Blackberry Broadcast

After my last post praising RIM and blackberry, I’m now going to write a post explaining what I think they need to do if they aren’t going to keep losing market share to other companies around them. It seems like every few months the unique features of the BB are being eroded, leaving a mobile phone range that looks somewhat dated and out of touch with modern smart phones. I don’t think this is the case, but it’s definitely the impression that a lot of new phone buyers get.

The first thing Blackberry needs to do is improve the app store. I know that the quality of apps is more important than the quality, but when you look at what’s available on Android it really pouts the BlackBerry store to shame.

Also, with the new Live messaging function available on Android that’s taken away another unique feature of the Blackberry – free instant messaging from the phone to other devices. I haven’t used the Live system so I can’t comment, but apparently it’s only going to get better as more people start to use it.

The main thing RIM need to do is innovate more with their phones. I understand that they’ve built up a brand around the style of the Blackberry, but if they’re going to survive over the coming years they’ve surely got to add something new.

A few years ago you didn’t have to justify why you used a BlackBerry phone – everyone knew the advantages of having one compared to most other brands. Now, with so much competition from HTC, Nokia, Samsung etc, it’s more difficult for me to explain exactly why I like Blackberrys so much. It could just be that I’m stubborn and have a certain amount of brand loyalty – I’m sure that’s part of it – but there are genuine reasons why I think RIM phones are so good.

The main reason that I enjoy using Blackberrys is – it goes without saying – that keyboard. I email a lot from my phone and I think I’d go mad using something like the HTC’s and Android’s touch keyboard. It’s so easy to make mistakes without realising it, and the lack of any real feedback from the keyboard makes it difficult to type fast.

There’s also something unique about the design of RIM phones. Other companies have tried to mimic it – there are several Samsung phones which have very similar keyboards if I’m not mistaken – but none come close to the sleek business feel of a Blackberry.

I’m not saying RIM phones are perfect though – far from it. That’s why my next post is going to be about what I think the perfect Blackberry phone would have.