Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
I like my Passport. If BlackBerry want to sell me another phone, they better make another real BB10.

I don't think they ever will, unfortunately. I think they gave up on BB 10. But who knows.
 
I had a Z10 that I was able to use Android apps with due to an inbuilt emulator, it worked pretty damn well.

Better than the ****show that is Android, anyway.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
@BaltimoreMediaBlog The now extinct BB10 is probably the most advanced and feature rich smartphone OS developed. Unfortunately, in times of iPhones, people easily get overwhelmed by features. They feel lost when a menu goes more than 2 levels deep. When it comes to productivity, the hub with its mail client beats everything currently on the market. That productivity, however, doesn't extend to Apps... unless they run on Android 4.3. That's why I keep my Passport as long as possible.
As for the Android BBs: They are not real BBs. It's probably a good ROM to be "on the safe side". And by that I mean a ROM not filled with chinese bloat- or even spyware. Although, much like at Samsung, after 1-2 years you won't get the latest Android anymore... see DTEK 50/60.

I don't think they ever will, unfortunately. I think they gave up on BB 10. But who knows.
Pretty sure they did... at least on crackberry that's the common understanding of the status quo...

Anyway, the next phone I buy should be a Fairphone with Sailfish (I already have a Jolla 1).
Sailfish was another great OS that failed due to ignorance. While they offered licensing of their OS its ability to run Android apps was (is?) limited to the jolla. Should have opened the plattform from the beginning... The hype was there...

I had a Z10 that I was able to use Android apps with due to an inbuilt emulator, it worked pretty damn well.
Better than the ****show that is Android, anyway.
Well... it was (is) a full scale virtual machine. Problem: It never made it beyond Android 4.3. The Android VM was good but not even BETA. It works, but API translations are buggy and permission (e.g. contacts) can't be set properly. Imho this wasn't final software. Anyway, it's gone now...
 
Do people buy Blackberrys just for nostalgic purposes or is there some essential software they have that nobody else has?
The Passport is unique, the build is very premium, it is not Android, iOS, or Windows, it can also run many Android apps, and you can get it now for $200.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: [AUT] Thomas
Nice looking device, but kind of like Windows Phone... it will remain a minor nit of a niche until they put it to death gracefully. RIM's big fail was they protected their hardware too long. They had the best email for business on the planet, and they thought that their big IT contracts in the enterprise would keep their core hardware business. But then C-suite executives bought iPhones for personal use and brought them back to the office. For a brief moment in time, it looked like they would make their email software and platform available without the hardware, then they got cold feet. The timing couldn't have been worse. https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/rim-embraces-windows-mobile-6/
 
Sailfish did not fail. It takes a lot of money and work to make a competitive smartphone OS. The latest Sony now has it. The journey goes on.
[doublepost=1507564135][/doublepost]
Well... it was (is) a full scale virtual machine. Problem: It never made it beyond Android 4.3. The Android VM was good but not even BETA. It works, but API translations are buggy and permission (e.g. contacts) can't be set properly. Imho this wasn't final software. Anyway, it's gone now...
It is not a VM. It is a port of the Android runtime that uses a clever and fast mechanism to implement system calls. It is not beta, but an evolving project that got abandoned together with BB10.
 
Last edited:
Nice looking device, but kind of like Windows Phone... it will remain a minor nit of a niche until they put it to death gracefully. RIM's big fail was they protected their hardware too long.
Their new Androids are not niche phones... actually good devices. If Android would be an option I'd rather buy a BB Android than a Samsung...
BlackBerry (not RIM anymore) made the mistake of really bad marketing. I hated the their old BBs... like most other people I know. It was an outdated OS with a bad interface and long time without touchscreen in times were people had iPhones. Say "BlackBerry" and people remember exactly those devices. They should have established a new catchy brand and invested a few M $ in marketing for that new brand, so the average customer does NOT associate it with BlackBerry. They could have still sold those devices to enterprises under the BlackBerry flag.

