Curious BlackBerry 10 Omissions from Tech Press
We’ve lost count of how many times people have done OS comparisons and propped up Google Now and Siri compared to Windows Phone’s voice service. Yet I’ve not seen one mention of the crummy and archaic voice service BlackBerry 10 utilizes. You can’t even open an app with it. You have to physically go back and find the voice icon over and over in your app drawer anytime you want to use it too. No voice control over any app. BlackBerry 10 is carrying around a lot of bare bones features to check the box but not really gave too much time to usefulness.
A premium device that is in effect a cycle behind everyone else but priced like it is a cycle ahead. The Z10 will be $599 unsubsidized in the US. That is a whopping $150 more expensive than the Nokia Lumia 920 and only $50 cheaper than the popular and entrenched iPhone.
BlackBerry chose the UK to be the first launch market. Did you know that by December 2012 they only held a 6.4% market share in the UK? Yup, only .5% ahead of Windows Phone which tripled its market share in 2012. Not sure how much ground they can gain because that figure illustrates that the vast majority of their fan base have already switched to competing platforms and the dismal state of apps and higher pricing will make it a tough sell.
Like someone else said, it is quite possibly shaping up for the initial sales to not exceed Windows Phone 7 launch figures. If true, that stock will tank hard and fast and carriers will only give lip service to BlackBerry.
Related Posts
About The Author
I think Miss Sweet Brown said it best:
I hesitated when I saw the trend and didn’t buy RIM stock when it was sitting at 7 dollars a share. I knew this would happen. We all knew what cards Blackberry was holding for a few months now. Somehow they got the benefit of the doubt because they simply hadn’t folder already.
The more i’ve learned about market pressures the more i’m sure there can only be 2 major brands in this market. Its very clearly Android and iPhone. Microsoft and Blackberry have to fight it out for the remaining about 15-25% tops of the market. They won’t get any more than that.
they had me fooled, i forgot all about that voice feature in the wake of everything. Come to think of it, i am beginning to become frustrated with rim again!
Every article I see they reference the keyboard. Kill that noise. Everybody who’s in the game today has a very good virtual keyboard and no amount of flicking words will make anybody take a second look at the phone.
No native cloud solution, no OTA updating, no compelling reason for any consumer to buy it over the competitors. I just read an article about how BlackBerry will be just fine if they can hold on to at least 25% of big corporate clients (10,000 or more employees). Thing about corporations is they only spend money ever so often. That means you’ll only get money maybe every two years. Not a recipe for success.
What nobody else is saying is that the higher prices of the BB10 phones strips a major advantage they had in countries like India and other strong places away from them. Who’s going to pay a premium for a device that is a tech cycle behind? Effing morons.
Thank you! ‘Bout time somebody said it.