

BlackBerry goes for qwerty keyboard, again, with Passport smartphone - ajani
http://www.computerworld.com/article/2687054/blackberry-goes-for-qwerty-keyboard-again-in-passport-smartphone.html

======
jdhawk
Blackberry, ditch the OS...it's holding you back.

I loved my Moto Droid Pro back in the day. I got a decent ecosystem, compact
portrait qwerty package, and serviceable screen.

Your problem now is that your ecosystem is toast. Trim the fat in your
development house, package a nice Android OS with some throwback GUI cute shit
to your old blackberry feel, and move on with your life as a hardware player.

~~~
pinaceae
how many Android HW manufacturers are profitable? BB is stuck between a rock
and a hard place. no obvious way out.

~~~
Grazester
Its not Android that makes them not profitable. By your rationale Blackberry
should then be profitable.

~~~
pinaceae
they can't use the OS and apps as a differentiator. reason why Nokia went with
Windows - which is also questionable.

going with Android reduces you to a pure hardware OEM. see the Windows laptop
world how great that is.

my rationale is that switching BBOS with Android solves nothing for BB.

~~~
jdhawk
The issue is that BBOS stinks, is not on developers radar, and a major driver
in the decision of "what phone to buy" is "does it have all my apps?"

BBRY is what, 1/8th of its high? 1/10th?

------
artsandsci
I see a pattern in this article:

"said analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group" "Maribel Lopez, an analyst at
Lopez Research, added" "Jack Gold, an analyst at J. Gold Associates,"

------
laughfactory
Love the Blackberry keyboard, but hate the OS. If I could get their keyboard
on an Android or iPhone I'd be all over it. I don't like touchscreen
keyboards, but since they're the only option offered on devices with an
acceptable OS, I use them grudgingly. Clearly the security-first mantra that
Blackberry adheres so religiously to isn't doing them any favors--as their
market share, even among the security conscious, falls precipitously.

------
npongratz
> _While the Passport is almost exactly the size of a travel passport, it is
> much heavier at 6.9 ounces._

Hilarious comparison. Must it be actually be stated that the Passport is
heavier than a travel passport?

Apples and oranges... Passports and passports.

------
nicholassmith
It's a bit of an ugly duckling device, and I'm not sure it can ever grow into
a beautiful swan.

~~~
laughfactory
I kind of like the form factor. For me the deal-breaker is the Blackberry OS.
I don't just want to be able to run Android apps (after jumping through lots
of hoops) I just the phone itself to run Android (preferably stock).

~~~
mkr-hn
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BlackBerry_10#Android_applicat...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BlackBerry_10#Android_applications)

> _On June 18, 2014, BlackBerry announced an official relationship with
> Amazon.com, which will see the upcoming 10.3 update offer official access to
> Amazon Appstore._

Amazon's Android store is missing some things, but not much. The apps it has
are more up to date than they were when I first got my Kindle Fire. I think
developers are warming up to it.

