I've been using the BB10 for a few months now, building software for the launch. I was extremely skeptical at first, but after the push to launch, I have a lot of positive things to say about the device and the OS.
1) Its fast, memory management isn't an issue for developers like it is on Android or even iOS.
2) Its smooth and multitasks well. QNX does deliver here big time.
3) Its solid -- during the Alpha and Beta stages, I never had a crash -- this is, looking back, astounding.
4) Native development is not as demanding as Android or iOS. The dev ecosystem guides you well to just the right balance between native UI elements and customization and you can do it in a language you likely already have knowledge of. (Java, QT, HTML5, C++)
Overall -- it was a pleasure to build and launch apps on BB10 -- which is more than I have to say for other ecosystems. I'd describe it as the the ease of developing the display layer for a Windows Phone app mixed with the flexibility and depth of an Android app and the power of iPhone hardware.
Background: I'm a hardcore iPhone user who is in the mobile industry and regularly uses hundreds of mobile devices.
> "memory management isn't an issue for developers like it is on Android or even iOS."
Memory Management is a issue on android development? Ive been dev'ing for android for > 2 years and i have never had a memory management issue. Not saying there isnt one, but i would imagine you would have to be doing something wrong for it to be an issue.
> " Native development is not as demanding as Android"
Could you elaborate on what you mean by "demanding"? The vast majority of android apps happily spend there entire lives never touching native code...
Memory managment was a pain in the butt when I was developing for Android. Mainly because apps (then) were limited to a 16MB heap and bitmaps would allocate memory automatically but need to "reminded" to release it afterwards. The only real way to know if you'd exceeded the limit when you tried to open a bitmap was to catch the OutOfMemory exception and retry with a lower sampling of the image. So the simple act of trying to read an image into memory and display it turns into a complex memory management scenario. Good times.
Up until 4.0-ish you didn't have great native UI libraries and so forth to help you quickly put together a native app w/o designing a UI library from the ground up.
Honestly, I never expected RIM to have such a powerful launch, BB10 really delivered where they needed to. I've been growing sick of iOS's limitations and Nexus's hardware design direction - Non user-replaceable batteries and absence of external memory cards.
Blackberry sounds interesting and for once since Symbian, I feel relieved.
From the videos I've seen before, I think BB10 handled "real multi-tasking" the best among all modern mobile OS's. Even Ubuntu for phones seemed to lag a little between switching apps. But with BB10 entering a new app seemed instantaneous. Granted Ubuntu for phones is still in alpha mode.
Also the "true multi-tasking" of BB10 may also impact the phone's battery life. So far the battery reports about Z10 haven't been that great. RIM (Blackberry now) should've tried to compensate that with a bigger battery or something.
On the Verge review he stated that sometimes he could go from 9am to 6pm and the phone would be dead and other times it lasted a bit longer. I'm wondering though if this is because BB10 has real multitasking (judging by the Playbook) and any apps he leaves open are actually running.
As a Canadian, I really do wish them well. It's hard to imagine Waterloo's startup ecosystem existing without a large anchor company like RIM and Mike Lazaridis (RIM founder) is one of the most inspiring philanthropists alive.
Having said that, they're going to have a tough time. Realistically it's possible for them to take a solid #3 spot behind Google and Apple, however Microsoft is ready to pour billions to make sure they're that #3. In fact, it's not clear whether there is a #3 exists at all, although I suspect it does.
Lastly there's the question of whether BlackBerry can remain independent. A good BB10 launch will make them an attractive target - perhaps Amazon is tired of being chained to Android.
>Having said that, they're going to have a tough time.
I don't think it'll be as tough as all that. Remember that they still have their huge corporate install base. If they'd waited another 18 months to release this, they would have really been losing that market as companies started replacing their BB infrastructure. As is, they can parlay their huge corporate client base into a market for this new phone.
It's Apple's game to lose. Tim Cook is exactly the wrong person to be CEO. He seems like a tweaker, someone who dusts and sweeps in the corners but won't move the furniture.
On the other hand, Blackberry (it feels weird not calling them RIM) are going all out. Their innovations to BB10 will make Tim Cook look even more uninspired.
EDIT: The above comment is my prediction of the public's perception of Tim Cook in the next few months (an otherwise nice guy and good leader). Not gospel. But it will be interesting to watch how BB10 does and how Apple responds.
