AmazoRIM? MicrokiaRIM?

[nature boy]

[geForce]

[Duncan]

i think the 4s was disappointing because many people were expecting an iphone 5... but, calling it a joke is kinda calling the whole industry a joke... you're asking tech companies to reinvent the wheel every year? i think that's asking for a lot. RIM definitely isn't doing that either... all their phones are just the same phone just made in a slightly diff form factor and made with hardware upgrades... i think the 4s is just that, but in the same form factor. I think it is actually smart of apple because it cuts production costs down, and it allows them to focus their energy on one product at a time instead of trying to release a billion models. It's just like cars, same form factor for 4 or 5 years with tweaks and upgrades every year. I'm not saying you'd buy a new car every year, but really, i don't know anyone who'd buy an iphone every year. I only know of your brother. But at the same time, there are idiots who buy a new car every year as well but they have the money to do so. smart phones also have a shorter practical life than cars, so when you upgrade a phone once every 2 or 3 years, it's like upgrading your car every 8-10 years which many people do or even shorter. Heck, you went through 3 cars in 10 years? and they were golfs/gtis every time. I these terms, i'd hate to break it to you, but i think you're probably the vw fanboi equivalent...

personally, i think apple is doing well because it's doing a better job catering to its consumer. Sure, they market very well, but i think the reason why they don't go back the the drawing board with each iphone design is because they know what works and what people are familiar with and what people want them to improve on. Adding multitasking support in the 3gs and onwards, facetime, tethering, among other improvements were made because of the public outcry for it. And embracing the app world like you said is just another example of how they're catering to their potential consumers. They i think they're doing a good job putting an ear to the public. They may not be the ones who invented the touch screen, and i never said they were, but you can't deny that they were the trailblazers who took the smart phone to a whole new level with the touch screen.

Honestly, i'm no fanboy of apple even though you may think i'm as evil as your brother. i just can't deny that the iphone offers more than blackberry products for the general public. The only real reason why i'd buy a blackberry is if i want that keyboard like you said. But i don't. sure, it's easier to use if you're texting, but after you get used to the touchscreen keyb, it's not so bad. Most people i know who have a bb, say that the reason why they have a bb is the keyb... so if you like the keyb, the more power to you. I just think all the other stuff the iphone, or even an android phone can do is so much more advantageous than any bb phone.

[nature boy]

i'm not saying that apple or anyone needs to reinvent the wheel every year, i'm saying apple and their fanbois say they do, when they really aren't. the joke there is that they're talking about "revolutionary" phones when they're just last year's model with a cpu upgrade. no one else really makes those claims as strongly as apple. and people believe them and that's why you hear about young girls trading their virginities for iphones and people lining up for days just to get it.

plan and simple, a smartphone is for communications. if your phone can help you communicate with others and do it well then it succeeded in its job. anything else is extra. and for me, the extras aren't worth giving up awesome communication tools that blackberries are exceedingly good at (email, bbm, phone reception). but for the masses, they need these extras because everyone is suffering on the verge of ADD, and they have to be entertained every waking second. apple provides that.

[geForce]

I think this is a separate topic, but bbm is only a good tool for Blackberry users exclusively, but I don't think it's an exceedingly good communication tool in the sense that you aren't able to use it to communicate to anyone you want. I would say text messaging is an exceedingly good communication tool because it's universal.

I'm not saying Apple has anything better, but this isn't about Apple. Just addressing the bbm thing.

That being said, I do think that BB is an overall better communication tool than an iPhone, but it isn't like the iPhone sucks at communications. The iPhone is more than sufficient of a communication tool for the average consumer user. It's not quite up to par with the average business user in terms of email security or productivity and that's why RIM dominates in that area. There's no doubt about that.

What I personally never really understood was what the appeal is for a consumer user to get a Blackberry. Is it the tactile keyboard? Or BBM? Or is it because BB was so popular a few years ago, so consumers wanted to jump on the bandwagon?

I can understand the appeal in the iPhone. Like Nathan said, it's a mobile entertainment device and it feeds our evergrowing ADD. That's easy to understand.

