BlackBerry – Bendy noise

BlackBerry Passport will be a niche product. 

• The uproar over bent iPhones has completely drowned out any real splash that BlackBerry was hoping to make with the launch of its new device: The BlackBerry Passport.
• At events in Toronto, London and Dubai, BlackBerry launched its new attack on the professional smartphone user.
• The BlackBerry Passport is radical as it incorporates a 4.5inch screen that is square rather than rectangular.
• This obviates the need to turn the device into the landscape mode but it also makes it significantly wider than any other device on the market.
• At 3.56 inches wide it even beats the gigantic Lumia 1520 which comes in at 3.36 inches wide but sports a massive 6 inch screen.
• However, BlackBerry have done an excellent job with the keyboard.
• The keys are significantly wider making it easier to type and the 4^th row of the keyboard has been replaced with context sensitive touch keys that appear at the bottom of the screen.
• This row adapts to the task being performed and also learns the user’s preferences as time passes.
• It is also possible to scroll up and down in true BlackBerry fashion by swiping on the keys in the middle of the keyboard.
• BlackBerry have also tweaked the functionality of BlackBerry 10.3 offering a digital assistant, improvements to integrated messaging and a better browser.
• This form factor makes significant improvements to the use case for writing email and editing documents but comes at the expense of one handed usage.
• The Lumia 1520 is already very difficult to operate one handed and this device will be even worse.
• However, BlackBerry is counting on professional users spending more time using data than actually talking on the phone and therefore being willing to accept the compromise.
• The inclusion of the Amazon App. store will go some way to addressing the fact that the BlackBerry App store is woefully inadequate compared to Google Play or the Apple app store but there is a problem.
• The Amazon App. store sells apps that are written for Android which means that there has to be a software emulator on the device that tricks the apps into thinking they are running on Android.
• This trickery comes with a big disadvantage: performance.
• The instructions from the apps have to be translated into BlackBerry code, executed and then translated back into Android in order to run the apps.
• In every implementation I have ever seen this has always meant slow and buggy performance by the apps rendering them almost useless.
• BlackBerry has implemented its own software to execute this task but unless huge improvements have been made, this is going to be a disappointing experience for users.
• However, for the professional market, this does not matter nearly as much as it does for the consumer.
• Hence, BlackBerry might just get away with this as professionals really only care about productivity apps on BlackBerry devices.
• At $599 it is not cheap and the days of companies block buying large numbers of devices for employees are almost over.
• I think that this device will find some traction in the financial industry and in government which are still strong BlackBerry segments.
• I doubt that this will be enough to rescue the hardware business but if it can stem the cash haemorrhage it will give John Chen more time to figure out what the real future of the company is.
• I continue to believe that the long-term future of BlackBerry is in mobile device management where it has a much larger installed base than any of its competitors. (see here)
• However, it is a rapidly commoditising business and companies like VM Ware and Microsoft have the resources to give the service away in return for business elsewhere.
• I still see downside in the shares.