Has the Era of the BlackBerry come to an end?

[shayne.r]

Guys, it seems that the world is moving on from BB but I still feel like their presence in India is still very evident.
I'm still seeing so many BB users in trains, offices etc. and the demographic is quite varied as well.
From college kids to guys in suits and all those in between, the BB, even if it is the cheapest model, is still selling. So much so the RIM Is introducing newer models on a regular basis.

I recently traveled to Singapore where almost every one on the street, in the MRTs (transit systems), cafes etc. were constantly on their phones. Out of the hundreds of handset models I came across in the days I was there,
I recall seeing just one or 2 BlackBerry devices.
The roost is ruled by the iPhone with an immediate following of Samsung devices like the S II and S III. But it seemed like every second individual had an iPhone.

So is it just that Americas and maybe some parts of Europe and Asia that are moving on to bigger and better things while we still fall behind, or is it just that we see a value in these devices that
eludes the rest of the world?

Any thoughts, I've love to know what you think.

[wuodland.]

The much advertised BBM is out of style now. Most people I know use Whatsapp. The Blackberry OS is just not good enough to compete with Android or iOS now. Every other person I meet either has a Android or a Nokia Phone.

BB as we know, is dead

[Dark69Slayer]

Actually from what I have seen,this is actually catching up a bit with the college folks ~ teens, don't know why but I still see alot of folks in my class buying blackberries thinking its cool.On a larger point of view,Blackberry is dead and from what I think it has very little hope.Its also pretty easy to make out that they stopped targeting business people as seen on ads now its targeted towards the youth for the BBM service. From what I have noted some people still find Android-complicated and hence those of them who can't afford an iPhone go for blackberries

[hatZim]

I will have to second what Dark69Slayer has said.

The only interesting thing I'd like to add would be that from my observations I find women taking to Blackberry phones like never before. And it is quite a phenomenon with teenage girls! Android cuts no ice with girls! It's either the iPhone, which tends to be very expensive, so the next best thing is a Blackberry.

[cyberjunkie]

How much longer will they drag this on. I mean, Nokia did a smart thing and went Windows Phone. At least, it's a massive improvement over Symbian for sure. RIM, I'm not really sure which way they're headed. They sound confident but I really do hope they're not hallucinating. It'd be a shame to see them drop out of the competition. It's only a matter of time before those using BB see everyone around them using Instagram and their fancy little Twiter clients.

[hatZim]

I'm not sure why this clamour to adopt a different OS? What's so horribly wrong with the BB OS? Sure, they need to double-up on their app strategy and at least get the big names in there (should've been done ages ago, but wasn't for whatever reason).

But I don't think they should adopt Android.

[cyberjunkie]

A different OS brings along all the apps and developers they need to get them back in the game. For example, I would have considered a Nokia Android device, knowing how well their devices are/were made. RIM may say they won't adopt Android but they want to support Android apps.

[Dark69Slayer]

Thats just a bit stupid if they want to support Android apps but not adopt it.But if they can somehow get back in the game then it will be great because more OS's means there will be more options for users to choose from. As of now its only Android in the middle end phones (I excluded WP on purpose). Either they have to pull something great or just switch to android or sell out and go make something else.

@Hatzim- Change needs to be there. BB OS used to be awesome. But as time goes it should have adopted and tried to stay in the competition but its lacking that and hence its sinking, also the number of apps is really less when compared to iOS/Android(I think even WP).

[shayne.r]

I completely agree. Had the PlayBook actually been able to run Android apps without issue, the sales would have gone up considerably. However, from what we know so far, it seems like they're really banking on OS10 BIG TIME!
Should it fail, that would the final and most fatal blow for RIM.

Thats just a bit stupid if they want to support Android apps but not adopt it.But if they can somehow get back in the game then it will be great because more OS's means there will be more options for users to choose from. As of now its only Android in the middle end phones (I excluded WP on purpose). Either they have to pull something great or just switch to android or sell out and go make something else.

@Hatzim- Change needs to be there. BB OS used to be awesome. But as time goes it should have adopted and tried to stay in the competition but its lacking that and hence its sinking, also the number of apps is really less when compared to iOS/Android(I think even WP).

[Amit Chatterjee]

Well, The era of BB hasn't came to an end but yeah we can easily observe that the market share of BB has gone down by a bit fair margin. The problem with BB is that they make phones which more or less are used by professional peoples and If we take a look at the consumers of mobiles, we will see that the teenagers usually use it and they want trendy mobiles in their hand and thats the only reason companies like samsung, sony and HTC gained popularity as they met the market demands.