[nature boy]

i think it's the keyboard to be honest. which is why i'm a little scared about the rumours of the next gen bb's coming with full touch only. if i have to get rid of my bb then my playbook could be useless too.

i remember when i was in the market for a smartphone a few years back i was talking to jeff's brother about it. he said he wanted an iphone but wasn't sure because it was too expensive. then another of jeff's friends came up and said the choice is easy, do you type a lot of emails? then get a bb. if not then get an iphone. that's pretty much why i leaned towards bb.

but after getting into it, i find that just holding the phone feels nice. i don't like the way an iphone feels in my hand. the fit and finish of my bold even compared to my previous curve is just worlds apart. is the software the greatest standard? no. are the apps there? no. but when i can pound out dozens of emails a day off my phone and talk with others with clarity (i have issues with calling iphones, not sure if it's just me though). i guess it's like german quality vehicles compared to japanese quality. in general german cars are more concerned with fit and finish while japanese are more concerned with being economical. i'm not saying that iphones are cheap, i'm saying that it seems like rim took a little more time thinking about how these phones feel in your hand (with maybe the exception of the torch according to those earlier reviews).

bbm is nice because you can have groups and also see if your message sent and/or if it's read. but it wasn't really a selling factor for me.

[geForce]

I've never had any issues with reception that is exclusively linked to the iPhone. Even when the iPhone 4 had that infamous antenna location problem, a majority of people didn't have issues with overall reception.

I've had reception problems, but I've always had reception problems with any phone connected to Fido. That includes Nokia, Erickson, Sony Erickson, Motorola and Apple. Motorola is known for good reception phones too, but they still had problems on the Fido network.

I find that I can't use the Blackberry keyboard. They keys are too small. When I was shopping for a smartphone, I was worried about the touch screen keyboard, but I found that I got used to it really fast and the touch areas are more forgiving for big fingers because it's a virtual keyboard whereas a tactile keyboard requires more exact button pushes. I'd have to use my fingernails to press the Blackberry keys to get any sort of speedy accuracy.

I can probably fire off way more emails with my iphone than I could with a tactile keyboard phone. I guess typing speed and accuracy is relative to the user on each phone.

[nature boy]

i have yet to receive non-typo ridden emails off an iphone. i'd get an odd text here and there that are free of typos, but any sort of long message and it gets hard to read. there's a reason why there's a whole website dedicated to iphone autocorrect fails.

i actually never have reception problems ever with my bb (and i'm on fido too), except when i call winnie, then i can't hear crap. i don't talk on my phone much either, but it just leads me to believe that her phone's reception isn't that great (as when i call everyone else it's fine).

i can dig that not everyone can use the blackberry keyboard, and truth be told there are times when i find it a little small (i want to get a full bold next if i stick with bb), but i'd still prefer it over a touch screen any day. i can type without looking on my bb and know when i make a mistake. not so much with a touch screen.

[jeSteR]

Pretty fundamental marketing stuff, but a good read none the less

http://gizmodo.com/5870933/the-one-reas ... -cant-lose

[nature boy]

funny that it says apple sells a "cheap" handle when ipads are probably the most expensive tablets out there. unless they're saying it's cheap relative to what you get?

[geForce]

"cheap" refers to the amount of profit that they get from the sale of the ipad hardware. The actual profit making part of the business is from the apps.

It's just like how they do it with the gaming consoles. Although the PS3 and Xbox are sold for around $300-$400, which some would call expensive, they actually don't make much profit on the sales of the consoles. They make their money on all the extras, like games and accessories.

[nature boy]

oh. i was always under the impression that most electronics are relatively cheap to produce. but i guess if you factor in the r&d and marketing and all that jazz, the costs could add up.

[jeSteR]

That and the fact that the materials and molds that Apple use to manufacture are well above the quality of the competitors right now.

[nature boy]

are you talking about ipads or apple products in general? i heard the unsubstantiated rumours that iphones/ipads are using gorilla glass, but i see more complains about broken screens on apple products than anything else.

however, i'm not a customer service agent, but the only "broken" (as in physically) phone that i've heard of lately is gordon's smashed iphone.

[jeSteR]

All Apple products in general.

I would be confident in saying that should any other manufactuer even attempt to make a mobile device that is predominantly frameless glass, that you would have a far more severe count of actual consumer damaged product. The actual %'ages is surprisingly low considering that it is 100% frameless.