The way I see it that everything that made the iPhone so original and successful has now been more or less commoditized and so the field is somewhat open.
The closest thing I've seen to the next stage of smartphone evolution is Google Now. Even in it's lowly v1 it is useful and I can totally see it becoming Android's killer app. Also, Google's engineering and services are well suited to executing well - they have expertise in machine learning, they have tons of data, etc. I'll be interesting to see what happens.
Cook's a terrible guy to be the same type of CEO as Jobs was. But it doesn't follow from that that he's a terrible CEO, and I think it's exactly why he took the opportunity to elevate Ive to head of all design.
I don't want to derail, but this this this this this. Anyone who tried to be Jobs 2.0 would fail in this position, and Cook seems smart enough to recognize that. Apple will be different under Cook, and that's a much more hopeful sign than Cook (or anyone else) putting on a black turtleneck.
True Multitasking, Blackberry Balance, Timeshift Camera, Physical Keyboard, Hub, Browser built in HTML5, Mobile Screen Sharing... Did you read the article?
Everything you just stated is gimmick. Physical keyboards are over.
And the "true multitasking" sort of works (pretty much as well as Anroid) only because they bolted 2GB of RAM onto the thing.
BlackBerry are dead. The OS looks like amateur hour, the icons look inspired by Windows XP, and even their default font is badly rendered everywhere. The Android emulator is unusably slow (nothing like what it was in the desktop simulator) and pointless. It should be removed.
It's a decent beta, but that's about it. They're done.
> "And the "true multitasking" sort of works (pretty much as well as Anroid) only because they bolted 2GB of RAM onto the thing."
Well, yeah. So what?
As an iOS user I'm salivating at the thought of actually being able to IM people properly. Right now invariably it goes something like this:
[push notification: you have a new message!]
[tap on notification]
[IM app launches]
[go get a coffee]
[IM app launched! Retrieving your new messages...]
[go get a sandwich]
[here's that message!]
Real multitasking is a huge win, even a diehard iOS user like myself will admit. I don't care if they had to summon Cthulhu to make it work - but as long as it does, it's a great selling point.
the growth of the blackberry was driven by communicating when you are out of the office, whereas the iphone is really a portable computer with cellular antenna.
the original blackberries were a 2-3 line screen with a keyboard, and the screen grew in size from there. that's what most of corporate america first got hooked on, at least in my memory (a young geezer).
from what i see, folks that chose the iphone either never cared about writing an email remotely, or forego that capability (or compromise) in exchange for the apps, games etc.
iphones in the workplace are comical.
folks who have iphones tend to write back "ok" or "talk tmrw" etc in response when they are out of office. they can't use the keyboard, and it's hard to pretend - takes a lot of effort. or, if they try to write more, it is endless typos or bizarre auto-correct comments.
i write this as a blackberry bold user, so understand my biases, but for actual email communication, nothing comes close. (and i tried iphone/android for a while to see if i could do it - can't).
so, i'm looking forward to the q10, at least one idiot still functional in the blackberry ecosystem. maybe a 12-step program will help.
everyone I know who owns a smartphone with a virtual keyboard is very proficient at typing on it, myself included. Older folks may have a hard time with it, but the younger crowd adapted very nicely to it. I'd rather have the extra screen real-estate.
I don't see how the phone's android emulation can be slower than the Playbook. The Playbook emulation actually works pretty well. The same goes for the multitasking. I'd be surprised if the BB10 multitasking was worse than the Playbook which multitasks like a beast. With that said I wonder if it has a mode to turn off "showcase" type multitasking to save battery life?
I guess my Note II is not the only one who has this features: " A subtle light blinks above the screen to indicate that something — a text, an e-mail message, voice mail, a Facebook post — is waiting for you. Without even pressing a physical button, you swipe up the screen; the Lock screen lifts like a drape as you slide your thumb, revealing what’s underneath." (I guess at least all high end Samsung phones has them.)
Also, Apple keep getting a whole lot for free: "...you give up some very attractive ecosystems, like the way Apple synchronizes your calendar, messages, and photos on all your gadgets. Or, for Android, the similar conveniences of Google Voice and Google Maps. "
My Android phones have been syncing photos and calendars for years. I can't remember exactly but I am fairly certain they did it before iCloud as well.
The nexus 4 has the light and no-unlock summary as well. The light even changes colors depending on the app which generated the notification (e.g. facebook messages have a blue light).
