Hey, the BlackBerry 10 Might Not Suck

Ok, so RIM have released a demo for the BlackBerry 10 and it looks like it won't be as big a 'fail' as all your hipster friends might try to convince you. Yes BlackBerry is associated with crudgy businessmen. Yes you're still probably thinking they have keyboards (and keyboards are apparently uncool now), or worse - clunky attempts at touch screens, and yes RIM is Canadian. Does this stop it from being able to launch a smartphone that can push it back into the bleeding edge of innovation once again? Perhaps. Does it stop the BlackBerry's chances of being a smartphone leader again? Not at all. RIM is here to stay and will keep fighting to, at least, stay with the competition for now. Maybe there's an opportunity for RIM to dominate the business apps market and cater for hyperlocalized killer apps in various regions around the world. From watching the video, here's a couple of thoughts that passed through my mind.

Trying Too Hard For Social?

From the demo posted on TechCrunch, it looks like the phone is heavily geared towards integrating all your social feeds and just about everything into one shared inbox. Nice idea but it seems that they are trying just a bit too hard with this to keep up with the social media wave. Where has your innovation gone BlackBerry?

Interface Looks Good

With its fluid transitions and seemingly well engineered (note: engineered not 'designed') interface it looks like accessing all the features on the device will be convenient. Let's hope that it doesn't get slower over time like its ancestors did.

Ok, so it doesn't have a keyboard.

Ok so this might be the deal-breaker for me. The BlackBerry 10 has an on-screen keyboard. I'm not a fan of these at all, as you've probably gathered from reading this couple of blog posts where I've been yarping on about it. They've tried to put in some features such as predictive phrases which seems interesting. If they manage to make the on-screen keyboard 80% as good as a physical keyboard then they're onto a winner for me.

Ahhh. A webkit enabled browser

RIM have finally gotten the idea that a webkit enabled browser is the way to go. No more memory leak riddled BlackBerry internet browser. Awesome.

Don't let me forget the scumbag BlackBerry Though

Ok so my BlackBerry Bold 9700 was a great phone for the keyboard and the battery life. It also gave me the easiest email management system I've ever used. Although I'm not going to forget all the 'UGH' moments I had with it. Such as: having to use a firmware flash to delete the sample pictures (I just wanted them gone), difficulty in getting the phone to work with multiple languages, lack of apps, the crappy 'below standard' 256mb memory card it came with, constant crashing, difficult set-up to get my wifi working, STUPID MOBILE PROVIDER BIS PLAN, and the end-of-life 'pretending to be out of memory' all the time issue. Ok rant over.

BlackBerry are not dead yet and don't seem to be dying. The BlackBerry 10 puts me in mixed emotions. It is good to see that they are still trying, but I'm not 100% sure if they are trying in the right direction. If the battery life lasts as long as the Bold 9700 I had, then I'm gonna be halfway sold.