Sailfish did not fail. It takes a lot of money and work to make a competitive smartphone OS. The latest Sony now has it. The journey goes on.
[doublepost=1507564135][/doublepost]
It is not a VM. It is a port of the Android runtime that uses a clever and fast mechanism to implement system calls. It is not beta, but an evolving project that got abandoned together with BB10.
Good to hear its still alive... last time I checked they were basically bankrupt... Let's hope the journey stays on... A future with only Android and iOS would be very sad considering Android is not really an option for me.
Yes, it's a runtime. But it behaves much like a VM. Install AppOps or similar software and you can see the "internals" of it. I like the term "evolving project". True -but it wasn't running smooth enough for frustration free use of the average user. At least when BlackBerry was stupid enough to launch the underspecced (but otherwise nice) Classic where Android didn't run smoothly. That underpowered device with wrong UI scaling was another nail in the coffin of BB...
 
Yes, it's a runtime. But it behaves much like a VM. Install AppOps or similar software and you can see the "internals" of it. I like the term "evolving project". True -but it wasn't running smooth enough for frustration free use of the average user. At least when BlackBerry was stupid enough to launch the underspecced (but otherwise nice) Classic where Android didn't run smoothly. That underpowered device with wrong UI scaling was another nail in the coffin of BB...
Google does not provide their APIs and apps for Android forks, so it will never be 100% compatible (market distortion again), but many apps do run well. What Amazon could do better is flag the apps that will just not start (NOT withdraw the apps that at some point might crash).

I think the Android runtime worked better with a previous version of it or BB10.
[doublepost=1507565962][/doublepost]
I think the real question is: does it have flash player?
BB10 had Adobe AIR, but it was removed after other platforms killed the Flash player.
 
Sailfish X costs 50 euro. It is available only in the EFTA for now.
 
OMG blackberry stahp. Pls go gentle into that goodnight.
I cannot believe people post this kind of tripe. Guess what, we had another engineer join my company, was far better an engineer than I was, I think I might resign tomorrow cos that's what you do when you fail right?
 
They won't. They will simply continue to print money.



They need to keep doing what they're doing. They don't give a crap about phones. They're just licensing the name and getting paid. Blackberry is a software company now. Plain and simple. They did $249M Q2. $196M of that was software and services.

The company reported record gross margins of 76 percent, up from 67 percent last quarter and 62 percent a year ago, despite the fact its hardware market share remains essentially zero.


This article is falsely stating Blckbery is making the product. Their NOT!

BlackBerry ONLY makes the Android OS for hardware and server software and services. That’s it. They licensed the hardware brand and division sold off to 2 companies one in India and another in China soon to start making hardware.

Also Z30, Z10 (BB10 OS by B.B. no longer supported since June 217, and made by them now discontinued), the D30, D60 and now this is the brands 6th touch screen phone.

But who cares this brand is long over due its death.
 
I cannot believe people post this kind of tripe. Guess what, we had another engineer join my company, was far better an engineer than I was, I think I might resign tomorrow cos that's what you do when you fail right?

That’s not comparable. BlackBerry, as a brand, has failed. I can’t see them clawing back any sort of real market share in their current state. As some new entity, sure. But BlackBerry is dead.
 
Looks nice but doesn't interest me, as I was never a fan of the touchscreen blackberries, or touchscreens in general.
BB10 was good in many ways, but lacked apps, and I was definitely not interested when they switched to android.
But BBOS as a solid functional email tool? Still rocks, to this day, and as it happens, I still use a 9700 as my business phone.
It is almost 8 years old and the battery life is better than my 1 month old iPhone. Several days on a single charge in fact...
I have three spare ones for when (if?) it ever bites the dust, and a classic as well which was a vey good phone.
 
The BB brand is still much stronger in some markets than it is in the US.

It's certainly not in the best shape but it's also not dead yet. There are still many people that have fond memories of their BB phones and would consider buying a good new phone with BB branding.

BB10 as an operating system however is truly dead, which is very unfortunate.
 
BB10 does not lack apps. Some are missing. The only one I miss is the Youtube remote control (market distortion again).
 
This article is falsely stating Blckbery is making the product. Their NOT!
They're not stating that. In fact, they state the exact opposite:
Like all of the company's branded handsets these days, the Motion is actually made by Chinese company TCL Communication.

BlackBerry ONLY makes the Android OS for hardware and server software and services. That’s it. They licensed the hardware brand and division sold off to 2 companies one in India and another in China soon to start making hardware.

Also Z30, Z10 (BB10 OS by B.B. no longer supported since June 217, and made by them now discontinued), the D30, D60 and now this is the brands 6th touch screen phone.

But who cares this brand is long over due its death.
Not sure what the argument is here. No one made a claim to contrary.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.