So. Farewell then, BlackBerry Classic. You were a classic ... of sorts BlackBerry has confirmed it won’t make any more BlackBerry Classics, marking the end of an era. US Senate staff were told BlackBerry was ceasing production of all BB10 devices but BlackBerry denies this, and insists that only the Classic production line has halted for good. “It has been an incredible workhorse device for …
It's a pity. I have a Q10 and I think it's great. The tool bar addressed its only real weakness, accurately selecting text on the screen. The keyboard on the passport and priv are too cramped for doing a lot of typing on. If it had a replaceable battery I would have snapped one up. As it is, might wait for one in a sale (although the Q10 is officially discontinued too and is still £150 on amazon).
*edit* Congratulations BTW for being listed as a source on the BBC story about tech price rises.
The biggest mistake made by BlackBerry was trying to become a consumer brand, selling pink phones to teen-aged girls.
Inevitably the qualities that made it an essential tool to corporate and government users were bound to slip while BlackBerry tried to be kewl.
Yet again, a really good product is squandered while abandoning loyal customers.
Was Google advising them?
It was odd how for a time BlackBerry were in the unique place of being trendy in two entirely different markets; suits and urban teenagers. They went to smart phone too late to keep the teenagers (and the fact they handed over the BBM data from the London riots so willingly can't of helped). Then BB10 was just too late and too different to keep the suits.
But I think it comes down to price. Q5 was too expensive for PAYG teenagers and q10 / priv too much for IT depts.
The classic was a clear signal they'd made a mistake with the q10 and STILL cost too much.
Costs was absolutely everything to do with it in the Corporate area, buying a £100 Windows phone which required one activesync license or a Blackberry which required a BES license and an ActiveSync license also increased costs.
The Q10 I had was a brilliant phone but even I thought it cost to much or the price didn't drop quick enough as its still the only recent smart phone I haven't had to download apps for what I believe is basic functionality.
In terms of "Handset feel", the BlackBerry Bold 9900 was the best phone I ever owned: Light, but solid-feeling, with excellent keys, touch, and screen.
Was always held back a bit as a jack of all trade by the software: I always wished for one of those running stock Android... Guess that's a case of being careful what you wish for.
Totally off the mark, but I have been using a Priv for about 6 months now. it has the Blackberry look and feel as well as the construction you would expect from them, but runs Android and has a slide out keyboard.
For me, its been a pretty solid phone, if lacking things like the fingerprint scanner. I wonder if Blackberry will continue to make devices like this in the future.
I hope so. Managed to get a priv for a reasonable price after months and months of waiting. It's already my all time favourite phone.
The problem with the classic was price. Same with the priv. Just completely unjustifiable prices!
I wanted a classic but could never justify the price. Especially given the battery was by all accounts so poor.
The Classic's battery is pretty good. Mine usually goes the day with 70% or so left. Totally better than the typical Sammydroid. It does much worse when out of coverage -- all cell phones have that problem, which happens a lot in the rural US -- but it's much better than average.
It was expensive at list, but there were some deals in the US. BB killed themselves with pricing, though, both on the Classic, the Passport, and the Priv. They make less money at $700 than they would at $500. I think it's somebody's ego keeping the price o high.
It's all a bit hazy now but...
I think BES is what broke things. Or at least where it started.
It was clunky and unreliable. I had many clients back in the BB days that had BES servers.
That daft MAPI connection it required and the account that required full access to all mailboxes.
The number of times I had to reset devices was agony.
The support process was painful as well. You'd start by calling BB then they would tell you to call the mobile operator who would then tell you to call BB again.
The only competition for mobile corporate email really was Windows Mobile with ActiveSync. Which back then sucked as well.
But eventually we got iPhones which at the time worked with ActiveSync very well. Better than the other two...although at the time I seem to recall needing a 3rd party app for it.
I stopped seeing BES shortly after that.
I also recall operators having different tariffs for blackberries as well.
Vodafone would charge an extra tenner for enterprise functionality and other bits (a feature the carrier's could lock down from their end).
This ripping off customers might have contributed as well.
<8 hour battery life in normal use.
No desktop synch for anything (BB Link still doesn't work on a Mac and BB Blend doesn't synch).
The native Tasks and Notes don't synch with any desktop apps.
A dearth of native Apps.
Most Android Apps are too slow to use, don't recognize the belt buttons, can't use the SD card, suck power and require privacy busting permissions to run. To be used only in desperation.
If all you need to do is make calls and read mails then it's OK - but the world's moved on since the 7320.
If you're heading out for the day and want to listen to music, use a map, buy train tickets, check the underground map, check out what's on at the pictures, review and book a restaurant and keep up to date with your eBay bids then you need to take a charger with you because even assuming you've got the patience to wait for stuff to load (you spend a lot of time looking at a blank screen if you use Android apps) you'll run out of juice by mid-afternoon with usage like this - and I don't do any social stuff - no Twitter, Instagram, Whatsapp, Facebook, etc. You certainly can't rely on it to still be running when you need to look up the last train home.
The fact that anyone at RIM thought that a device as useless as this would revive their fortunes says it all. Seriously, I couldn't give mine away.
I have a Classic and plan to hold on to it. It is a candidate for Best Phone Evah. No, it's not an App Monster. Its browser is sluggish on some sites. But BB10 (QNX kernel) in general has a far smoother response than Android, whose kernel is still based around doing 1960s TTY time-sharing. The hub works great. As a phone (voice), it works very well, something most Android phones don't bother with. Its main weakness is a lack of Google Play integration, which boils down to a business dispute between the vendors. Dumb, dumb, dumb.
There are many of us out there who simply cannot use touch screen devices, and will always find a keyboard. BB should focus on that niche, not on being the 93rd largest Android vendor.
Do you share my feeling that we are watching a favorite pet slowly dying before your eyes?
Looking back the 8330 will remain one of my favorite tools, and toy.
Why didn't Microsoft give Blackberry a good home? They could easily have set up a special division looking after a very peer-powerful (remember Obama?) user group, and leveraged other Microsoft products.
Instead.....don't get me started on the Nokia brain-fxxt.
Yet another wasted opportunity for Microsoft.
Very sad for everybody, Peter
You really wouldn't have wanted Microsoft to get involved. Every time they get anywhere near something mobile/PDA they screw it up sooner-or-later, usually by trying to force whatever it is to look and feel like desiktop Windows.
Meanwhile I've still got my work Curve 8900 which does what it needs to do, eg phone stuff and email stuff. They're pretty locked down, so can't use apps on them any more. But I still prefer the physical keyboard for typing the odd email etc. It's just not the same on a touchcreen.
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