Counterclockwise: BlackBerry, the king of keyboards, was killed by the touchscreen

09 September 2018
BlackBerry phones defined an era in phone history. They were as synonymous to business as a suit and tie.

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BlackBerry are still pretty good

    • ?
    • Anonymous
    • mJw
    • 09 Sep 2018

    Touchscreen is more comfortable. You can just swipe and type words faster.

      • ?
      • Anonymous
      • sxs
      • 09 Sep 2018

      YoloBS, 09 Sep 2018It wasn't touchscreen who killed the Blackberry, it was the... moreThat's true. Blackberries were so overpriced at the time.

        • T
        • TheOldDay
        • wHU
        • 09 Sep 2018

        I miss nokia button and qwerty phone.

          its nice to release the phone with qwerty keyboards like xperia mini pro with its sliding mode

            • c
            • concern
            • tu6
            • 09 Sep 2018

            and BB Z10

              • O
              • OAJ
              • fFA
              • 09 Sep 2018

              GSMArena.... U forgot the Blackberry Passport

                Good old BB days...

                Now killed by touchscreen.

                Still, you are a legendary company.

                  • Y
                  • YoloBS
                  • gNZ
                  • 09 Sep 2018

                  It wasn't touchscreen who killed the Blackberry, it was the Price.
                  And they tcl/ Optiemus Infracom still releasing overprised phone's. The need to realise that nobody give a shit about brand name anymore specially in android phones market.
                  I hope they gonna release a qwerty keypad phone with android go tho.

                    I've tried convincing myself to get the KeyOne last year but I love SwiftKey too much on a bigger display to stop caring about physical QWERTYs. It was cool for its time. I remember trying the first iPhone back in 2007. Typing on it took time to get used to.

                    By 2017, I finally realized "5.3 is the sweet spot to type fast on a smartphone with my LG G5. Anything smaller feels cramped. Even my iPhone SE can get annoying from time to time and I already got used to it. Goodbye, BlackBerry. Now just niche products run by TCL.

                      • j
                      • jim
                      • tDP
                      • 09 Sep 2018

                      shame
                      i like keyboard
                      the feeling of touching a button is not replaceable by touch screen

                        • X
                        • Xhxhyy
                        • KiD
                        • 09 Sep 2018

                        Enterprise and Bussiness class will never meet Consumer class.
                        Why RIM lost the competition because they can not keep focus on their class-target, IMO. They want it all, They lose it all. But, at least now they come back to the right focus at Bussiness and Enterprise Solution. Meanwhile Apple still gaining money from volatile Consumer class.

                          • b
                          • blastingcap
                          • LcH
                          • 09 Sep 2018

                          The physical QWERTY lost value because a touch screen with a regular 'software' keyboard can do 90% of the typing, switch language characters, and give the user a lot more flexibility.
                          That matters when you do more than write emails on your phone.

                            • ?
                            • Anonymous
                            • tDP
                            • 09 Sep 2018

                            Missing the story of the full screen blackberry 7 such as bb storm (the screen was odd too), curve 9380 and torch 9860

                              Vic4BBM, 09 Sep 2018I have been great fan of BB. Have used it since Petal serie... more* pearl series I mean ( not Petal- a typo error)

                                I have been great fan of BB. Have used it since Petal series till Q5. I still have Q5 but hardly use it.
                                It's unfortunate that BB needed to change with times , but rather thought that time would change as per them ( which went terribly wrong).

                                In my opinion Passport and classic were last and one of the best ones ( author didn't mention email). Even today if BB revives / reboots these few classic devices with Android ( coupled with BB security and productive features) it would be great hit. Of course prices have to be sane. Insane price tags another thing which is going against them. When time is low, one has to be polite. Something which BB has still not learnt during its hard times.

                                Sometimes arrogance ( dubbed as confidence) is deteremental. Past glories are useless, unless one acts with respect to Present time.

                                Hope blackberry understands.

                                However, I still use BB hub services ( paid ones) and use it on my Android One device.

                                  • V
                                  • VoiceOfDigitalEra
                                  • 7tV
                                  • 09 Sep 2018

                                  Ahem ! GSMArena, I believe you dropped the ball here but it is something that can be fixed with a quick edit from the editor.

                                  You talk about BB10 OS and it dropping Adobe AIR and switching to Qt as its appilcation framework.

                                  Then the author of the article immediately proceeds to BB Priv with “ The Blackberry Priv pioneered the new OS...”. This is quite incorrect.

                                  The BB Priv is actually using a very well tested and established OS ; Android. It was the first Android BB, so the OS itself was not new.
                                  I think you also glossed over some major devices running the
                                  actual BB 10: the Q10 with qwerty keypad , the Z10 with an all-touch interface and the 1:1 BB Passport . Priv was launched after all these failed to achieve market success.

                                    • ?
                                    • Anonymous
                                    • y$e
                                    • 09 Sep 2018

                                    The only one BlackBerry Power is QNX based OS.

                                      • R
                                      • Rishi
                                      • rK3
                                      • 09 Sep 2018

                                      They could have revived again, if key series were priced competetive or lesser.