http://pablowegesend.blogspot.com/2013/10/adventures-on-my-new-smartphone.html
Blackberry.com
BlackBerry Q10
I was wondering why the competitors (ie. Apple's iPhone, Samsung Galaxy) didn't have a version that has allows users to type using buttons?
I mean, I hate typing on touchscreens because they are either
- too finger sensitive
- requires a hard press on the screen.
My oldest brother ( I got 2 of them) is the tech guy in a family of non-techies. I had a brief conversation about the BlackBerry and I mentioned that I liked the Q10 (because it has buttons), and the BlackBerry had a crappy marketing strategy (more on that later) and my oldest brother said "nobody wants to press buttons anymore" and said "BlackBerry will go out of business soon"
I was ready to get all defensive, but someone came up to him and distracted him with an unrelated topic. So much for getting the verbal upper hand.
And yet I wonder, why hasn't the iPhone or the Galaxy have a QWERTY keyboard option.
Well, one company had a solution to that dilemma
http://reason.com/archives/2014/01/16/blackberry-sues-the-competition
Consider the Typo Keyboard Case, which is supposed to start shipping to consumers this month. The idea behind the device is simple. Right now, people who prefer a smartphone with a physical keyboard basically have just one option, the BlackBerry.
If you like real keyboards but prefer the iPhone's operating system, you have to either put up with the BlackBerry's software or put up with the iPhone's virtual keyboard; no phone-maker offers a product that combines the best of both worlds.
The Typo fills that gap. It's a case that lets you slip a keypad over an iPhone and type the way the QWERTY gods intended, without a flat touchscreen that makes errors inevitable and without an algorithm that "corrects" words that weren't errors in the first place.
Typo's co-founder - Ryan Seacrest (yep, the American Idol host) was interviewed by CNN
When a CNN correspondent discussed the device with Typo co-founder Ryan Seacrest—yes, the American Idol host—the reporter suggested that the product gives users "the best thing about a BlackBerry, within the iPhone." Seacrest replied, "That's kind of how this came to fruition." Many press accounts have noted how much the Typo keyboard looks and feels like a BlackBerry keyboard; the phrase "BlackBerry clone" comes up a lot.
So what does BlackBerry do about that? They sued Typo over "patent violations"!
Enter BlackBerry's lawyers. In a suit filed January 3, the company charged the upstart with violating three of BlackBerry's patents and its trade dress. (A trade dress is a set of distinctive visual characteristics that reveal what company made a product—the shape of a glass Coca-Cola bottle, for example. They are legally protected in order to prevent customer confusion, so the premise here is that people might mistake the Typo for a BlackBerry product, even though it does not bear the BlackBerry logo and even though BlackBerry is not in the business of making cases for iPhones.) In addition to asking the courts to block sales of the Typo, BlackBerry is seeking triple damages.
One of the commenters to article suggested the following
Last serial post:
The smart play for Blackberry here would, of course, have been to buy out the Typo case and make it their own. Would have been faster and might have actually turned into a real revenue stream for them.
and this
You know I have to wonder. Did BlackBerry even try to approach Typo with a deal, or did they just go straight to the lawyers ? This could have been a big advertising win for them. Blackberry could have cut a deal and put out a PR piece about how they support innovation in small start up companies, or hired someone to write a hit piece telling consumers that their competitors design is so bad someone had to come along and make it like a BlackBerry.
The sad thing is this -- if the BlackBerry had a REAL marketing campaign for their Q10 phone, they wouldn't need to resort to this!
I sincerely believe that had BlackBerry put an effective ad for their Q10 phone during last year's Super Bowl , that it would've
- 1) tell everyone "we're back"
- 2) made the Q10 phone highly competitive (and even equal in popularity) versus the i-phone and the Galaxy.
(BlackBerry also has the Z10 that is all touchscreen, so they could've presented that as an option for touchscreen fans too)
But they didn't have an effective marketing campaign and many people still remain ignorant of the Q10 option. And if people don't know of your great products, well ............. they can't buy what they don't know exists.
They think that just making good products is enough. They don't understand that you got to make your products trendy in order to get people to buy in to it, and that you need a real marketing strategy to do so!
But now, BlackBerry is in the news for suing the competition, and it will only remind the public about BlackBerry being a "company in trouble" instead of a company that actually made improvements in their smartphones!
Because I do like my Q10 phone, I hate to see BlackBerry go down. But if the company can't get it's act together and receives negative PR (which makes it harder to market their product), then things will only get worse.
As for me, I just hope that smartphones with a QWERTY keyboard doesn't go extinct!