Not sure why everyone is in love with Blackberry again all of the sudden. It seems like they've launched a feature complete smart phone, but they're all pretty much commodity features now, and certainly anything new they've innovated will be copied by the others within a few months. Who in their right mind would buy a blackberry?
And don't say business, because most sysadmins (myself included) already have plans to move off the Blackberry platform (and have fantasies about the day they can KILL their BES server).
This is all very reminiscent of the whole Palm treo debacle.
Are you failing to remember Apple was once in a position in the early 90's when people were calling for the company to die already? In investors eyes as well as the general public's eyes, Apple had no hope and now look at them. Blackberry have released a phenomenal phone, arguably one of the best smartphones to come along in a very long time.
Just because you're planning on moving from the Blackberry platform doesn't mean everyone else is. Unless you speak for the general system administrator crowd, you're making baseless assumptions. And this is nothing like the Palm Treo debacle, Blackberry have not only developed a powerful and beautiful operating system but have built a phone that is of a much higher standard than Apple's increasingly irrelevant phones. Blackberry have just stepped up their A-game, nobody could have released a better phone than this at this point in time, not even Apple.
>Just because you're planning on moving from the Blackberry platform doesn't mean everyone else is. Unless you speak for the general system administrator crowd, you're making baseless assumptions. And this is nothing like the Palm Treo debacle, Blackberry have not only developed a powerful and beautiful operating system but have built a phone that is of a much higher standard than Apple's increasingly irrelevant phones. Blackberry have just stepped up their A-game, nobody could have released a better phone than this at this point in time, not even Apple.
Apple irrelevant? Really. As for the quality of the new blackberrys the verge gave the best one a 7 out of 10.
Did you read that article by any chance? Full of assumptions and statistics obtained essentially from asking 250,000 people what phones they bought last year... Those claims were from a sales poll, not any official sales report. All this post is doing is stoking the flames and begging for a raging response from Android and Windows Phone users.
I don't have a dog in this race nor was it meant as flamebait. Just pointing out that ever increasing sales of iPhones make me doubt that they're becoming "increasingly irrelevant". Analysts may think that Apple should've sold more, but they also sold more than they've ever sold in a single quarter.
Blackberry supporters keep claiming that there are innovations here. I'll echo what another poster asked: what innovations? It doesn't help their cause when articles like this one claim:
Some of BlackBerry 10’s ideas are truly ingenious. A subtle light blinks above the screen to indicate that something — a text, an e-mail message, voice mail, a Facebook post — is waiting for you
Except this has actually been a blackberry feature for years. I'm not sure why this is being advertised as a BB10 feature. I had this 6 years ago on my blackberry phone.
I'll repost the working list that I posted above: True Multitasking, Blackberry Balance, Timeshift Camera, Physical Keyboard, Hub, Browser built in HTML5, Mobile Screen Sharing...
This article doesn't do the best job of highlighting (or even mentioning) some of these innovations. I get the feeling the author just likes the blinking light (even if it's already been done).
I think the question is not really whether BB10 is good enough to succeed, but whether any single-vendor operating system can enter the market now. There are so many separate players all with their own interests that need to be served - carriers, retailers, businesses, 3rd party app developers, etc. Almost none of those parties have a true interest in blackberry succeeding (beyond the anemic reason that 'more competition is good'). A device can be the greatest thing on earth, unless it generates overwhelming consumer demand all those 3rd party interests will prevent it ever becoming a huge hit. They will tolerate it but they won't push it like they push the OSes that work in their interests - and this is why Android works - everyone up and down the chain gets a cut. Unless BB10 figures out a way for that to happen, it just doesn't matter how good it is.
What's interesting now is that Apple, BlackBerry and Microsoft now offer integrated hardware/software platforms. It's become similar to the way the console market has been between Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft.
Makes one wonder what's going to happen with Android.
This isn't so much vendor vs vendor. It's higher than that - the war here is between integrated/closed and discrete/open systems on the client.
The virtue re:integrated/closed systems is that the companies very survival depends on these systems, so they have the best motives in providing value/service, and aren't being steered by outside influences. The virtue re:discrete/open systems is that they encourage learning and exploration, and offer transparency.
It's not so clear in which direction things will go over coming years. Both the integrated/closed (Windows, Consoles), and discrete/open (Web, Android) are models that have proven themselves to work.
