News - BlackBerry Torch now half price after ‘underwhelming’ sales

[HEXUS]

Have RIM’s BlackBerry Torch smartphone aspirations gone up in smoke?

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[pp05]

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That is in the US!

AT&T do not have a very good rep either.

[Brewster0101]

I think this will be a global trend for the sales of this phone. Reviews are not very positive about the phone or the software.

I think when HTC bring out the new desire Z with its full qwerty pad, Android will corner all the markets - From business to budget.

The buzz is Android - and all for a good reason. This is even filtering through to companies and corporate users.

[Funkstar]

What about an Android handset with a qwerty keyboard under the screen like the classic BBs?

Is this screen configuration supported by Android? would that break a lot of apps? I think it probably would actually.

A lot of people like this configuration, and the only real people selling phones like this are RIM and Nokia.

[usxhe190]

I think this will be a global trend for the sales of this phone. Reviews are not very positive about the phone or the software.

I think when HTC bring out the new desire Z with its full qwerty pad, Android will corner all the markets - From business to budget.

The buzz is Android - and all for a good reason. This is even filtering through to companies and corporate users.

I doubt Blackberry is losing the business market at the moment.

Businesses don't use this type of smartphones all the time anyways.

[Brewster0101]

What about an Android handset with a qwerty keyboard under the screen like the classic BBs?

Is this screen configuration supported by Android? would that break a lot of apps? I think it probably would actually.

Motorola did the milestone (UK) which has the full qwerty keypad slide from under it. This apparently works very well on Android. They have also just released a flip phone where the keypad comes from under the screen, this is more a teenagers social phone though.

I believe in the USA they have quite a few Android phones with qwerty keypads, there are also a number of devices that have the keys unders the screen like the BB and Nokias E series.

There does seem to be alot of people thinking RIM won't loose out the Android in the business would. I would love to know why people think this.

Android does everything RIM can do and more. There is more choice in software and devices. If you were looking for a new all round phone that you could use for business, what would stop you from getting a Android handset over a Rim handset.

[usxhe190]

Motorola did the milestone (UK) which has the full qwerty keypad slide from under it. This apparently works very well on Android. They have also just released a flip phone where the keypad comes from under the screen, this is more a teenagers social phone though.

I believe in the USA they have quite a few Android phones with qwerty keypads, there are also a number of devices that have the keys unders the screen like the BB and Nokias E series.

There does seem to be alot of people thinking RIM won't loose out the Android in the business would. I would love to know why people think this.

Android does everything RIM can do and more. There is more choice in software and devices. If you were looking for a new all round phone that you could use for business, what would stop you from getting a Android handset over a Rim handset.

Business is all about security, email and calendar management and outlook integration rather than functions (e.g. resolution, camera, google maps, navigation, etc etc). Blackberry is still very good at those things.

[Funkstar]

Business is all about security, email and calendar management and outlook integration rather than functions (e.g. resolution, camera, google maps, navigation, etc etc). Blackberry is still very good at those things.

You can also, i believe, push a corporate security profile down down to the handset from a BIS server. So a certain group of handsets can be limited to only calling one number (the office) but still receive incoming calls. Good for delivery drivers. Virtually every aspect of the device can be tuned like this from what I have been told.

That's something that I'm sure would be possible on Android with the right apps, but it isn't an actual feature of the OS at the moment. I'm sure Google could do and will do at some point, but there are much more headline grabbing features and enhancements for them to work on in the mean time. You never know though, this might be something for Android 3.0 as the whole OS is going to have a major reworking.

[miniyazz]

Business is all about security, email and calendar management and outlook integration rather than functions (e.g. resolution, camera, google maps, navigation, etc etc). Blackberry is still very good at those things.

Not any more.. *cough*Saudi Arabia/UAE/India*cough*

[usxhe190]

Not any more.. *cough*Saudi Arabia/UAE/India*cough*

Actually, not sure what you mean by this - do you know the issues in those countries?

Those governments want access to emails in the Blackberry system because it is so encrypted. Those governments think terrorists can use such system and they can't monitor the emails. The other side of the coin is privacy for individiuals/corporates.

Maybe Android will come up with something later but in the meantime for corporate enterprises, RIM/Blackberry is pretty good. Right now Android wants to compete with Apple (i.e. mass market).

[miniyazz]

The security aspects of Blackberrys have been compromised. If various governments have access, individuals have access - basically, business users requiring confidentiality/privacy can no longer trust that that security is maintained. Whether the competition have anything better is beside the point - Blackberrys are no longer better than the competition, and that is what will hurt them.

[usxhe190]

I really don't think this event will impact on Blackberry as a corporate device when compared to Android, Windows and Apple...my opinion of course