Anyone sad for BlackBerry's downfall?

[Hankster]

I remember when BlackBerry was the "it" phone. Everyone who wanted to be connected had one. There was no close competitor and being able to text and check email anytime was amazing.

Years later and now BlackBerry is going down the road of Palm. I stored away my BlackBerry Curve years ago, but it's still sad to see a once amazing product come to this.

 

[sviato]

My only experience with a BB was when I had the Bold 9900 for a month and a half - and it wasn't great (slow as hell and had to battery pull everyday).

It does suck to see a company go like this but everyone has known for years that it was RIM's fault for not adapting fast enough to the changing market. I knew in 2011/2012 when all of the die-hard BBM fans who stuck with BB till that time were leaving that it was over. I thought long ago that BBM should've been a paid app, years later the company is still struggling with a release to other platforms.

I do wonder what's going to happen to the OS and the handset division. Will people who bought BB10 devices see any future support?

 

[JobsGang]

I'm sad for the workers.But the company has been releasing trash for the last 4 years.

 

[Eth123]

Blackberry were never the it phone. The only reason people used them was because they were given to people by work as a means to check email. Apart from this I don't know why anyone bought or used a blackberry especially for personal use.

 

[Irishman]

I remember when BlackBerry was the "it" phone. Everyone who wanted to be connected had one. There was no close competitor and being able to text and check email anytime was amazing.

Years later and now BlackBerry is going down the road of Palm. I stored away my BlackBerry Curve years ago, but it's still sad to see a once amazing product come to this.

Just sad for the folks who are losing their jobs.

 

[linkgx1]

Blackberry were never the it phone. The only reason people used them was because they were given to people by work as a means to check email. Apart from this I don't know why anyone bought or used a blackberry especially for personal use.

No.

Smartphones back then offered a lot more capapility than feature phones like the Motorola RAZR. If you wanted performance, you got a blackberry. Apple and Android destroyed that experience by giving EVERYBODY a Smartphone at cheaper prices.

Blackberry and even Palm had many smart apps. But it wasn't consumer friendly of course. BB failed to adapt.

“BlackBerry smartphones will never have cameras because the No. 1 customer of ours is the U.S. government,” Mike Lazaridis would say in meetings. “There will never be a BlackBerry with an MP3 player or camera.

If blackberry was smart, they would have took the concept of the smartphone and 'consumerized' it.They failed to change and that's why.

 

[Technarchy]

I'm largely indifferent.

I was never a fan of Blackberry devices and never owned one personally. I only had one for work, and it was a piece of crap.

Also, I was never enamored with blackberry "culture" or the blackberry archetype corporate user circa 2005.

 

[Savor]

Like toy soldiers, they all fall down...

First it was Palm being bought by HP. Then Motorola became a Google company. Then Nokia becoming a Microsoft company. Now BlackBerry is broken apart.

HTC is probably next in line among pioneers of smartphones likely to fall as they arent in the Top 10 in global marketshare. Maybe within a year or two the pioneer of touchscreen smartphones and Android phones will be long gone too.

We will be left with Apple vs Samsung for the rest of decade with LG, Sony, Amazon, Asus, and a ton of Chinese Android OEM's like Xiaomi, Huawei, and Lenovo fighting for table scraps (ala single-digit marketshare and profits).

Just seven years ago, it was Symbian, Windows Mobile, Palm OS, and BB OS. Now completely wiped out by iOS and Android.

Motorola is the original pioneer. Then Nokia took over marketshare by 1998 and dominated for a decade. Now both mobile divisions were bought out by Google or Microsoft.

In this fast moving world, you make history and then you become history just as quickly.

 

[Ericcc]

I feel bad for them only because of the Canadian connection and the economic effects. Even then, I'm a bit ambivalent as they've never given me a good impression. Even at the height of their reign, their recruitment efforts at my university always seemed 2nd rate -as if they didn't want to spend the money. Same thing for marketing.

 

[LIVEFRMNYC]

In the 90s and early 2000s, BB was kind of a status symbol. The stereotype was only those with good careers needed one. BB should have capitalized on that instead of thinking it would be the "Windows" of smartphones forever. They had plenty of time to get an edge over Android and to compete against Apple's iPhone. It's completely their fault. They even screwed up on QNX which had everyone's hopes high and is a great OS. Now BB will just be a name of nostalgia.