Google's doing a lot of brave work pushing in the direction of discrete/open, and regardless of outcome, it's something commendable. My only worry there is regarding their hardware partnerships. The thing with the iPhone, Lumia, and BlackBerry products is they're beautifully designed, and these designs just keep getting more refined. It's like having a games console with a controller design - all users/games know it's there, and can rely on that design, even between hardware iterations whilst other elements are improved.
Microsoft did a lot of great work getting Windows to play well with not just consumers but hardware vendors too, and more or less delivered on the promise of putting a computer on every desk. Google's probable aim of putting a smartphone in person's pocket is even loftier(expense being the main hurdle for many of the world's 7-8 billion people), yet given their positioning and partnerships, they are perhaps best positioned to deliver on this promise.
So perhaps it won't play out like the console market at all.
The thing is, if smartphones get largely commoditized by Android like PCs were largely commoditized by Windows, and you can buy something perfectly decent for $300 (and you already can in something like the Nexus 4), are going to want to or need to pay more for what is perhaps only a marginally better designed product?
And of course then there's Amazon too. Interesting times ahead.
> What's interesting now is that Apple, BlackBerry and Microsoft now offer integrated hardware/software platforms. It's become similar to the way the console market has been between Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft.
You forgot Google. They have Motorola, and they are going to be highly integrated with Android, no matter what they say in public.
Also Samsung has gotten pretty integrated with Android, too. Sure they add the latest "Android features", but on their own time, and it's not the main priority for them. They'd rather ship with an older version but filled with their own apps, features and technologies. It's not that different from Amazon actually, except that they still have to adopt some standards set by Google to make sure they don't fragment to ecosystem too much, but they also get the benefit of access to the Play Store and the Android community (Amazon doesn't appeal to the Android community as much anymore).
It will be interesting to see what happens with the Motorola acquisition.
Right now, Samsung is Android to a large degree. They're the only Android phone vendor that's actually making money, and they're selling a ton of units compared to the other vendors.
I'm amazed RIM has lasted this long. From what I've read I'm pleasantly surprised. I know there is still a small minority that refuses to own a phone without a physical keyboard, and the few I know aren't very happy with the few Android phones they've tried with keyboards. They may be able to get enough of a niche there to hold on and survive a bit.
"Open" is dead on consumer platforms. In 4-5 years, a phone/tablet OS that doesn't ship tightly integrated with specific hardware will seem like a programming language does today that doesn't ship with "batteries included."
I don't see how you can substantiate the use of present tense there. Android is arguably the biggest consumer platform ever to hit mankind, and unless you are extremely aggressive about what you mean by open it's also the most open one as well.
> In 4-5 years, a phone/tablet OS that doesn't ship tightly integrated with specific hardware will seem like a programming language does today that doesn't ship with "batteries included."
You're making a prediction here which is not based on any historical evidence. This has gone both ways over time and usually it's closed that kickstarts a revolution, then open that wins during periods of growth and consolidation and then the cycle begins again. I don't see how anyone can predict how this is going to end.
>> "Open" is dead on consumer platforms.
> I don't see how you can substantiate the use of present tense there. Android is arguably the biggest consumer platform ever to hit mankind, and unless you are extremely aggressive about what you mean by open it's also the most open one as well.
How is Android the biggest consumer platform to hit mankind? iOS single handedly remade mobile and pushed the concept of the app store to all sorts of electronic devices. Windows had an insane impact on the computer industry. Android is certainly a big deal, but I think you're over selling it.
Android is technically more open, but does that matter to consumers? I wonder what percent of consumers actually install things from alternate app stores? If Apple was willing to let nearly any app in their app store, how many people would really be looking for an alternative?
Open platforms could easily be something like the issue of owner serviceable cars: while tinkers complain, to 95% of people it doesn't matter.
>> In 4-5 years, a phone/tablet OS that doesn't ship tightly integrated [...]
> You're making a prediction here which is not based on any historical evidence.
I agree. There's no question that's the current path, but in the next few years I could see tablets getting fast enough that compatibility layers (like WINE, HTML5, Adobe Air, etc) may make it possible to make the OS a replaceable commodity. Or we could stay in vendor silos. Hard to say.
> How is Android the biggest consumer platform to hit mankind?
