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Since the dawn of the iPhone age in 2007, loyal BlackBerry users have
watched their favorite device maker stumble into an ever-steepening
decline.
Some of the collapse is
due to the consumer changeover to Apple and Google Android products, but
the company -- once known as Research In Motion -- hasn't helped itself
with poor planning and delayed product introductions.
On Monday, the company that once blazed the trail in the smartphone market announced it's being taken private by its largest shareholder, Fairfax Financial, a Canadian insurance company.
The move comes on the heels of an announced $1 billion quarterly loss and layoffs of 4,500 employees. Its future as a maker of smartphones may be in doubt.
Now the dwindling numbers of loyal BlackBerry users must decide: Is this the last straw?
It's no idle question.
For all the attention paid to BlackBerry's fall and the rise of iPhone
and Android, there's still a sizable BlackBerry market out there. Forbes magazine estimates
that there are in excess of 50 million BlackBerry users, and they
remain fiercely devoted to their phones, with their secure e-mail
software and physical keyboards.
"You can tear my Blackberry's real keyboard out of my cold dead fingers," user Charles Wright of Toronto wrote on Twitter.
Some hardcore users hope that the company returns to its roots.
"I think that Fairfax
should double down on BlackBerry 10 and the combination of corporate and
consumer market that appreciated the rock solid communication platform
it offered," wrote Ronen Halevy on BerryReview.com.
"This means an end to the 'me too' additions of features to BlackBerry
10 and instead appealing to the market that made BlackBerry take off."
One commenter observed, however, that the company will be hard pressed to win new converts.
"Not good news for
consumers, people hate the BB name and what it stands for.
Self-inflicted suicide," kingbernie wrote. He suspected that becoming a
corporate-focused software business might be the company's best way out
of the wilderness -- even if it means leaving the consumer market
behind.
Chris Umiastowski, a tech analyst and regular contributor to the BlackBerry boards on CrackBerry.com, says BlackBerry fans should remain wary.
"Going private doesn't
necessarily change the outcome for the company. All it is guaranteed to
change is the ownership structure," he said via e-mail. "It's not a nail
in the coffin, nor is it some massive opportunity to fix themselves. No
matter who owns the shares they still have to compete with solid
competitors. Going private just lets them operate outside of so much
public scrutiny."
For those who want to
put their BlackBerrys in a drawer next to their PalmPilots but want to
keep a physical keyboard on their devices, your options are limited. The
Motorola Photon Q and the Motorola Droid 4
are Android-compatible and have relatively large slide-out keyboards,
but reviewers have taken issue with their camera capabilities.
The NEC Terrain, another Android phone with a physical keyboard, is marketed for its "rugged innovation."
That leads to the host of smartphones with virtual keyboards, including the new iPhone 5S and 5C, the Android-compatible Samsung Galaxy S4 and the Android HTC One,
among many others. All have their pros and cons, whether it's your
comfort with their operating systems or your desire for certain
accessories.
But for those, like Umiastowski, who want to stick with BlackBerry, it will hard to get them to change.
His household includes a
number of Apple items -- including his wife's iPhone -- but he prefers
the BlackBerry. He's frustrated by the lack of apps for the device but
still prefers the overall experience.
"BlackBerry has always
been (and still is) the best experience for communicating. At first it
was push email and physical keyboards. Now I'm on a Z10 and I find the
multitasking + software keyboard + email experience is second to none,"
he wrote. "An iPhone would feel like a step backwards on those things
which matter to me."
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