No Wonder Research in Motion is Doing Badly
Research in Mition, the maker of Blackberry phones is not doing well according to this on the BBC. Unless of course, you consider a $125million loss to be doing well.
But after trying one of their products for free, which O2 were kind enough to give me I can understand why sales are falling.
For a start the keyboard has been designed by someone, who gives the impression he’s never done any substantial typing on a proper computer. Good design always builds on what your customers expect. As an example, supposing a car manufacturer proved that left-hand-drive cars were safer and then said it wouldn’t make right hand drive ones for the UK. Would they sell any?
As an example here, I wanted to enter the @ sign, which is above the P. Which in itself, is a pretty strange place to put it! But then with a small keyboard that might have been the only place they have left.
So you’d think that you would use Shift followed by P to enter it! But no, it’s Alt followed by P. If that is logical to someone with forty-plus years experience of a computer and sixty years of typing starting on a sit-up-and-beg Imperial, then I’m a Chinaman. (By the way, is it allowed to use that phrase today from the past. It is only descriptive and I could have used the alternative form of Dutchman!)
If I taken the trouble to check that the keyboard was so strange, I wouldn’t have had one. No wonder they aren’t selling to well. Perhaps this keyboard means that new users aren’t impressed. I’m not!
In the day I used it, I never managed to send a text message, although I did receive a few and read them. On my Nokia 6310i, I just hit one button, choose Reply and I’m replying.
Others may like their Blackberries, but it is definitely not for me, so I’ll stick with the Nokia 6310i.
I know that doesn’t take pictures, but I have a little and battered Nikon Coolpix in my pocket to do that and also act as a visual aide-memoire.
The Anonymous Widower 
The keyboard on Blackberry is a joke, even if you dont find it hard to press the right key, which I do on most keyboards except my ergonomic one on PC and the touch screen one on iPad and Iphone.
Comment by liz | April 1, 2012 |
You could argue that the Qwerty OR Azerty keyboard is a very bad design, but how many billions of people have got used to it?
Comment by AnonW | April 1, 2012 |
[…] have said that to me, as a very experienced keyboard user, that the Blackberry is a piece of very bad […]
Pingback by Are Blackberries the Cause of the World’s Ills? « The Anonymous Widower | April 1, 2012 |
I would give it back and get either an iPhone or an Android phone without a physical keyboard – I’ve just got the Samsung Galaxy S2 for £20 a month on O2 and the onscreen keyboard is surprisingly easy to use and the Android apps choice is huge, many free, although what you get with the phone is pretty good. The Galaxy S2 has a large screen – the main drawback is the unit is a bit large for a phone for actually making calls.
Comment by Marc | April 1, 2012 |
I think I’ll stick with the 6310i for a bit. It’s about time we had a drink, by the way. So perhaps, I could get the feel of your phone. My main need is to blog remotely. For pictures, I use a camera.
I’m actually going to smash the phone with a hammer and put the video on the web. I’d like to create a viral video!
One small point, is that most of my text messages now, are to find out, when the next bus is on its way.Just a dozen or so keystrokes on a 6310i, which I can feel without looking at the phone. can you use an Android phone in a blindfold?
Comment by AnonW | April 1, 2012 |
it isnt the layout of the keyboard with Blackberry it is the tiny size of the keys.
Comment by liz | April 1, 2012 |
I have fairly small hands, but even I find them tiny.
Comment by AnonW | April 1, 2012 |
I think even a young child would struggle. The great thing with the iPhone is that you can use it in portrait or landscape, and I do turn it to landscape if I am doing more than a few wor.
Comment by Liz P | April 1, 2012 |