a tiny physical keyboard.

I think for many it was the uncapped data at R60pm at a time when many did not even have ADSL and uncapped ADSL was still very expensive.

The fact that Blackberry never went multi-platform with their services, was why they died off. BBM could have been as dominant as WhatsApp today if they were not so short-sighted.

This "new" phone is basically a low quality android phone with a blackberry logo.

 

[zoozi]

The year is 2010… iPhone 4 is out with no physical keyboard with a screen that puts the Blackberry to shame resolution and size wise not to mention brightness.
Samsung Galaxy all but a distant spec on the horizon still.

Blackberry tried an App World… it never really worked the same way we would imagine Apps today. Once again the pioneer of it all was the App Store.

One chuckles as your friend has to pull his battery out and restart 10 times a day due to the phone locking up or changing his battery because it was constantly flat.
Average full restart time T- 10 Minutes.
A phone with EDGE connectivity and a browser that could barely load Google… a processor with all the power of a Pentium 386 in 2010.

I really don’t get why it was ever anything to write home about?
Perhaps because of the R59 all you can eat dial-up speeds? Or the nostalgia of BBM?

I have to admit that using BBM on iPhone in 2014 really impressed me. It had features Whatsapp/iMessage would only dream of for years to come.

The ubiquitous BBM Messenger was one of the biggest reasons, they had the monopoly on social messaging, whatsapp wasn't much of a thing. Who was browsing on blackberries, let alone any phone at that time? 30 second webpage load time on 2G/3G on a kaka little screen with no web responsiveness and only buttons, good times...
I still miss blackberry, I've had what, 15+ years of touch screens now? Still make mistakes ALL THE TIME, iphone, android, samsung, whatever. Still irritates me. Seems the trend now is colossal dildo shaped phones now, chop the end off, stitch on a small keyboard and I might be tempted.