About Toronto Wireless

Sunday, March 17, 2013

The Future Of BlackBerry Is Exciting And Bright

Via Blackberry rocks

I don’t normally preen on a subject often. Obviously, I share my apparent enthusiasm for the Blackberry brand, even in the face of impending failure. For a long time, it seemed like our beloved Blackberry was on the way down. I had no desire for this to happen, and I’m sure most of my readers feel the same. That being said, I don’t go out of my way to promote Blackberry. Over the past year, I’ve even been somewhat skeptical at times. I’ve been excited, intrigued, and most of all loyal, but still cautious.

Blackberry came out swinging though, and Blackberry 10 is everything good ol’ Thor promised it would be, and then some. The platform still has a long way to go, of course, but considering it’s still in its infancy it’s extremely promising. The long term potential of the platform is just phenomenal.



The main thing that Blackberry 10 does is it provides a single platform that consumers can turn to. It incorporates everything that you could want or need, all in one convenient location. What do I mean by that exactly?

Well, Blackberry 10 has the Hub, and it also has Balance. The Hub collects all of your messages, emails, notifications and social media updates and lists them all in one place. While Balance, allows you to switch between totally separate profiles, one of which is for your personal life and the other is for your work life. Since many people carry two devices on their person, one for work and the other for personal use, Balance is an incredibly powerful solution.

One can’t forget the Blackberry keyboard with its unique prediction functionality, the wondrous Time Shift camera and last, but certainly not least, the Flow user interface.



But there’s one crucial element that stands out, or at least it has in the past. The Blackberry platform has never been known for its array of mobile apps. In fact, the failure to deliver unique content and compelling software is one reason the Blackberry brand took a nosedive in the first place. It wasn’t the only reason, mind you, but it did contribute to the problem nonetheless.

Even now, Blackberry World is still missing some content from some of the leading developers in the industry. I can almost guarantee that for every app in Blackberry World, there are one or two more that you wish were available. Hell, there are quite a few apps that I wish were available on the platform.

But it’s getting better, in fact, it’s gotten better over just the past couple of months. It seems like once Blackberry started showing off the platform in public, and folks started seeing what it can do, more and more developers signed on board.

Many will say that they don’t purchase a device, or sign on to a platform for what it can do, or what it may be able to in the future. But I pose a single question, and it’s a rather blunt one at that, why not?



At this point, even though it was just released, Blackberry 10 is pretty much on par with both Android and iOS in terms of what it offers. It just came out! If you ask me, that’s pretty damn impressive.

Blackberry unquestionably has a long way to go if they want to perfect the formula, but the fun has just started. The Z10 still has yet to launch in the US. In countries where it is already available, it’s seeing impressive sales.

So what is the point of all this? Why did I write this entire post, and what am I getting at?

There are many different things happening in the mobile industry, and some of them are exciting while others are contrite. Personally, I yearn for something fresh, something new, and most of all something different. Blackberry 10 has opened new doors for me while simultaneously offering the right avenues that I know all too well. When I use the platform, it feels different, but it also feels like an old friend.

I’m excited for the future of the platform, and I’m excited for what Blackberry is doing. One thing is certain, Blackberry has a winner on their hands. I think it’s likely that they might take their rightful place at spot number three in the mobile industry. Only time will tell.

What are your thoughts?