BlackBerry Hub Is A Plus And Minus To Consumers

Do you usually group your work friends with your “off the clock” friends? Typically it is a clear and needed separation as we tend to associate fun & interesting as the opposite side of the coin to work. BlackBerry 10’s first and major attempt at drawing consumers into giving the BlackBerry Z 10 a try will most likely focus heavily on the BlackBerry Hub. The thing is that there are different strokes for different folks.

I’ve seen several people who tried to run their social and communication in one stream and while some love the ability to do so I also discovered that most prefer to use stand-alone apps for each function. Even when I tried to tell and demonstrate the inherent benefits of the “All-In-One Place” simplicity they only saw information overload. If they have a friend they talk to only on Facebook they don’t care that the friend also has a Twitter account. They only see the additional information as  a nuisance.

Doing more with less sounds good but for others they can’t wrap their head around not going in and out of apps. Windows Phone faced the same challenge with its people hub and the ability to have Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn feeds all together. Whether we like it or not both Android and iOS has formed how we relate and view our mobile computing interaction. That is in and out and back again. Its not really a broken concept so consumers see no rational need to try something different and put in the effort to use new user interaction paradigm that BlackBerry is so bravely implementing.

Can you imagine having to explain and do “tech support” calls to your friends and relatives who just don’t get how to read their messages or recognize notifications since there isn’t an in your face notification just a flashing LED and slight buzz. I’ve learned that even when a company introduces a well thought out concept that proves beneficial the mind is a difficult thing to change. Once we develop a sense of comfort for the way we do things and it gets the job done we rebel against anything that disrupts the comfort. Users aren’t drawn to the iPhone because it is clearly the best way to do things. It is the most commonly acceptable way of doing things and sadly our society is one of few leaders and abundant followers.