WHY WE WILL ALL BUY A BLACKBERRY PHONE
AGAIN
The
iconic brand has all it takes to make a promising comeback into the smartphone
industry
I’M GOING to admit it
upfront. The notion that we will all buy a BlackBerry phone ever again seems
very far-fetched. BlackBerry’s tale of descent is such a perfectly constructed
‘series of unfortunate events’ that owning a BB once again seems completely ridiculous.
BlackBerry was once the No. 1 seller of smartphones in the entire world,
outselling anything and everyone. Owning a BB was a sign of power, of being a
corporate warrior, a showcase of who you were in life, the red blinking light
was a beacon of urgency never to be ignored, the BB prayer (walk into a meeting
room and you would find everyone bent over their BBs, holding them in folded
hands) was a common sight and having Black-Thumbs (due to typing too much on
the BB’s classic keyboard) was something to be flaunted. BB ruled!
Until it didn’t. The
iPhone was born and started the ‘smartphone touchscreen’ mania, Android phones
started to whip up their own storm, cameras on phones became really powerful,
new hardware and features made the phone turn into a God device. And yet the BB
phone kept trying to convince itself that this was just a fad and people would
come back to it. By the time they got their act together and started to make
really good phones, the smartphone train had left the BB station. Even when
they did get the phone right, BB became a master of screwing up everything
else. They priced them wrong, experimented with form factors, keyboards only
touchscreen, slide outs and other strange levels of ergonomics. The death of
BlackBerry was imminent. Except they didn’t really die! They kept making some
form of a comeback. But this time what BlackBerry is about to do is
dramatically different.
A NEW
ERA
It seems to be the era of
classic brands resurfacing through licensing. Nokia did it and is assured of a
great start, BB is doing the same. The new BlackBerry phones are coming out
thanks to a licensing agreement with TCL. Thus no legacy baggage, a fresh approach,
brand new hardware, new pricing, no mistakes of the previous kind. The BB
KeyOne, the phone that was showcased at MWC was the perfect showcase of that.
Absolutely gorgeous looking, great new features, fantastic hardware that can
compete with any
BERRY
BASICS
(Clockwise from bottom
left) A flagship BB has all it takes to blow all other phones away; The BB
KeyOne, that was recently showcased at the MWC, can compete with and beat any
other Android phone; It’s quite easy to hack Apple and other Android phones
today; The future BlB phones could be very different-looking; The first iPhone
that destroyed the BB other Android phone and beat it, excellent optics,
differentiators like a fingerprint scanner in the space bar and multiple other
standout features. TCL now needs to make sure that it’s priced right and
competes and beats any other Android phone in its category.
OUR OWN
BLACKBERRY
TCL isn’t the only
licensee. We have our own BB right here in India. Optiemus has the rights to
design, manufacture, sell, promote and provide customer support for BlackBerry
Android handsets in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh. They come out with
India specific handsets, sell them worldwide and will also bring TCL’s entire
portfolio to India. Plans for BB Android phones at every price point and every
genre is on the cards and Optiemus could change the game for BB all over the
world. Imagine a top of the line BB phone for under 10K. And a mind-bending
flagship BB that beats all other Android flagships priced at 39K.
THE BB
ADVANTAGE
So, why will you buy a BB
Android phone when there are already so many Android phone brands that are
already killing it? Two words. Keyboard and security. If you haven’t typed on a
real physical keyboard in some time, if you haven’t understood the joy of what
your fingers feel when they hit a real key. And the fact that BB brings
unparalleled world-class security to your phone isn’t something to discount. If
the recent revelations that the CIA and many other government bodies have been
spying on citizen phones and have easily been able to hack Apple and other
Android phones doesn’t send a shiver down your spine, then you’re made of much
more solid stuff that I am. A huge hacker meltdown that breaks into millions of
phones and exposes all private data maybe around the corner, and a BB level
encrypted phone could be the only safeguard against that.
If a BB
Android phone can compete at hardware and feature level with all other Android
phones − is priced better, looks great, brings the era of the keyboard back and
guarantees security, then the return of BB is guaranteed. The only ones that
can screw this up is BB itself. Remember though, they’ve been known to do that
before.
·
Rajiv Makhni Rajiv Makhni is managing editor,
Technology, NDTV, and the anchor of Gadget Guru, Cell Guru and Newsnet 3
HTBR 19MAR17
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