TORONTO – BlackBerry launched the BlackBerry 10 smartphones on Wednesday, in what analysts are calling a “Hail Mary” attempt to bring the company back in the game it once led.
Reaction to the new devices on Wednesday was mixed, with most critics saying the phone, while sleek and sophisticated, may not be enough to unseat the current smartphone kings, iPhone and Android.
Here’s a look at some of the reaction.
The problem with the Z10 is that it doesn’t necessarily do anything better than any of its competition. Sure, there are arguments that could be made about how it handles messages or the particulars of its camera, but no one could argue that there’s a “killer app” here. Something that makes you want or need this phone because it can do what no other phone can do. That’s not the case – in fact if anything is the case, it’s that the Z10 can’t yet do some things that other devices can. Or at least, can’t do them quite as well.
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BlackBerry 10 stumbles, first right out of the gate with its steep learning curve, and second with its anemic app selection that doesn’t provide apps (like Vine) that deliver the full mobile experience that today’s digital consumers want. Like Windows Phone, BlackBerry 10 now faces the chicken-and-egg problem between developers and consumers: There aren’t enough apps to interest consumers, and developers won’t create them until there are enough consumers to make money.
Darrel Etherington of TechCrunch:
BlackBerry 10, and by extension the Z10, need to be Cinderella stories to bring BlackBerry back from where it is now, and while extremely solid and with a few very impressive features, I’d be hard-pressed to say there’s anything here that will necessarily convince an Android-loving BlackBerry convert to come back to the platform. Thanks to BlackBerry Balance, the BlackBerry Enterprise Server-dependent feature that I wasn’t able to test but that silos work and personal life on one account, I imagine a number of enterprise IT departments will embrace it. And it’s still a good mobile OS, good enough that it should also slow the tide of users flowing away from BlackBerry. But based on my testing, it’s not yet close to being a conversion experience for those already on other platforms, and that’s exactly what BlackBerry needs.
As a replacement for older versions of BlackBerry OS, BB 10 is a huge step out of the dark ages of mobile OS design. It’s something that finally feels intended for a modern, full-touch device, yet still offers the core productivity focus we think BBID-holders will like. Does it have mainstream appeal? Yes, it does, but we’re not sure a great stock keyboard and some trick gestures are enough to unseat the current kings of mobile devices.
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