 

[APhillyApple]

No, and in all honesty I never thought BB was that great to begin with.

 

[maflynn]

I'm sad, companies are made up by people and now at least half of those who work for BB are going to be out of a job - How can anyone revel insuch sobering news.

The odds are probably pretty good, that the buyer is going to carve up the company and not work to maintain the BB brand and phones.

 

[iRetired]

I'm not sad about BB's downfall - I saw it coming about five years ago. I agree with the other posters that I feel sad about the workers losing their jobs.

I had a Bold, then a succession of 4 of those g*dawful abortions of a touchscreen called the Storm and it's successor the Storm 2. That's when I knew BB was out of control on the downhill ski run.

Looking back, the only thing I really missed was the red blinking notification light. But I got over that.

 

[DollaTwentyFive]

I am sad. My first BB was in 1999 and I had them all the way up until Verizon got the iPhone 4. At the time, the BB was a great device. It's sad to see that they bet so heavily on retaining their customer base, thinking that the enterprise server model would keep customers from switching platforms. They certainly suffered from poor management.

Hopefully the employees laid off will find new jobs.

 

[Nautilus007]

Blackberry

Honestly, their keyboard phones are amazing. The Bold 9930 was one of my favorite phones of all time along with the bold 9900. I really would love to see them get better but I feel like they can't at least not going the way they are now.

 

[JoshMKB24]

Not too sad, I had BB phones for the early part of the 2000s, I mean not early but like 2004-2006 until 2007 when I switched to the iPhone. They were great for work, but just did not adapt fast enough to the times. I think they really could have capitalized on the boom of the smart phones because in the beginning their network was utilized by the govt mainly for security and same with businesses........if they had adapted their phone lineup, they could still be a player today.

 

[Nabooly]

It is indeed sad. There was a time when the only option for a quality "smart phone" was BB and palm. I've had the pleasure of owning a Pearl, Storm, Curve, and Bold. They were all great phones at the time. Loved every one of them. The keyboards were just phenomenal. Also BBM was revolutionary and such a fun way to keep in touch with people.

 

[matttye]

Feel bad for the staff, not the company.

You snooze you lose in this fast paced industry.

 

[ucfgrad93]

Like others, I feel bad for the people who are going to be unemployed. When Apple and Google released iOS and Android, the leaders of Blackberry stuck their heads in the sand and did nothing.

 

[AustinIllini]

Just sad for the folks who are losing their jobs.

Yeah, but if your company is going to go under, this is probably the best way. Most employees should be able to see the writing on the wall and hopefully will be able to land on their feet.

 

[Stuntman06]

I'm more disappointed that BB has not been able to recapture any market share. I'm not sad that they are going under. If they cannot make a good enough product that people would want to buy, then it's too bad.

 

[onthecouchagain]

Blackberry? Not particularly sad about the company itself.

But I am very concerned about HTC. I'm fearful of seeing Samsung gain even more footing in the Android world. Android needs HTC.

If HTC does go, then Android needs Xiaomi or Huweii or whoever else to step up.

 

[G51989]

Blackberry were never the it phone. The only reason people used them was because they were given to people by work as a means to check email. Apart from this I don't know why anyone bought or used a blackberry especially for personal use.

Yes it was, it was also the government phone, and the productivity phone. It wasn't until the iPhone 3G that Apple managed to best the Blackberry line.

Also, until the past 1-2 years, they offered the best security out there.

I remeber in my later years of college when the " high end " ( Im almost 30, so that should tell you ) Windows Phones and BBs came out, and we would be like " whoa! Can that phone really play 360X480 Video O_O "

What a long way we've come.

I forget who made it, but some guy when I was an intern had a Windows Mobile phone with an Ethernet adapter on it, and you could share music and files all over the network with it.

 

[0007776]

I owned a storm, back then it was the best phone on Verizon. But it doesn't surprise me that they are going down since they haven't done much to keep up or ahead of the rest of the market. When the iPhone and Android came out they didn't do anything to respond to them and now they are suffering the consequences.

 

[Vegastouch]

I had a BB Pearl for about three weeks that i modded to have the roller ball have different colors. I did like the email application but thats about all i liked. Went to the iPhone after i sold it. My Wife had that BB flip phone that felt like it was hollow. Dont really care that they are going away.