BlackBerry has a new CEO again, and as you can imagine the new person in the spot believes that he can turn the whole show around, and save what’s been called “a sinking ship” by more than a few people. One of the smartest moves the new CEO, John Chen, made was announcing that while he plans to turn things around, it will take time. It won’t be immediate, and it won’t be soon. There will be a few quarters under their belt before BlackBerry can start to right the wrongs that have been made in the past. To start to compete again.
Of course, while that’s a smart move, because it doesn’t immediately set any expectations for this year, it also raises a couple of flags. The brightest one, though, is that while BlackBerry is collecting itself and gearing up for another attack at some later point in the future, the other manufacturers aren’t slowing down. Apple, Samsung, HTC, LG, Lenovo/Motorola aren’t just going to sit back and wait to see what BlackBerry does next.
In fact, I bet if you asked someone if they thought those companies were even really paying attention to BlackBerry, you wouldn’t be shocked at the answer.
But change is coming, and BlackBerry will have some new devices to show at some point in the future. We’ve already heard that the majority of new handsets with the BlackBerry logo are going to feature a QWERTY keyboard, which isn’t that shocking. The company made hardware keyboards worthwhile, so it’s good to see that they’re sticking to their guns. We can’t forget about touchscreens, though. The adoption rate on the devices with big touchscreens has continued to rise, and it’s probably not going to stop anytime soon. BlackBerry can release devices with QWERTY keyboards, that’s fine. But they can’t forget this specific type of device. It will just not end well.
We’ve been hearing about a high-end device from BlackBerry for quite some time now. There hasn’t been a lot of concrete information on the thing quite yet, and even things like screen size, software features, and camera megapixels are still up in the air. There is one feature that keeps getting talked about, though, and that’s the processor. The rumors suggest, over and over again, that BlackBerry is gearing up to launch a device with a 64 bit octa-core processor under the hood.
While that’s not necessarily confirmation that BlackBerry’s going to launch a high-end device, it is a strong indicator that the handset wrapped around that particular chipset will be pretty impressive. At least on the inside. It’s going to be up to BlackBerry to make sure the device is eye-catching, while also offering up a suite of other features that people actually want.
It’s also just a first step. A company that has lost traction is one that’s hard to get any back. Just look at HTC, which had one of the most popular devices of 2013, but is still talked about like it’s going away any moment. BlackBerry has an even bigger hill to climb, and one device isn’t going to make that change.
It’s a step, though. And one step gets you to where you want to go. In the case of BlackBerry, it will all depend on whether or not that device, the device with the great processor, will be a big step or a small step. Ultimately, it’ll come down to the consumer, and whether or not BlackBerry can speak their language when the time comes. As it stands right now, how do you think BlackBerry is going to fare? Do you think they have a chance? Let me know!
