The passion and emotion that surround one’s choice of smart phones has amazed me. How is it that so many of us (and I am included here) have such strong positions regarding which device is the best, coolest, or only thing in the world. Where has all the hate towards RIM come from. Is there more to this process than just media capabilities and app selection.
Crackberry ran an interview with Frank Boulben who has been the CMO at RIM for just around six months now. “When asked what’s needed to “overhaul the BlackBerry brand”, Frank notes that it all starts with the customer. “We need to be absolutely clear about which customers we intend to serve, and why we are going to serve them better than the competition. The BlackBerry people are about getting things done, being hyper-connected and being multitaskers. They want to do on their smartphone what you do at your desk.”
This is worth repeating. Frank says that their research shows that Blackberry users have tended to be efficient and highly productive people who want a tool not a toy, they use multiple social and email and other communication accounts, and they do several things at once.
The entire BB 10 platform, starting with the only true multi tasking OS on the planet outside for a smart phone (QNX), is built to cater to this user.
So what is it about this platform and for that matter the current Blackberry platform that endears itself to me. Well, it’s simple. I’m not interested in many of the time wasting features of the IOS and Android World. I love what I can do quickly and efficiently with the current QWERTY keyboard while watching others struggle with the Apple and Android virtual keyboards.
It runs much deeper. As i get older, I find it harder to keep up the pace of the “Blackberry profile user.” I was that guy. I want to be that guy. I’m worried not that BB 10 will not succeed. It will change the world for a subset of smart phone users who truly want a productive device. I fear it will have more horsepower and utility than my (at present) streamlined and simplified life needs. And that I might become one for whom punching a few boxes on a screen can get me through the day. And that scares me. Like it or not, my use of technology parallels what I am doing and accomplishing that is of value. They run hand in glove. Punching boxes and watching NetFlix not a way finish.
sextoncomp 
Newport,
These comments mostly upset me. Frank Boulben insulted people not currently his customers. Rather than just saying “Apple moved our cheese and we are going to work day and night to move theirs and win you back”, he insults me. The people not using a BB today are not just people wasting time and the non-doers. If you want to talk non-doing, let’s talk social media updates and spending the time needed to remain a BB geek able to keep things running. Because I threw my BB overboard as it lost its reliability and use-ability, does that make me a bad person? I have not ever thought you were a bad person for staying with BB. We have used our time differently: you have spent a lot of time learning IT things and in particular how to tie it all in with BB. I’m disappointed you continue down this path and aren’t objectively evaluating the competing products. Forget the media, they will never again be “fair” in our life-times. You and I can still do our best to be civil and fair, two hallmarks of democracy that remain vital. Cheers!