Especially since the BlackBerry 10 phones won’t be coming until late 2012.

Source: The Joy of Tech

2011 was a grim year for RIM. Its OS 7 smartphones seem like retreads compared to the competition. Shiny retreads, but retreads nevertheless. Indeed, after initial good results, sales of the OS 7 smartphones already are slowing down. RIM’s tablet, the PlayBook, is hampered by lack of basic functionality (e.g, setting up email accounts) which won’t be resolved until OS 2.0 in February 2012.

2012 should be a better year. It better be. On the tablet front, the aforementioned release of OS 2.0 in February 2012 should (hopefully) put the PlayBook on a better footing. But RIM’s mainstay is the smartphone, not the tablet. What about smartphones?

OS 7 is an evolutionary dead end. The 2012 crop of smartphones will have a completely different OS: BBX BlackBerry 10. Basically, BBX BlackBerry 10 is a the new marketing term for the QNX OS in the PlayBook. The prior marketing term, BBX, turns out to be legally unavailable because another company (BASIS International) already had a trademark on the BBX name. [Edits on 12/7/2011]

I have the PlayBook, and its QNX OS has a lot of promise, notwithstanding the crippled OS 1.0. I really don’t care whether they call the OS QNX, BBX, BB 10 or Godzilla. I want version 2.0 NOW!!!

That rant aside, 2012 BBX BlackBerry Roadmap Preview gives the details for anticipated 2012 BBX smartphones. It also mentions a 10” PlayBook sibling. But the stars of this show will be the smartphones.

RIM currently is between the proverbial rock and hard place. Move too slow, the market passes it by, as has happened on the smartphone front in the last few years. Move too fast and release a half-baked product, like the PlayBook, and customers lose confidence and go elsewhere.

CES in early January should provide a better clue on RIM’s 2012 roadmap. I’m rooting for RIM; competition is good. But we’ll see.

From Michael Corleone:

Fredo, you’re nothing to me now. You’re not a brother, you’re not a friend. I don’t want to know you or what you do. I don’t want to see you at the hotels, I don’t want you near my house. When you see our mother, I want to know a day in advance, so I won’t be there. You understand?

From James Kendrick:

I have a PlayBook but can’t remember the last time I took it out and used it. The path RIM has taken with the PlayBook couldn’t have rendered the device more ineffective had that been the objective. Too many core functions missing at launch, too long to get them working on the PlayBook, and now the confirmation that version 2.0 of the software won’t be out until next year. The PlayBook is effectively dead to me.

The Verizon online store started selling the BlackBerry Bold 9930 on Monday. I ordered it for my wife Devvie. The 9930 arrives today.

The 9930 lacks 4G LTE. Its OS is outdated, and may not be upgradeable to QNX, which is coming next year. Its 2.8” screen is small. It’s pricey; $249.99 after a 2 year contract. So why would I order the 9930?

You may know the answer if you read Fingernails. Devvie, with her long fingernails, has trouble with just a capacitive touch screen. She needs a trackpad and a keyboard. The 9930 has both, and its keyboard is very good. I know it will work for her because the Bold 9000 has worked well for her.

Lack of 4G LTE? From Devvie’s standpoint, so what? Remarkably, she uses a cell phone as a … phone! For Internet, she mainly uses her iPad 2. That device (which is on the AT&T network) also lacks 4G, but seems fast enough.

Outdated OS? Again, so what? The OS is fine for how Devvie uses a cell phone … phone calls and email.

Small screen? That is an issue. However, it’s not a deal breaker. Devvie can read the Bold 9000 screen fine, and the 9930’s screen is sharper.

For me, I’m still waiting for the next crop of super-phones in the September – October time frame. But for a phone for Devvie, mission accomplished!

In Retro BlackBerry I panned RIM for their DOA ODA (out of date on arrival) phones.  But sometimes an oldie is a goody.

My wife Devvie used and was happy with a BlackBerry Bold 9000 for a long time.  But eventually the BB 9000 stopped working. I didn’t see a point in replacing such an old model when there were much newer and (IMO) better phones.

I first gave Devvie my HTC Nexus One. She didn’t like it. Ditto with my Dell Streak. Same. Reason? Not one you’d expect, except for the title of this post.

(more…)

Seriously, waiting for the new Blackberries is getting old. And when they arrive (September maybe?), they’ll likely be outdated on arrival, and certainly lacking a QNX OS. It’s getting pretty bad when I’m considering the new iPhone equally with the “new” Berries.

[via Joy of Tech]

In BlackBerry Bold 9900/9930 I told you that the 9930, which will be coming to Verizon, may be my next phone, and a partner to the BlackBerry PlayBook. I’m having second thoughts.

First, there are reports of delay, from June/July to August, perhaps to work out kinks in the OS 7 to be released with these new Bolds. August isn’t bad. But will that be the end of the delays? Second, it appears the 9930 may not support LTE. 

If I’m willing to wait until August and go without LTE, then why not an iPhone 5, ostensibly coming to Verizon in September? If I do want LTE, then Android may be the only show in town, as the coming HTC Trophy, a Windows Phone 7, also doesn’t support LTE.

Speaking of Androids, I’ve had my eye on the Samsung Galaxy S II. But Samsung Galaxy S II not coming til Q3. Sigh.

In the meantime while I’m dithering, I’ll plug along with my year-old HTC Droid Incredible.

The next generation of the BlackBerry Bold is now official. There are two models, both coming “this summer.” (Update: Perhaps not until August). The 9900 will support HSPA+, so would be going to one or more GSM carriers (Update: T-Mobile for sure). The 9930 supports CDMA EV-DO Rev. A and HSPA+ global roaming on GSM/UMTS networks. Sounds like a Verizon world phone. Sounds like my next phone.

While we’re on the BlackBerry subject, I told you in Will I buy the BlackBerry PlayBook? that I might get the PlayBook if I got the new Bold and if a 4G version of the now WiFi-only PlayBook became available. On the latter issue, Verizon Wireless to carry the BlackBerry PlayBook after all makes the PlayBook a major contender for me, though I suspect (fear) that Big Red won’t carry the PlayBook until some months after the Bold 9930.

It’s nice to see RIM back as a contender in the super phone market after the last few years of stodgy offerings.