If I was going to make that argument (I said it was "arguably" not absolutely) I'd point out that Google is activating 1.3 million devices / day with no sign of slowing. And those are just Google devices. That's 450m devices per year, nearly all of them "consumer" devices. In just 15 years that would account for the entire world population (and that's including children). Windows was certainly influential but a large portion of that was not as a "consumer" OS - the vast bulk of its influence and impact came from businesses. There might have been one Windows computer in a house but there will be 4+ Android phones, plus potentially tablets, TVs and other devices that run Android. So if you're talking size and numbers (ie. "biggest") I think Android has a pretty good claim on it. But I'm not disputing you can argue the other way. Just the fact that it's arguable at all though is pretty astounding.
The Q10 may be the first phone I have actively desired since the Palm Pre 3 came out. As someone who really can't (won't?) transition away from a hard keyboard this is a godsend. I just wonder whether it will go down the same road as Palm/HP. Solid features and design, but a very limited ability to generate any sort of passion...
> They acknowledged the problem and did everything they could to develop it.
Well, it seems like they half-assed it the first few times, like the Torch. I'm glad they decided to really do it right and not keep dancing around things.
They came out with a much stronger showing that I expected. There may be hope for them left, and it's always good to have another player to poke at Android and iOS.
I dont want Google and Apple to know where I walk, drive and with whom I speak. They already know what I do on my computer and what mails I write. Dont want them to know a more about me.
It looks nothing like an iPhone. There's a line above and below the screen, the call speaker is a completely different shape and size, the camera is in a radically different location, and it says, in big bold letters, Blackberry across the bottom. There's also no button on the front like the iPhone has.
Other than that, it has the general shape and design of an LCD panel. But don't pretend it looks like an iPhone when it doesn't.
It looks way more like an iPhone than what I have generally associated with the name Blackberry where half the device is a landscape screen and half of it a keyboard. I also think it's fair to say that the iPhone popularized the look of having the general shape and design of an LCD panel. While the comparison is certainly not black and white, I don't think it's fair to snarkily claim OP is pretending. I do think it's fair to say the new device has a similar overall shape and design as the iPhone. Watching the video review on the Verge I was also struck that they had chosen to go in a visual direction similar to iOS and Android rather than strike off in a new direction like Microsoft.
You can say it looks like a phone, but saying it looks like an iPhone specifically is just going too far in a time when every phone "looks like an iPhone".
I could say my new SUV looks like a Model T, because the Model T popularized the look of having a general shape and design of an SUV. My new car has a similar overall shape and design as the Model T, and I was struck by how Chevy chose to go in a visual direction similar to Ford and Chrysler rather than strike off in a new direction like Cessna.
All modern smartphones look like an iPhone, just like all smartphones before the iPhone looked like a Blackberry. That's why the iPhone was such a monumental product--it shifted the entire industry.
I'm astonished to find myself considering one. I was sure the company was going to die.
The killer feature, for me, is that if this report is correct, they finally have an acceptable soft keyboard implementation. I'm not even that crazy about SwiftKey, but it sounds like BlackBerry have improved on it enough to compete with a physical keyboard and maybe even beat it outright.
I came to read the HN commenta first and things were starting to sound pretty positive. Imagine my abject disappointment when I clicked through to the story and saw a gigantic touch screen.
Aha! Cool thanks. The Q10. Geez looking at that thing makes me wonder why the hell Motorola aren't investing in improving the Pro+ and the Master. That Q10 looks like a piece of shit.
I LOVE the Pro+ but they're faulty as hell (random reboots, screen freezes etc.) in fact a lot of Motorola's have this problem (judging from various forums). It's basically the only phone in the world I can use - incredible form factor and the only usable candy bar qwerty android phone - so frustrating that they're almost impossible to get and then those you do get, are faulty.
1) Its fast, memory management isn't an issue for developers like it is on Android or even iOS.
2) Its smooth and multitasks well. QNX does deliver here big time.
3) Its solid -- during the Alpha and Beta stages, I never had a crash -- this is, looking back, astounding.
4) Native development is not as demanding as Android or iOS. The dev ecosystem guides you well to just the right balance between native UI elements and customization and you can do it in a language you likely already have knowledge of. (Java, QT, HTML5, C++)
Overall -- it was a pleasure to build and launch apps on BB10 -- which is more than I have to say for other ecosystems. I'd describe it as the the ease of developing the display layer for a Windows Phone app mixed with the flexibility and depth of an Android app and the power of iPhone hardware.
Background: I'm a hardcore iPhone user who is in the mobile industry and regularly uses hundreds of mobile devices.