BlackBerry CEO John Chen, pictured here from a 2014 photo, has expressed his outcry over the new … [+]
A new BlackBerry smartphone has just been announced and it promises things that no previous BlackBerry had, such as 5G connectivity. The new phone comes from a Texas-based company called OnwardMobility (no, I had not heard of it either) which has reached agreements with BlackBerry and a Foxconn subsidiary called FIH Mobile.
BlackBerry went from an incredible success and then disappeared, only an excitement when Chinese company TCL produced a series of phones with the famous name on it. TCL threw in the towel recently and it looked like the market was going well. Now, OnwardMobility says it will release a new BlackBerry in the first half of 2021 in North America and Europe.
The rise of BlackBerry was an interesting one. First, it was embraced by entrepreneurs who wanted access to their emails all the time – this was way before it was possible on regular phones. But it also had a second group of fans: kids. This was down to BlackBerry Messenger, a messaging service between BlackBerry handsets that sent and received versions.
So, instead of texting on regular phones that came with a cost, students and young people began to adopt the BlackBerry in large numbers. Some BlackBerry fans I met claimed that because the physical QWERTY keyboard was useful, even by typing messages, they could tap a message with the phone under their desk, seeming to focus on it at the same time their teacher, so that no one was wiser.
One of the last TCL phones with the BlackBerry name on it was the BlackBerry Key2.
You can see that satisfying those two segments of the market requires complicated thinking and it was ultimately too much to deal with, perhaps.
And, of course, in 2007 came the iPhone and changed everything. BlackBerry did not give up and created its own new operating system to compete with iOS and Android. That was when the wheels really came off, I would say.
The new system had its strengths, but it obviously lacked the enormous number of apps from its rivals. Then BlackBerry moved to Android and handsets made by TCL.
So, why does any of this matter? After all, we have seen the market rise and fall before.
Now, the new company has already confirmed that it will focus on the main aspect that one associates with BlackBerry: security. Clearly, business customers will be the main focus. It can be difficult to stand out here, now that iPhone security is considered to be out and other companies have their own solutions, such as Samsung’s Knox features on its Android phones. And this was recently also the focus for TCL.
Maybe it will be up to the design. After all, Peter Franklin, CEO of OnwardMobility said, “Consumers are looking for a safer choice for their smartphone purchases and they are ready for a sleek device built for safety and productivity from the ground up.”
Ben Wood of CCS Insight, and perhaps the most knowledgeable man on the planet when it comes to phones, said: ‘BlackBerry once had three key differentiators: battery life, security and a physical Qwerty keyboard. These days, most Android phone makers provide similar battery life, security has been dramatically improved on Android and Apple’s iOS, leaving only the keyboard. Even so, owning one is still beyond the reach of the average person, as most users are now comfortable typing on a touchscreen and trading in terms of screen real estate in the world when it’s all about the content on the display is a big must. you add a physical keyboard. ”
That’s true, but there’s something special about the BlackBerry keyboard, so let’s hope they do not interfere too much with it. I know several execs who swear by it, claiming that they can type much faster on the physical QWERTY than on any unyielding glass screen.
Of course, “several” may not be enough to reboot the phone, but it will be interesting to see what happens.
There’s no problem with apps, because this will be an Android phone, and if it can make a distinctive play for security, then it has a chance. The design will be essential (sluggishness is a good first step), as the exact price will rise. And most importantly, that keyboard should be as good as we remember it was.
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